The Problem:
If I had a whole pumpkin pie with a diameter of 8 inches, and a height of 2 inches, what is the maximum amount of pie I could eat? Find the volume of the pie.
CCSS-Math:
HSG-GMD.A.3 Geometric Measurement and Dimension: explain volume formulas and use them to solve problems.
The relevance of this activity is that it can be used around Thanksgiving time, so the students have a real life example of how and when they could solve for the volume of a shallow cylinder. The teacher could have a couple different approaches for student engagement. He/she could have his/her students discuss in their groups what they think the solution is, the students could have this as an individual entry task, or there could simply be a class discussion of the process to solve this problem. All of those options could engage students in their current understanding of finding the volume of a cylinder, as well as allow the teacher to lead the lesson based off of the students’ findings. If the teacher wanted to take that extra step, he/she could potentially bring in an actual pumpkin pie for the students to reference (and possibly eat).
Hey Gillian,
This post made me hungry, I love pumpkin pie. Another math problem you could have done for this CCSS-Math was give the students the volume of the pumpkin pie already as well as the height and have them find the diameter of the piece of pumpkin pie they were going to eat.