Measurement Session 6: Area Introduction

Area is a measure of how much surface is covered by a particular object or figure. Units of measure for area involve shapes that cover the plane, such as rectangles or squares. Common units in the U.S. customary system are square inches, square feet, square yards, and square miles; the standard unit in the metric system is the square meter.

For information on required and/or optional materials for this session, see Note 1.

Part A:
Measuring Area

Part B:
Exploring Area With a Geoboard

Part C:
Scaling the Area

Homework

In this session, you will do the following:
•	Learn that area is a measure of how much surface is covered and that some shapes cover the surface of a plane more completely than other shapes
•	Examine how the size of the unit used to indicate the amount of surface covered determines the number of units
•	Find the area of irregular shapes
•	Learn how to approximate the area of shapes more accurately
•	See how the process of counting can be shortened by using formulas
•	Gain a deeper understanding of the standard formulas for the area of triangles, trapezoids, and parallelograms


	Throughout the session you will be prompted to view short video segments. In addition to these excerpts, you may choose to watch the full-length video of this session.


	Previously Introduced:		New in This Session:
	scale factor		area midline similar figures

Next > Part A: Measuring Area

Session 6: Index | Notes | Solutions | Video