1. My Square Meter Investigation
The Task:
I was asked tomake a square with an area of 10,000cm2 or 1m2. I
used newspaper, scissors, rulers and measuring tapes.Then, I needed
to change the perimeter of the shape, but keep the area the same.
This is calledconservation of area.
It was a fun investigation because we needed to make another shape
without losing the area It was challenging for me because we needed
to think about the shape and if we lost any area we needed to do
everything again so it was fun working it out.
Original Shape:
The dimensions of my shape
were 1m x 1m, or 100cm by
100cm. This shape was
asquare.It had an area of a 1m2
or 10,000cm2. It had a perimeter
of 400cm or 4m.
New Shape:
My new shape was ahexagon.The
area of my new shape was still
1m2 or 10,000cm2. I know this
becausewe didn’t lose any area of
the newspaper. The perimeter of
my new shape isgreater than the
original. It is 5.45m or 545cm. I
worked this out by using a ruler to
measure all the sides.I think the
new perimeter is greater because
the square was 10,000cm2 or 4m
and our shape’sperimeter was
5.45m or 545cm.
Reflection:
During this investigation, I learned what perimeter is and what area
is.It made me think abouthowperimeter and area is used to measure
things. I enjoyed that doing things like cutting carefully and talking
with my group about where to cut so we didn’t lose area. I still have
questions about whether people use perimeters or area the most in
the their lives? I would like to measure areas of forest next.