Building a Pool

Ms. Spencer, after completing her degree has decided to treat herself with a pool.
Unfortunately, because her schooling has been so expensive, she has decided the only
way she can complete this project, is to employ her grade 6 students to complete the
work for her, also for FREE.
1. So here is the first step.
Find the perimeter of the pool she wants built in her backyard.
To find the perimeter, add up all the side lengths.
3m
4m

m
4m
3m

2m

4m

4m

m
5m
4m

2m

6m

4m

4m

9m
4m

m
When adding up the side lengths you are only working with ONE dimension, so your
answer will be in meters (m).

_____+_____+_____+_____+_____+_____+_____+_____= ________m

3m
4m

m
4m
3m

2m

4m

4m

m
5m
4m

2m

6m

4m

4m

9m
4m

Ms. Spencer, having quite luxurious tastes,m

wants a pool cover to close over the entire
AREA of the pool. Now we are working with TWO dimensions, Length and Width of
the pool, so your units will be in Meters (m)

Area can be calculated with the formula length x width.

A)

____m x ____m= _____m

Colour in the boxes to replicate the same shape as Ms. Spencers dream pool.
Find the area of the coloured portion, you will probably have to break it into TWO
rectangular arrays.
We again are finding the AREA, so it is a TWO dimensional answer we are looking for.

B)

____m x ____m= _____m

C)

____m x ____m= _____m

Now that we have the AREA of the pool cover (A) and the AREA of the pieces Ms.
Spencer wants cut out (because it is #fancy that way.) (B+C) we can find out the AREA
of the actual pool.

______m - ______m- ______m= ______m

(A)
(B)
(C)
AREA OF POOL
Our units remain m because all our units are the same, we are still working with TWO
dimensions.
If Ms. Spencer decided she want a pool that was 3m deep all the way around, what is the
VOLUME of the pool?
Take the AREA OF POOL and multiply it by the 3m, we are now working with a pool
that is THREE DIMENSIONAL so our answer will be in m.

_______m x ______m= ______m

Except, Ms. Spencer wants all her students to be able to have fun in the pool, so she
wants the first 3m to be 1m deep. The middle 3m to be 2m deep, and the final 3m to
be 3m deep.

3m
4m

m
4m
3m

2m

4m

4m

m
5m
4m

1m DEEP

2m

6m

4m

4m

2m DEEP

3m DEEP

3m

3m

3m

4m

4m

4m

m
4

1m DEEP: lxwxh=VOLUME
3m x 5m x 1m= 15m

2m DEEP:
Find the AREA first, of the missing pieces and the known pieces:
(NOTE* WATCH YOUR UNITS!!)
This can be done one of two ways:
Find the area of the 3m x 3m section and add the 1m x 2m section

OR
Find the AREA of the 3m x 5m section and subtract the 2m x 2m section

Once you have the AREA of the water portion, multiply that by the depth of the pool.

______m x ______m= ______

DONT FORGET YOUR UNITS!! (in 3D)

Complete the volume for the last portion of the pool.

Now that you have the volume for each section of the pool, all you have to do is add
them together to get the full volume of the pool.

15m+ _________ + _________ = ___________

You are adding like units, so the units will remain in cubic meters (m).

If each cubic meter (m) will hold 1000 L of water, how much water will fill the entire
pool?

Ms. Spencer and her fancy tastes, wants the pool to be tiled, you will need to find the
area of each wall of the pool.
For the 1m DEEP section of the pool:
5m x 1m= 5m
2(3m x 1m)= 3m
Use the space below to find the AREA of the remaining sections of the pool.
For the 2m DEEP section of the pool:

For the 3m DEEP section of the pool:

If each section of tiles is 20 cm x 20 cm how many tiles will Ms. Spencer need to tile her
whole pool?
You will need to change your units into cm.

How many cms are in ONE meter?

__________________________

How many cm are in ONE meter?

__________________________

How many 20cmx20cm tiles will fit in ONE square meter?

Take this answer and multiply it by the number of square meters found in the entire
pool.

Ms. Spencer also found a second tile she likes as well, it can be purchased in
50cmx50cm sections. How many of these tiles will cover Ms. Spencers pool?

The 50cm x 50cm tiles cost $4.00 per section, the 20cm x 20cm tiles cost $0.75 per
section. How much will each cost to tile the entire pool?

Which one will be less expensive to tile the pool with?

Now that the walls are taken care of, we need to lay some flooring on the pool bottom,
we already know the area of the pool bottom but we added some extra by creating
different depths.
3m
4m

m
4m
3m

2m

4m

4m

m
5m
4m

1m DEEP

2m

6m

4m

4m

2m DEEP

3m DEEP

3m

3m

3m

4m

4m

4m

m
m
Find the extra area by multiplying the 1m drops by the length of the pool at each drop:
There will only be 2 equations, as we already have the area of the wall.
The first equation will look like:
5m x 1m= 5m

Find the area of next 1m drop (NOTE: you may need to subtract some length due to
the decorative cutout.)

______m x ______m= ______

UNITS!!!

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Add the two together:

5m + _______ = ________
You are adding like units, so the answer will be the in the same units.

Add the above answer to the original area you calculated at the top of page 4 (AREA OF
POOL)

___________ + __________ = ___________

UNITS!!

Cement must be poured around the perimeter of the pool, it must be at least 50cm
thick and encompass the entire pool. Around the edge, down the walls and under the
floor.
If you have added 50cm around the edge of the entire pool, what have you done to the
perimeter of the pool?

How has it affected the area?

How will we find the volume of this selected piece?

Brainstorm some ideas.

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