Cross Sections Workshop

Question

Next week, a workshop about the cross sections of solids will be held in our school, for 7th grade students. These are what we've decided to include in the workshop:

• Showing "Flatlad: The Movie"
• Giving the students cubic pieces of polystyrene and asking them to make polygon cross sections with given number of sides.

• Asking the students to construct given solids, using their cross sections by sheets of thin foam board.
• Talking about 3D-Printers and showing clips about them.

What other things can be included in our workshop? Do you have any suggestions?

Answer 1

Conic sections would seem appropriate if you're looking to motivate some of the algebra that is on the horizon for your 7th grade students.

Answer 2

Although this has nothing to do with cross sections, it fits the physical materials:

You could have the students cut out shapes to illustrate constructive proofs of the Pythagorean theorem:

---

---

                      ^{(Images from a Steven Strogatz NYTimes article.)}

---

Another constructive proof is described in this MESE answer.