What strategy should Mrs. Nadir use to help her students excel in calculating the surface area of rectangular prisms?

The best strategy for Mrs. Nadir is to reinforce how to determine the area of rectangles and then procedurally add the areas of the faces of a block. This approach helps students build a solid foundation in understanding the concepts involved in calculating surface area.

By first ensuring that students are comfortable with calculating the area of rectangles, which are the fundamental components of a rectangular prism, they can then apply that knowledge to find the areas of the six faces of the prism. This hands-on, step-by-step method allows students to visualize and physically see how each rectangular face contributes to the total surface area, promoting deeper understanding and retention.

Moreover, breaking down the surface area calculation into manageable parts—calculating the area of each rectangle (the faces) and then summing these areas—aligns with effective teaching practices that favor incremental learning. This systematic approach also helps students develop problem-solving skills, as they learn that complex figures can be analyzed by dissecting them into simpler shapes.

In contrast, determining the surface area of cubes alone does not sufficiently prepare students for rectangular prisms, which have more varied dimensions. Teaching the formula without building the underlying skills of area calculation could lead to misunderstandings. Additionally, shifting focus to spheres at this stage would detr