The problem wants you to find the areas of the separate shapes, then add them all together.
First you can start with the rectangle, using the area formula l×w, where l equals 5 and w equals 4. 5×4 equals 20.
for the triangles a slightly different formula is used, .5b×h. in the top 2 triangles the formula becomes .5(3×4) which equals 6. 6 is the area of both triangles.
For the skinnier triangles on the sides, the formula is .5(5×1) which equals 2.5. 2.5 is the area of both triangles.
finally, we add all the areas to find the final area of the Pentagon. 20+6+6+2.5+2.5= 37.
The final answer is 37 square inches.