This is a fun project I do with fifth graders where students take on the role of Senior Designer at Packagings R Us. They will need to design the perfect box (rectangular prism) for an item that they will be bringing in. Their box will be “shipped” to Australia so they will need to consider the fragility of their item when designing the box and determine appropriate packing material.

An extension is to have students do a cost analysis for designing 100 boxes.

CCSS: 5.MD.3; 5. MD.4; 5.MD.5
TEKS: 4th grade AR5C, AR5D, GM8C; 5th grade AR4G, AR4H, GM 6A, 6B

Vocabulary covered:
 Area: the number of square units needed to cover the surface of a plane figure
 Net: a 2-dimensional representation of a 3-dimensional object
 Prism: the cross sections of a solid are all the same
 Rectangular prism: a solid that is made up of six rectangular faces
 Solid: having volume and surface area; a 3-dimensional object
 Volume: the amount of space something takes up

PDF version of the video lesson can be found by clicking here then clicking the ‘Math Resources’ button.