Paul's Term 2 Reflection

Term 2 was okay if I could describe it in my own words. There were things that took a while for me to understand. This term we started by learning how to convert Fractions to Decimals to Percents. It’s usually in that order when we do some problems, but sometimes there in a different order. To find the decimal with a fraction you have to divide the numerator by the denominator, to find the percent with the decimal you have to multiply the decimal by 100. Sometimes you might have to start from a different end when the given number to you is only a percent. If that happens you go a different way which is dividing the percent by 100 to get the decimal. After, you put the decimal as the numerator. As for the denominator you put the digit one then put an amount of zero’s, making an equal place value for the numerator. Although do not include the first digit of the numerator which the number one already occupied. After converting we moved on to grid papers. In some cases there are decimals lower than 1%. In a grid paper you will make a zoom picture to show those percentage. More about percents are finding the percent of a certain amount to the full amount. For example would be what is the percentage of a quarter of a pizza to the whole pizza, it would be 25%.


Through the term we also learned about Surface Area. Surface area a very interesting chapter because we learned how to view the top, front and side of an object. We used squared units after finding the surface area of the prisms. We also learn how to find the surface area of a rectangular, triangular, and cylindrical prisms. For a rectangular prism the formula is a=lengthxwidthx2, but for just a rectangle it is a=lengthxwidth to find its surface area. The formula for triangular prism is a=basexheight/2 then a=lengthxwidth for the rectangles, but for just a triangle it is a=basexheight/2. Although the formula for the triangle is the same there are different kinds of triangle. They are an Isosceles triangle which have both triangle equal, Right angled triangle which have a 90 degree angle and last is Equilateral which have all equal triangles. A cylindar is much more complicated because you will have to know how to find the area, circumference, diameter and radius to find the surface area for it. To find the surface area of the circle you use the formula a=π.r.r, to find the surface area of a cylinder you must know the radius and use the formula a=(2.π.radius.radius)+(2.radius.π.heigth). At the end of each solutions we draw a net for all prisms. A net is an opened view of the prism.


After Surface area we learned about Volume. Volume is just an extended part of surface area except you have to find how much volume a prism or container can have. In volume we also worked on rectangular, triangular and cylindrical prisms. We also used cubic units after finding the volume of a shape. We had to follow a certain formula to find the volume of shape which is area of base X height. In some cases we had to find the area of the base. For rectangular prism we used the formula v=lengthxwidthxheigth. For cubes we used the formula v=sidexsidexside, all cubes have equal sides. For triangular prism we used the formula v=basexheigth/2 then multiply to other heigth. For the cylinder we used the formula v=(πxradiusxradius)xheigth.


Through the term there were bad time and good times for me. The Part I did well on is the Surface area because it was kind of easy except on trying to make a net. I found it hard because it was confusing on trying to put the right measurements of numbers to the right shape.I also did well on volume because it was easy finding it, except when some questions don’t make sense. The things I struggled on is Chapter 7.4, it was the chapter that talks about taking out another prism from another. Also remembering the formulas was hard. Next term I’ll probably ask for more questions and try to read more information in the textbook. The difference between surface area and volume is that surface area has to do with outside measurement and volume is inside measurement of the a shape. The things I learned in term 2 have been everything we talked about through the term.