Grade 6 Module 5: Area, Surface Area, and Volume Problems

In this module, students utilize their previous experiences in order to understand and develop formulas for area, volume, and surface area. Students use composition and decomposition to determine the area of triangles, quadrilaterals, and other polygons. Extending skills from Module 3 where they used coordinates and absolute value to find distances between points on a coordinate plane, students determine distance, perimeter, and area on the coordinate plane in real-world contexts. Next in the module comes real-life application of the volume formula where students extend the notion that volume is additive and find the volume of composite solid figures. They apply volume formulas and use their previous experience with solving equations to find missing volumes and missing dimensions. The final topic includes deconstructing the faces of solid figures to determine surface area. To wrap up the module, students apply the surface area formula to real-life contexts and distinguish between the need to find surface area or volume within contextual situations.