Checking and securing understanding of surface area of other prisms | Maths

Starter quiz

Select the units that could be used for the surface area of a cuboid.

cm

m² ✓

mm³

km³

km² ✓
Here is a net of a cube. Which calculations correctly give the surface area of the cube?

16 × 6 ✓

4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4

(4 × 4) × 6 ✓

4 × 6

(4 × 4) + (4 × 4) + (4 × 4) + (4 × 4) + (4 × 4) + (4 × 4) ✓
Here is a net of a cuboid. What is the surface area of the cuboid?

16 cm²

32 cm²

79 cm²

120 cm²

158 cm² ✓
The diagram shows the plan view and front and side elevations of a cuboid. The surface area of the cuboid is ______m².

'52' ✓
The diagram shows an isometric drawing of a cuboid. The surface area of the cuboid is ______ m².

'448' ✓
Starting with the cuboid with the smallest surface area, put these cuboids in order of surface area size.

1

⇔

Blue cuboid: width 2 cm, height 8 cm and length 16 cm

2

⇔

Red cuboid: width 4 cm, height 10 cm and length 10 cm

3

⇔

Yellow cuboid: width 6 cm, height 8 cm and length 10 cm

4

⇔

Purple cuboid: width 8 cm, height 8 cm and length 8 cm

Exit quiz

This prism has two congruent regular pentagonal faces and ______ congruent rectangular faces.

'five' ✓
Jun takes some measurements from a cube. Match each measurement to its correct value.

Volume

⇔

64 cm³ ✓

Surface area

⇔

96 cm² ✓

Perimeter of cross-section

⇔

16 cm ✓

Length of one side

⇔

4 cm ✓

Area of cross-section

⇔

16 cm² ✓
The surface area of this octagonal prism is ______ cm².

'1214' ✓
The diagram shows a prism unfolded into its net. The perimeter of the cross-sectional face is 80 cm. Which of these statements are correct?

Dimensions of rectangle in the net: 8 cm by 80 cm ✓

Dimensions of rectangle in the net: 8 cm by 300 cm

Total surface area = (300 + 5 × 80) cm²

Total surface area = (2 × 300 + 5 × (80 × 8)) cm²

Total surface area = (2 × 300 + 80 × 8) cm² ✓
The diagram shows the net of a triangular prism. The depth of the prism is 2 cm. The surface area of the prism that can be formed from this net is ______ cm².

'36' ✓
The cross-section of this prism is an equilateral triangle. The surface area of this triangular prism is ______ cm². Give your answer correct to 3 significant figures.

'269' ✓

Worksheet

Loading worksheet ...

Presentation

Loading presentation ...

Video

Lesson Details

Key learning points

The surface area of a prism is the sum of the area of all the faces.
The net of a prism can help find the surface area of a prism but can be time consuming.
Using known area facts the area of all the faces can be found and summed.
It is important to find the surface area systematically and efficiently.

Common misconception

Pupils can miss out some faces of the prism when calculating the surface area.

Encourage pupils to sketch out the net of the prism and label it clearly, to ensure that they include all faces in their calculation of the surface area. This will allow their answer to be checked more easily.

Keywords

Prism - A prism is a polyhedron with a base that is a polygon and a parallel opposite face that is identical. The corresponding edges of the two polygons are joined by parallelograms.
Surface area - The surface area is the total area of all the surfaces of a closed 3D shape. The surfaces include all faces and any curved surfaces.
Net - The net of a 3D object is a 2D representation of its surfaces that can be folded up into the 3D object.