A neat way to help students internalize a cubic centimeter is to make paper cubic centimeters, aka Groovy Cubes. All my classes made them this week and we strung them together on thread. I’ll hang them up tomorrow in the classroom. We also discussed how one cubic centimeter will hold one milliliter of pure water and the water’s mass will be one gram.

First, cut out the pattern and fold. The hard part is taping them into a cube. Get some thread and a needle and start stringing.