Rice Krispy Treats in a cone

I really wanted my students to "see" exactly how a conic section is created. Yes, I could show them this visual

taken from Wikepedia

but what exactly does that mean, and again, HOW does that happen.

So, after reading a blog (I completely forget who's blog it was), I decided to buy conical shaped paper cups and stuff them with rice krispy treats. (I made one for each student. I hadn't realized how much rice krispy treats I would have to make, and how time consuming that job was. Thank God for Michelle Maher @mmaher19923 for helping me.)

The students were then given a paper plate, a plastic knife, and a conical shaped rice krispy treat to dissect. I had the students look back at the definitions of each and asked them to cut their treat into the 4 different conic sections. I had the students take pictures of their conic sections as they went, and post to a padlet.

Did this activity make them understand conic sections any better than the students that have come before them? I am not sure, but it certainly was fun, it made for a lot of laughter, and it was done on a day when majority of the students were taking some type of state test. Very low stress.

Will I do the activity again? Absolutely!