Some Isometric Drawing Fun

The other day, my pre-algebra class had an excellent learning objective that helped them learn the concepts of surface area and volume. These are two extremely difficult concepts to "get" because you have to picture square units as well as cubic units when speaking of surface area and volume, respectively. In order to fully understand these huge topics, my students looked at isometric drawings and built them using Cuisaniare (sp?) blocks. Using these, the students could visualize the squares on the surface as well as the cubes that make up the volume. I believe it was 100% successful.