Activity Description Learn the difference between perimeter and area. A shape will be automatically generated with the perimeter that you choose. Calculate the area of this shape. Area Explorer is one of the Interactivate assessment explorers.

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Area Explorer

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 applet allows users to practice calculating the area of random shapes. 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 ten to fifteen minutes otherwise.

Preparations for this activity:

• define and describe the concept of area
• walk the class through finding the pattern for area of the object using the information on the chart for question one of the exploration questions