In this activity students try to visualize 3-D shapes from given 2-D silhouettes (projections). Students can describe, draw, model or relate their ideas to objects in their environment. With several possible answers for each silhouette, students become more familiar with using the terms and describing the properties of solid figures. The Teachers' Notes page includes suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, ideas for extension and support. A warmup activity called "Skeleton Shapes" is offered (cataloged separately). [Note: "torch" in the UK = "flashlight" in the US.]

This activity gives students practice drawing straight lines with a ruler and looking for and categorizing shapes, for example, by the number of sides in polygons. The Teachers' Notes page includes suggestions for implementation, discussion questions and ideas for extension.

In this Cyberchase video segment, the CyberSquad learns what happens to the area of a rectangle when the shape enclosed by the perimeter changes.

This activity gives students an opportunity to explore some of the common 3-D shapes and their names and properties. After discussion and an example, it asks students to count the required number of edges and vertices (corners) to build each of 5 given shapes. The Teachers' Notes page includes suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, ideas for extension and support, and a printable recording sheet (pdf).

This problem provides students with an opportunity to discover algebraic structure in a geometric context. More specifically, the student will need to divide up the given polygons into triangles and then use the fact that the sum of the angles in each triangle is 180_.

This activity asks students to visualize shapes, paying close attention to the definitions of special polygons. Learners are given a sheet of isometric grid paper and asked to find and sketch 12 specific shapes. Ideas for implementation, extension and support are included along with printable grids and shape definitions.