The purpose of this activity is to engage students in identifying and sorting solids by the plane shapes of their faces.
In readiness for this problem, the students should have familiarity with each of the following components of mathematics. The problem may be solved with different combinations of these components.
- shapes
- features of polygons
- regular polygons
- sorting plane shapes
- 3-D solids
- identifying features of 3-D solids
- classifying 3-D solids
This activity may be carried out with guidance, or by allowing the student to follow their own method of solution. The approach should be chosen in sympathy with students’ skills and depth of understanding.
A teacher gave his students four solids and asked them to find the odd one out.
Fran said the tetrahedron was the odd one out.
Tony said the cube was the odd one out.
The teacher said they were both right if they could give a reason.
Can you give a reason for Fran and a reason for Tony to be right?
Are there any other of these solids that could be considered to be the odd one out?
The practical approach (show more)
- The student is able to sort the given solids based on their faces.
The conceptual approach (show more)
- The student is able to sort the solids shown in a diagram, based on their faces.
