Mathematics K–6 · Years 5–6
Make a cubic metre
Measurement and space
The idea
A cubic metre is a cube one metre on each edge, holds a million cubic centimetres or a thousand litres, and rooms are measured in it.
Safety card
Hazards
- dowel ends at eye height
- a collapsing frame
Controls
- cap or tape the dowel ends; assemble on the floor with an adult holding corners
Note
No chemicals or heat are used, so the NSW Department of Education Chemical Safety in Schools package is not needed; ordinary classroom supervision under the school's usual risk management.
What you need
- 12 lengths of dowel or rolled newspaper, each 1 m, and tape or corner joiners
- a metre rule, a tape measure and a large set square
- a thousand-cube from base-10 materials and a 1 L container
- a calculator
How to do it
- Join the twelve 1 m lengths into a skeleton cube. Check every edge with the metre rule and every corner with a square.
- Hold the thousand-cube (10 cm edge) against one edge of the skeleton and count how many fit along it, then work out how many fill one layer and how many fill the whole cube.
- Hold the 1 L container inside and use the layer count to say how many litres fill the cube.
- Count how many children can stand inside the skeleton at once, then estimate how many cubic metres the classroom holds by measuring its length, width and height.
- Record 1 cubic metre in cubic centimetres, in litres and in the number of thousand-cubes.
What you should see
Ten thousand-cubes fit along one edge, 100 fill a layer and 1000 fill the cube, so 1 cubic metre is 1000 times 1000 cubic centimetres, which is 1 000 000 cubic centimetres, and 1000 litres. The number of children who fit inside the skeleton is counted, not predicted, and shows how large a cubic metre is. A classroom 8 m by 7 m by 3 m has 168 cubic metres. Every edge of a well-made skeleton measures 100 cm and both diagonals of each face measure about 141 cm (100 times the square root of 2); a face whose two diagonals differ has a corner that is not square.
What changes
This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.
Common misconceptions
Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.
- A cubic metre is 100 cubic centimetres.
- A cubic metre is a flat square one metre on each side.
Curriculum references
The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
- Mathematics K-10 Syllabus (2022), NSW Education Standards AuthorityMA3-3DS-02MAO-WM-01
- Australian Curriculum v9No Australian Curriculum v9 code is listed.
Sources
The pages the author read to write this activity.
- curriculum.nsw.edu.au/learning-areas/mathematics/mathematics-k-10-2022/outcomes
- education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/key-learning-areas/mathematics/media/documents/mathematics-s2-s3-teaching-measurement.pdf
- education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy/teaching-and-learning-resources/numeracy/understanding-units-of-measurement