Activityname

	Prism People - Surface Area Geometry Surface area Practical KS3 Prisms
	Description/Aim
	Photo of a prism person	Students are asked to build model peopel from different types of prisms. the practical eleemnt of building a prism is used to help students discover the realted faetures of these shapes. Following this, students are asked to look in more deatil at the structure and surface area of prisms and test out what thye have learned ojn some examples and challenges. You should find an activity sheet for 'Prism people' and then another for 'leading from nets to surface area'
	Teachers Notes - Why? How? What?
	*Why* we like this activity …. There is nothing quite like having to build a triangular prism for helping to understand the structure of the shape. If the pairs of equal length sides are not correct then the shape doesn't work. This practical is fun and the learning objectives are an inherent part of the task. The follow up task leads nicely on by asking students to correctly identify the equal side lengths on the nets of prisms and this is key to working out the various surface areas! Its fun and takes advantage of students natural intuition. I particularly like the challenge of designing prisms whose surface area is 100cm², beacuse of its apparent ease at the outset and creeping complexity. How this activity be used …. I have tried in the past to get more out of the actual building of the prism people and failed. I have thus resolved that at that stage the building of the prisms should be left to intution and the task left unhindered by extra worksheets. With this in mind I split classes in to groups, give set resources and 1 hour to complete the task. You can then capitalise in subsequent lessons with the less practical tasks. there are complementary questions like 'what is the minimum information required about a shape before you can calculate its surface area?' What to expect when using this activity – from our experience Students may underestimate the task of making a net for a 'hewagonal prism' for example, and my line is to let this happen but make a note to look out for it and have those conversations when it does. As such, the less ambitious models are usually the best looking!!! *Extra Notes* check out surface areas of cones and spheres