Last Updated on September 14, 2023 by Editorial Team
After studying 2D figures like rectangles, squares, and other polygons, solid geometry is next in the curriculum. Solid geometry is the study of solid shapes or 3D figures. The introduction of the third dimension names solid geometry as the study of 3D figures too. Cube, cuboid, and sphere replace square, cuboid, and circle respectively. Accordingly, the operations on the measurements like the area are replaced by the surface area. Due to new additions made to the curriculum, students may find themselves struggling with more formulae and equations. Thankfully, there are games that offer an easy approach to learning and practicing 3D geometry’s basic calculations like surface area and volume.
Best outcomes of playing games to learn surface area and volume
Take a cube or sphere in hand. All the surface that you can touch or paint is actually the surface area. Also, suppose there is an inlet in these 3D figures to fill in the air. The quantity of air or water that you can pump into it is equal to its volume. These are the practical explanations of the terms surface area and volume. How about the ways that help you get a visual demonstration of these explanations? Actually, games do precisely this!
Apart from offering you a more practical approach for handling calculations involving surface area and volume, games can help the learners in the following ways:
- Games provide an engaging platform for practicing surface area and volume-based calculations. They are a great add-on to teaching via volume and surface area manipulatives.
- By playing games, you can understand how to apply the concept of surface area and volume in practical situations.
- Games with an attractive scoring method encourage learners to practice more and refine their calculation skills
- By the way of forming teams, games offer situations conducive to a participative or collaborative way of solving problems involving surface area and volume. In a classroom or a homeschooling environment, the chance to start a discussion on strategies is best provided by the games.
- To add further, games offer a variety of problems to solve. Thus, the students get all possible combinations and situations to apply the learning achieved by the concepts of surface area and volume.
If we sum it all together, the games transport the students from the book’s world to close to the real one. These let them understand how math is going to apply in practical ways in daily-life situations. Don’t you want to know about the best games available online that support teaching surface area and volume in a more comprehensible manner?
If yes, take a look at the list of games to solve problems based on surface area and volume. These games can help you understand how to apply and find values like the amount of paint required to color that ball or the amount of water that can fill the cylindrical water tank, etc.
Games to learn and apply surface area and volume concepts
1. Calculate the Volume Quiz
Simplify the process of learning how to calculate the volume of complex shapes with this quiz game online. The quiz takes you through a variety of figure shapes that are composed using cubes or other basic 3D figures. The faster you calculate, the more questions you get to solve. Thus, you get better with the calculation of volumes every time you repeat this game.
This quiz places a varying number of cubes in different arrangements, allowing you to utilize your spatial sense apart from calculating capability. The easy part lies in the fact that the game teaches you about calculating volume by adopting the counting method. A brilliant game for a geometry starter!
2. Surface Area and Volume Interactive Quiz
Once you have understood what surface area and volume mean, you can address the problems related to these in a variety of ways. This interactive quiz does a lot more than make you a pro in calculations. It utilizes your spatial reasoning abilities and helps you pick various orientation options.
You can select the view, and also, the options like outlined polyhedron or filled grid to suit your visual imagination capabilities. Further, you can choose from a rectangular prism or triangular prism options while selecting from ‘explore’ or ‘calculate’ actions. While exploring helps you learn how results change with measurements, calculating allows you to apply your mental math and formula application skill. To start the easy way, you can visualize and count surfaces in your head to arrive at the values of surface area or volume.
3. What is the Surface Area?
Designed for grade 7 and grade 8 students, this game is actually a series of questions. The student is given a cuboid whose length, width, and height vary in each question. The purpose of this game is to teach you the units in which surface area is expressed. The measurements are expressed relatively in the form of a diagram to give you a vague idea of how the final figure will look with these values.
You can utilize the formula surface area of cuboid = 2(lw+wh+lh) to solve the questions of this game. Since the measurements are mostly in single digits, it is recommended to apply this formula mentally to extract the best benefits of this game.
4. Volume of Cubes and Rectangular Prisms
An amazing game for geometry beginners! This game keeps the cubes and rectangular prisms in focus. You can work up your brain to apply the volume’s formula and yield results as fast as you can. This game is quite on the lines of a finding surface area game. So, it completes the learning of basic calculations applicable in the geometry of solids.
The time-pressed gameplay of this activity allows you to check your proficiency in calculations. In addition, the visual presentation of the figure connects you more closely with solids and enhances your understanding.
5. Length, Area, and Volume Quiz
You will be able to do calculations fast when you are well-versed with the formulae of the surface area and volume of solid figures. While games based on calculations provide you proficiency in the application part, this surface area and volume quiz game strengthens your conceptual knowledge. So, you get several formula options to select the right one.
It can become tricky at the start, which is why it requires more practice. The captivating gameplay engages you in more practice easily, which is precisely what you need. When you need something to complement formula anchor charts, this game offers a perfect addition to your learning tools.
6. Surface Area Challenge
One of the difficulties students face when solving surface area and volume questions is that every shape is unique, with different numbers and lengths of sides. This online game allows players to practice their concepts by presenting questions related to different solid shapes in nine segregated levels. Each level focuses on only one shape, leaving no room for confusion.
The questions are in word format with relevant diagrammatic representations to assist students in comprehending the problem. Each question has a separate space to work out the answers that can be filled in the blue boxes provided. As this resource is not time-bound, students can take their time to solve and find answers to the given questions.
7. Interactive Cubes
Be a cube specialist with this Interactive cube game. This game, useful for learning surface area and volume, engages the students quite interestingly. The learners need to click on color-coded flaps and these align to yield a cuboid. So, beginners can acquaint themselves with the diagrammatic presentation of solids.
Further, they can use either counting or formula application to arrive at the surface area and volume values of the solid cube. Starting with smaller measurements, the learners can move up higher in the challenge scale and perform more complex calculations.
8. Volume and Surface Area of Spheres
The last game on our list is great for learners who are yet to master the concepts of volume and surface area of spheres. It includes a total of ten questions related to the topic and offers different answering formats. Some questions have a multi-choice answer format, while others require players to do their calculations and fill in the correct answer.
The game challenges players to strive for success and do the best they can. But there is nothing to worry about if things do not go very well in the first instance. Players can always brush up on their conceptual knowledge of the volume and surface area of spheres and try the game again!
Wrapping up,
Games for learning volume and surface area of solids are available online, which allows students to practice anywhere, anytime. The use of mobile phones and gadgets[1] in learning solid geometry has become more meaningful with these games. So, when you want a break from books and worksheets, you can switch to games and make learning more exciting.
Reference
[1] IPAD INFUSE CREATIVITY IN SOLID GEOMETRY TEACHING. (2013). Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 12(2), 177–192. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1015420.pdf
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,