Area Builder
About
Topics
- Area
- Perimeter
- Fractional areas
- Scale factors
Description
Create your own shapes using colorful blocks and explore the relationship between perimeter and area. Compare the area and perimeter of two shapes side-by-side. Challenge yourself in the game screen to build shapes or find the area of funky figures. Try to collect lots of stars!
Sample Learning Goals
- Find the area of a shape by counting unit squares
- Describe the relationship between area and perimeter
- Build shapes with a given area and/or perimeter
- Find the area of an irregular shape by decomposing into smaller, regular shapes (e.g., rectangles, triangles, squares)
- Determine the scale factor of similar shapes
- Generalize how area and perimeter change when scaling shapes
Keywords
For Teachers
Teacher Tips
| Overview of sim controls, model simplifications, and insights into student thinking ( PDF ). |
Teacher-Submitted Activities
| Title |
|
|
Authors | Level | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scaling Shapes Activity and Lesson |
|
|
Amanda McGarry | MS HS |
Guided |
| Alignment of PhET sims with NGSS |
|
Trish Loeblein | HS | Other | |
| How do PhET simulations fit in my middle school program? |
|
Sarah Borenstein | MS | Other | |
| CCSS Math Alignment with Sims |
|
Amanda McGarry | K-5 HS MS |
Other | |
| MS and HS TEK to Sim Alignment | Elyse Zimmer | MS HS |
Other | ||
| Area Builder Lesson | Stefanie Akrish | K-5 | HW Lab Guided |
||
| Area Builder for grades 3-5 | Molly Martin | K-5 | Guided | ||
| What's My Area? | Rachael Ortega | K-5 | CQs Lab |
||
| Preguntas de razonamiento para todas las simulaciones HTML5 |
|
|
Diana López | UG-Adv Grad MS UG-Intro K-5 HS |
Discuss HW |
| Mali majstor za površine | Anita Sečan | Other | Guided | ||
| Veliki majstor za površine | Anita Sečan | Other | Other | ||
| Figuras Semelhantes | Ana Paula Rodrigues Alves | MS | Guided | ||
| Áreas y Perímetros | Yarely Mariana Vela Soberanis | MS K-5 |
HW Guided |
Translations
Related Simulations
Software Requirements
| Windows 7+ | Mac OS 10.7+ | iPad and iPad Mini with iOS | Chromebook with Chrome OS |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11, latest version of Firefox, latest version of Chrome.
|
Safari 9+, latest version of Firefox, latest version of Chrome.
|
Latest version of Safari
|
Latest version of Chrome
|
Credits
| Design Team | Third-party Libraries | Thanks To |
|---|---|---|
|
|


