Measuring Volume

Est. Class Sessions: 3–4

Summarizing the Lesson

Read Question 11 with students. For this question, students have to consider what will happen to the volume and the water level if they triple the volume of the set of objects they measured in Question 2. For the first two columns in the Triple the Volume of Objects data table in Question 11, have students copy the type of objects and the volume for one set of objects from the Measuring Volume data table in Question 2.

After students have completed the first two columns, ask:

For the Triple the Volume of Objects column, you have to triple the volume for one set of objects in the second column. How do you find triple a number? (Possible response: You have to find three times the number.)

Give students sufficient time to find triple the volume of the sets of objects and record these values in the third column of the data table. See Figure 5 for possible strategies for tripling a number.

Next, ask:

In the fourth column, you recorded the volume of water in cc. Will that number change? (No, the water will stay at 80 cc.)
If you add triple the volume of objects to 80 cc of water, what will happen to the water level? (Possible response: The water will go up more because you have more volume.)
Will the water rise over 100 cc? (Possibly.)

Direct students to use the data for triple the volume to calculate what will happen to the water level. See Figure 6 for an example of a completed table.

Upon completion, ask:

How did you determine whether or not the new volume would overflow the 100-cc mark? (Possible response: I looked at the fifth column Volume of Water and Objects. If the number was over 100 cc, I knew the answer was yes.)
Is there another way to determine if the water will overflow the 100-cc mark? (Possible response: I looked at the third column. If triple the volume was 20 cc or over, I knew the answer was yes because I started with 80 cc of water. 80 + 20 = 100 cc.)

Adventure Book:

Student Activity Book: 572

Answers