Brilliant! Fifth-Graders Learn about Geometry by Constructing a Tin Person
Fifth-graders in the high-ability math program at all BPS101 elementary schools recently worked on a “Tin Person Project” as part of their geometry unit. Each student had to use household 3D objects (e.g., toilet paper cylinders, cereal box rectangular prisms, styrofoam spheres, oil funnel cones, etc.) to construct a tin man or woman. Students then had to calculate the surface area of all of their objects and give that measurement to their enrichment math teacher to get the exact amount of tin foil they measured for. The final step was covering their creation as completely as possible without running out of foil or having extra leftover. Brilliant idea!
Students got really creative, too. In Sue Sokolinski’s class of Grace McWayne and Louise White fifth-graders, students each presented their tin person, shared his or her name (Timothy was popular!), how it was made, and the total surface area.
GMS fifth-grader Sarah Alf said her tin man was inspired by Iron Man, complete with a Mark I suit. Her tin man also featured animation and audio that she created with littleBits snap-together electronics from home. Clever!
GMS fifth-grader Xavier Justice sharing his tin man, Xavier Jr., with fellow students at LWS. BPS101 enrichment teachers use remote learning technology to teach classes in different buildings simultaneously.
LWS fifth-grader Grace Elftmann sharing her tin woman, “Princess Victoria” with GMS students. Grace said she had issues with the gluing process, but finished strong. Her renaissance-inspired tin woman ended up with a total surface area of 3,946.8544657 cm. Grace is very exact!
At the start of this project, Mrs. Sokolinski gave students a final due date to bring in and present their tin person, but left it up to students to manage their time during the entire process, including at-home construction.
One takeaway from a brutally honest student: “I learned that you shouldn’t wait until the last minute to do a project. You know me, I do that a lot,” he said. “I didn’t do that this time because I wanted to get used to doing things the the right way. I tried to balance it out and it felt really good!” [That’s priceless!]
After sharing and answering fellow students’ questions about their final products and then reflecting on the overall project, students entered their data onto a shared Google Sheet to graph heights and total surface areas to see if there was any correlation.
“This was my favorite project!” said GMS student Logan Cox.
Not surprisingly, this project was a favorite of many in the LWS and GMS math enrichment classes. What a creative and fun way to learn and apply geometry!
