Build a 3D City Using Nets - Middle School Math Project

In this fun math project on 3D shapes, students will color and assemble 2D nets to form 3D figures.  Students will work collaboratively as architects who have been tasked with designing a new city.  They must create a scale model of their city and include all the required buildings.  They will choose a net for each building, color the net, cut it out, glue it together, and place the building on the layout they create (I gave my students pieces of cardboard). Students will state the 3D shape name and number of faces, vertices, and edges in their chart for each building.

I chose to focus on the concepts of identifying 3D shapes and numbers of faces, edges, and vertices.  However, this project can be easily differentiated and edited to include specific topics you want your students to focus on - such as volume, perimeter, and surface area!

Included in this editable project are student instructions, a grading checklist rubric, a student sample, and printable grid paper nets for the following shapes: Rectangular Prism, Triangular Prism, Cylinder, Square Pyramid, and Cube.

My students were so engaged in this project! They loved being creative working with their group and I loved hearing positive, math-centered conversations!  I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine did!