Grades 6-8
15-day unit—80 pages

Area Formulas for Parallelograms, Triangles, and Trapezoids is part of the AIMS Essential Math Series that uses real-world investigations, comics, and animation to engage students and help them discover and make sense of key mathematical concepts. The units in this series are narrowly focused, conceptually developed, and carefully sequenced to provide a continuum of introduction, development, and reinforcement of the essential ideas.

In this book, students will develop fundamental understanding of key measurement and geometry concepts.  Intriguing investigations will have students develop the formulas for the areas of parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids. By cutting paper and working with geoboards, students understand the meaning of the formulas and apply them in a variety of problem-solving settings such as “Polygon Puzzle.” From the five-piece puzzle, students understand relationships of formulas as they build two rectangles, two parallelograms, one triangle, and three trapezoids from the puzzle pieces.

The “big ideas” expressed through creative activities in this book are:

• Parallelograms: The area of a parallelogram is found by multiplying base by height. All parallelograms that have same base and height have the same area no matter how far they have been skewed.
• Triangles: A triangle is half the area of a parallelogram with the same height and width.
• Trapezoids: The area of a trapezoid is calculated by multiplying the average base by the height.

The book includes a CD with interactive PDF instructions. Interactive links in the digital format enrich the learning experience with videos, animation and Flash® applications. Using a projector or interactive whiteboard allows the materials to display for the class and supplements the teacher’s instruction.