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5th grade · Science · Unit 10 of 10

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.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 5.P3U2.5 · defining problems and designing solutions about force and motion

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 Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 10 of 10 in 5th grade Science, after Traits & Variation.

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: Arizona Department of Education

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

    Which question defines a clear problem?

    • How can we keep an egg safe if dropped 2 m?
    • Is this fun?
    • Who is tallest?
    • What color is nice?

  2. Question 2

    Which tool helps compare designs against criteria?

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

  3. Question 3

    In engineering, constraints are…

    • the winners
    • the test results
    • the goals of the design
    • limits such as cost, time or materials

  4. Question 4

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

    • constraint
    • conclusion
    • criterion
    • variable

  5. Question 5

    You test three paper bridges. What should stay the same?

    • The results
    • Nothing
    • The bridge design you change
    • The weights and the gap they span

  6. Question 6

    You test a boat with more and more pennies until it sinks. You are looking for its…

    • failure point
    • name
    • color
    • price

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