Subscribe

5th grade · Science · Unit 9 of 9

Engineering Challenges

Criteria, constraints, fair tests and better designs.

What your child practices

Practices the engineering design process: defining a problem with criteria and constraints, comparing possible solutions, and planning fair tests that control variables and find failure points.

Alaska content standards learning standard: 3-5-ETS1-1; 3-5-ETS1-2; 3-5-ETS1-3 · defining a design problem with criteria and constraints, comparing solutions, and running fair tests

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. First, define the problem clearly, like “How can we keep an egg safe if dropped 2 m?”
  2. Brainstorm several solutions so you can compare them.
  3. In a fair test, keep everything the same except the design.
  4. Use the results to improve the best design.

Example: You test three paper bridges. What should stay the same? Only the bridge design should change. Keep the weights and the gap they span the same. Answer: the weights and the gap

Engineering Challenges in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 9 of 9 in 5th grade Science, after Matter Moves in Ecosystems.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A water filter must make muddy water clear. This is a…

    • variable
    • constraint
    • conclusion
    • criterion

  2. Question 2

    Why brainstorm several solutions?

    • To finish faster with one idea
    • To compare ideas and pick the best one
    • To avoid testing
    • To make it cost more

  3. Question 3

    Which tool helps compare designs against criteria?

    • A microscope
    • A compass
    • A thermometer only
    • A table with a score for each criterion

  4. Question 4

    A failure point is…

    • the price
    • where a design stops working
    • the best part of a design
    • the color

  5. Question 5

    You may spend no more than $5 on materials. This is a…

    • criterion
    • constraint
    • result
    • hypothesis

  6. Question 6

    A test of paper towels uses hot water for one and cold for another. What is wrong?

    • Towels can't be tested
    • More than one variable changed
    • Nothing is wrong
    • It used too few towels

More 5th grade