Mathcity  
Volume Challenge 
Mathematics 

Overview 
As a city planner, you get to plan out a new city called Mathcity! Your city will have a
school, a grocery store, hospital​, library, water tower ​and multiple homes. You will
cut and decorate each building, tape it together and then create a city with streets
and parks for your buildings. You will also determine the volume and surface area
of each of your buildings by measuring their dimensions and doing the mathematical
calculations for volumes of cubes, rectangular prisms, triangular prisms.

 
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Materials 
● Card Stock Nets

● Black Sharpie

● Crayons

● Ruler (with cm measurements)

● Scissors

● Clear Plastic Tape

● Butcher Paper (for city layout)

The Goal 
To create Mathcity, a city of your own making and design that includes ​a school, a
grocery store, hospital, library, water tower and multiple homes, and to calculate the
volume and surface area of each structure in your city.

 
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Instructions 
Step 1​: Cut out all the cardstock nets provided. ​Fold the nets along the lines to get
an idea of how the solids will be taped together.

Step 2:​ Use the crayons provided to decorate and label your buildings while they
are still in 2-D form. Make sure to clearly label each building on an outside face (i.e.
Library, House 1, School, etc.).

 
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Step 3:​ Construct the 3-D shapes of each building and tape together with the clear
plastic tape. The houses are in two pieces, a house base and a house roof. Do not
tape the roofs on the house just yet, we need to do some measurement before
putting them together!

Step 4:​ Use your ruler to measure the dimensions of each solid and record your
measurements in the following table, round your measurement to the nearest tenth
of a centimeter (for example, 6.2 cm or 3.1 cm):

School   Hospital 
Name of solid: _________________ Name of solid: _________________

Length of base: _________________ Length of base: _________________

Width of base: __________________ Width of base: __________________

Height of figure: _________________ Height of figure: _________________

 
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Grocery Store  
Name of solid: _________________

Length of base: _________________

Width of base: __________________

Height of figure: _________________

House 1   House 1 Roof 

Name of solid: _________________ Name of solid: _________________

Length of base: _________________ Length of base: _________________

Width of base: __________________ Width of base: __________________

Height of figure: _________________ Height of figure: _________________

House 2   House 2 Roof 

Name of solid: _________________ Name of solid: _________________

Length of base: _________________ Length of base: _________________

Width of base: __________________ Width of base: __________________

Height of figure: _________________ Height of figure: _________________

 
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House 3   House 3 Roof 

Name of solid: _________________ Name of solid: _________________

Length of base: _________________ Length of base: _________________

Width of base: __________________ Width of base: __________________

Height of figure: _________________ Height of figure: _________________

Step 5:​ ​Now put your house pieces together and create your city. Use the butcher
paper provided to create your unique Mathcity! Include roads between your
buildings, parks, ponds and other features. Add some greenery from outside for
trees and bushes or road signs from your leftover cardstock. Have fun and be
creative!

 
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Let’s Calculate!!! 
Now we are going to calculate the volume and surface areas of each building. Use
the measurements taken above for each building and the formulas for volumes and
surfaces areas of solids discussed in class.

Volume

Surface Area

 
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Use the boxes below to show all your calculations and record your answers at
the bottom of each box. Round to the nearest tenth of a centimeter.

School  

Volume of School: ________________

Surface Area of School_____________

Hospital 

Volume of Hospital: ________________

Surface Area of Hospital_____________

 
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House #1 

Volume of House #1: ________________

Surface Area of House #1:_____________

House #2 

Volume of House #2: ________________

Surface Area of House #2:_____________  

 
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House #3 

Volume of House #3: ________________

Surface Area of House #3:_____________

Grocery Store 

Volume of Grocery Store: ________________

Surface Area of Grocery Store:_____________

 
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Questions to Consider!!! 
1) Why might a city planner want to know the volume of a building? What 
could you use this measurement to help you determine? 

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2) Why might a city planner want to know the surface area of a building? 
What could you use this measurement to help you determine? 

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