Students' Reasoning About Volume Structuring: Right and Oblique Prisms

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Student Reasoning and Understanding in K–12 Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract

In this report we describe two students' reasoning about volume tasks involving right and oblique rectangular prisms in terms of a learning trajectory for volume. We also analyze their approaches to packing tasks in comparison with standard volume calculation tasks. We found that students struggled to integrate volume and packing tasks and packing tasks helped promote higher level reasoning in oblique prism tasks.

Authors

• Theodore Rupnow, Illinois State University

• Craig Cullen, Illinois State University

• Jeffrey E. Barrett, Illinois State University

• Pamela Beck, University of North Dakota