The student selects and uses appropriate units and procedures to measure volume. Clarifying Activity Students look for objects in their environment that approximate a cubic centimeter, a cubic inch, a cubic foot, a cubic meter. Students record their findings on a wall chart. Clarifying Activity Students design a box that would hold their mathematics text. They can round each dimension of the box to the nearest inch or centimeter and use the linear measurements to estimate the volume of the box in cubic units.
Students can use models of cubic units to test their estimates.
One sheet is rolled to make the long edges meet to form a tall, thin cylinder, and the other sheet is rolled to make the short edges meet to form a shorter, wider cylinder. Students estimate the volume of the taller cylinder in cubic centimeters, then fill it with centimeter cubes to test their estimate. Students then predict whether the volume of the shorter cylinder is greater than or less than the volume of the taller cylinder. Students slide the shorter cylinder over the taller one, lift the taller one so that the cubes spill into the shorter one, and observe the results. Students discuss why they think the results turned out the way they did, e.g. the effect the sizes of the height and base of the cylinders have on the amount of cubes the cylinder can hold.