ALEX Classroom Resource

In Module 5, Topic B, students apply their knowledge of volume from previous grade levels (5.MD.C.3, 5.MD.C.5) to the learning of the volume formulas for cones, cylinders, and spheres (8.G.C.9). First, students are reminded of what they already know about volume, that volume is always a positive number that describes the hollowed-out portion of a solid figure that can be filled with water. Next, students use what they learned about the area of circles (7.G.B.4) to determine the volume formulas of cones and cylinders. In each case, physical models will be used to explain the formulas, first with a cylinder seen as a stack of circular disks that provide the height of the cylinder. Students consider the total area of the disks in three dimensions understanding it as the volume of a cylinder. Next, students make predictions about the volume of a cone that has the same dimensions as a cylinder. A demonstration shows students that the volume of a cone is one-third the volume of a cylinder with the same dimension, a fact that will be proved in Module 7. Next, students compare the volume of a sphere to its circumscribing cylinder (i.e., the cylinder of dimensions that touches the sphere at points but does not cut off any part of it). Students learn that the formula for the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of the cylinder that fits tightly around it. Students extend what they learned in Grade 7 (7.G.B.6) about how to solve real-world and mathematical problems related to volume from simple solids to include problems that require the formulas for cones, cylinders, and spheres.