Optimal Cuboid

Year 7 students had fun with this idea last week. We have been exploring the idea that there are different nets for a cube and going on to look at the nets of cuboids and the ideas of surface area and volume. So students were given a piece of A4 card and asked to draw the net, cut out and build a cube 5cm x 5cm x 5cm. Then with the remaining card they have to build the biggest cuboid they can. There was lots of thinking about this to do before they cut anything out! How do I draw the net of the cube that leaves me the most card left over? How can I make the cuboid as big as possible? What does 'big' mean in this context? How can we decide who is the winner? Who has built the biggest cuboid? Fun was had, cuboids were created and thinking was done!

More can be read about the thinking behind this activity here!