Under the new math curricula some solid geometry course issues (simple geometric body surface and volume calculation, straight lines and planes between positions) already dealt eight-year school. Teaching solid geometry material to students at eight-year school is of great importance in terms of polytechnic education and, therefore, consideration of this material must be appropriately addressed.
There are substantial differences between the RSFSR and our national programs
regarding this question. RYSFR eight-year schools focus on solid geometry in the geometry classes of grades 7-8; meanwhile, the schools of our republic teach solid geometry in the arithmetic classes of grades 5-7 and geometry in 8th grade. Our schools pay much less attention to this material than they do in the RTFSR; certain topics are completely absent from the curricula, e.g. cones and spheres.
Because of the differences in teaching solid geometry our local math teachers are unable to fully utilize the solid geometry text books written in Russian. Our own methodical and pedagogical publishers do not cover this material at all. Because solid geometry has to be taught inductively at eight-year schools, a method that not all math teachers are used to, some things may be unclear to them. Teaching these topics is further complicated because the only textbook available is a translations of Nikitinas's Russian language solid geometry book, which is not adapted to our schools.
The main purpose of this article is to familiarize the reader with the principles at play in our Republic regarding math teachers explaining solid geometry, as well as to examine the most suitable methods of proving geometric body surface and volume formulas in this stage of education. Based on experience acquired teaching solid geometry in certain Leningrad schools as well as Lithuanian ones, we came to the conclusion some parts of Nikitinas's textbook must be rejected; the examination of spatial body surface and volume formulas is based on evidence collected using the limits theorem which is not addressed in eight-year school because of its complexity. We would suggest replacing this evidence with experimentation verified by demonstration. The experimental method requires much time to convince the students of the correctness of formulas, but it enables them to memorize solid geometry matters better and more consciously. The article describes various formula verification techniques that we use in practice.