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by Todd Hawk (Author)
The Cereal Box Project is a guide to creating a middle school math project. The Cereal Box Project starts with a simple premise: A large cereal company wants a unique design to attract people's attention. The company does not want the same old boring rectangular prism. Students will then design and build their version of the new cereal box. Along the way, they will need to calculate such things as volume, surface area and cost.This guide contains many tips, tricks and lessons learned from nearly a decade of using this project in our math class.There are many aspects of the Cereal Box Project that make it very appealing. Flexibility. As a teacher, you can customize the topics you want to focus on. You can incorporate as many different topics into this project as you can imagine.Differentiate. This project makes it easy to differentiate between students. A student that struggles might work on a cereal box that is very basic while another student can be challenged with a greater degree of difficulty. Hands On. Like with most projects, the Cereal Box Project allows students the chance to physically build the project. The actual act of measuring, cutting and taping helps students develop a deeper understanding of the connection between the numbers and the physical object.Creativity. The Cereal Box Project gives the students the opportunity to use their creativity when designing this project.Enjoyment. Cereal boxes are usually a reflection of the student's interest. As a result, the students tend to take more pride and put more effort into this project.
