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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.

Maine Learning Results 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 Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, 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: Maine 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

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

    • variable
    • criterion
    • constraint
    • conclusion

  2. Question 2

    A failure point is…

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

  3. Question 3

    In engineering, constraints are…

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

  4. Question 4

    After a test fails, an engineer should…

    • change the criteria to match
    • give up
    • improve the design and test again
    • hide the results

  5. Question 5

    A fair test changes…

    • every variable
    • no variables
    • the results
    • only one variable at a time

  6. Question 6

    Three egg-drop designs: A broke 2 of 5 eggs, B broke 0 of 5, C broke 4 of 5. Which is best?

    • A
    • They are all equal
    • B
    • C

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