The objective of this activity is to use the virtual geoboard to determine the surface area of an object given only the measurements of the various faces.

Materials: You will need a piece of graph paper and a pencil to record your work.

Procedure:

1. Become familiar with how to use the geoboard. Grab an elastic by clicking on the geoboard elastics. Drop the elastic on the geoboard and begin creating a rectangle on the geoboard by clicking and dragging various sections of the elastic.Once you are able to use the board, move on to step 2.
2. Warming Up: Create a 6x6 square on the geoboard. Click on the measures button your area should be 36 and your perimeter should be 24.
3. Your goal is to determine the surface area of a rectangular prism below given only the measurements below.
4. Measurements for each face can be determined by using the measurements below. First identify the number of faces and then determine the measurements of the sides on each of the faces.
   

The Virtual Geoboard was created by MATTI.

5. Once you have determined the measurements of each of the faces, use the geoboard to create the face and then click on the measures button to determine the area of the face. Record your drawings, calculations, and measurements on grid paper as you progress through this activity.

6.Repeat this process for each of the faces, recording all work on grid paper.

7. Once you have determined the area for each of the faces the sum of the area measurements of all faces will be the total surface area of the prism. Please calculate the surface area for the rectangular prism. Record this calculation on your grid paper.

8. Now you will determine the surface area of the triangular prism below using the same procedure you used for determining the surface area of the rectangular prism. You may need to use some formulas for determining the areas of the faces (area of triangle = 1/2 bh). Remember to record all measurements and drawings of each face.

9. View the answers, click here. To exit this online activity, click on the back button on your browser. Keep your written work for your instructor.