Lauren Grimes

Unit Title

Polyhedrons

Subject Area

6th grade Geometry

Lesson Title

Using Polydrons to Discover Eulers Formula

Lesson Length

45 minutes

Objectives

SWBAT:
a. Know what a Net represents
b. Be able to construct different models of 3-D polyhedrons with
polydrons
c. Know Eulers Formula
d. Know the basic concept of Surface Area
3 college- aged women. They should grasp the concepts easily and
move along quickly.
6.G.4

Audience
Standards/Benchmarks

Geometry. Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area,

surface area, and volume.
4. Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and
triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these
techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.

Anticipatory Set
10 minutes

Lesson Activities
(Content/Methods and
Procedures)
30 minutes

1. Answer any question about You Try! from day before on the
board. Have class turn it in for credit.
2. Review vocabulary learned in the previous lesson by using a
poydron cube.
- Vertices each point of a polygon, polyhedron, or figure
- Faces the surfaces
- Edges a line segment joining two vertices
- Polyhedron a 3-D figure made up of polygons there are
pyramids and prisms
- Apex point at top of pyramid
- Naming Polyhedra
1. Introduce and pass out polydrons to the class, and let the
students get familiar with the pieces.
2. Instruct the students to construct a cube
- Have the students open up the polydrons and lay it flat.
- Now have the students construct a cube a different way while
it is still flat.
3. Explain that these are nets of a cube.
4. Explain that this also represents surface area- the sum of the
area of all the number of faces. We will touch more on this
tomorrow, but keep this in mind throughout the lesson
5. Say, A net is a 2-D way to represent a 3-D polyhedron. Some
polyhedrons have many nets.
6. Set a timer for 3 minutes and have the students see how many
different nets they can find for a cube
- Show the 11 possible nets on the projector

Closure
2 minutes

Evaluation/Assessment
2 minutes
Incorporation of other subjects
Resources

7. Challenge Now have the students make an octahedron.

- Set the timer again for 3 minutes and see how many nets
they can find for this. Show all nets on projector when
finished.
- Ask, if each polygon in this net represents 1 square unit,
what would the surface area be? *8 square units
8. So now we know that nets are a 2D representation of 3D
polyhedrons. All of these nets, although different, represent
the same surface area for that polyhedron. Lets look at this
worksheet with 5 polyhedrons.
9. Pass out worksheet and have students fill it out using the
polydrons as a representation.
10. Once the worksheet is completed, check answers from
website.
(http://www.learner.org/interactives/geometry/euler.html)
Look at the 3D representation on the site.
11. Ask students, Look at the data on your worksheet for all of
the number of polyhedrons vertices, faces, and edges. Is there
a formula that might represent that could be used for all of
these?
- They should come up with F + V E = 2
12. This is Eulers Formula! Leonard Euler noticed this formula
in the 18th century.
1. So, today we learned that nets are a 2D representation of a 3D
polyhedron, and nets are a good visual for surface area.
2. Polyhedrons have different numbers of faces, vertices, and
edges
3. Eulers Formula can represent all of these polyhedrons that we
looked at today.
We will evaluate if the students grasped the concept of nets by handing
out an exit slip. They will have to identify if the nets work, or do not
work.
We incorporate some grammar/English with the quick review of
prefixes.
Paper with cube nets, paper with octahedron nets, projector, white
board, chalk, polydrons, handout