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Shape Builder
Place in mathematics curriculum:
This activity can be used to:
* illustrate the notion of area
* develop students' visualization skills
* practice students' skills at calculating area
* illustrate shapes of the same perimeter have different areas
This activity allows the user to explore area and perimeter by either allowing the computer to randomly draw a shape on a grid or allowing the user to build the shape on the grid. This activity would work well in mixed ability groups of two or three for about twenty-five minutes if you use the exploration questions and fifteen to twenty minutes otherwise.
Preparations for this activity:
* Discuss and demonstrate why shapes can have the same areas but different perimeters.
* Discuss and demonstrate why shapes can have the same perimeters but different areas.
* Emphasize the difference between the units to measure perimeter (linear) and area (square).
