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4th grade · Science · Unit 11 of 11

Engineering Design

Criteria, constraints, comparing ideas and fair tests.

What your child practices

Practices the steps engineers use: defining a problem with criteria (what the design must do) and constraints (limits such as cost, time and materials), comparing several possible solutions, and planning fair tests that find a design's failure points so it can be improved.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 3-5-ETS1-1; 3-5-ETS1-2; 3-5-ETS1-3 · defining a design problem with criteria and constraints, comparing possible solutions, and running fair tests to find failure points

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Criteria tell engineers what a design must do to succeed.
  2. Constraints are limits, like time, cost or materials.
  3. Test a design, find what failed and improve it.
  4. Share designs and compare them to choose the one that best meets the criteria.

Example: A water filter must make muddy water clear. Is that a criterion or a constraint? It says what the filter must do to succeed. Answer: a criterion

Engineering Design in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 11 of 11 in 4th grade Science, after Energy Resources.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    Criteria tell engineers…

    • how long lunch is
    • which tools they cannot use
    • which team wins a game
    • what a design must do to succeed

  2. Question 2

    A criterion for an earthquake-safe building is that it…

    • is painted red
    • is the tallest in town
    • stays standing when the ground shakes
    • costs nothing

  3. Question 3

    Engineers share their designs with a team because…

    • teams always make designs worse
    • others may notice problems and improvements
    • sharing wastes time
    • no one else can help

  4. Question 4

    A failure point is…

    • the paint color
    • the price
    • the best part of the design
    • the part of a design that breaks or doesn't work

  5. Question 5

    Constraints are…

    • limits, like cost, time or materials
    • the final test score
    • the name of the design
    • goals the design must meet

  6. Question 6

    Car A rolls 120 cm, 118 cm and 122 cm. Car B rolls 90 cm, 150 cm and 60 cm. Which design is more consistent?

    • Both are equally consistent
    • Car A
    • Car B
    • Neither car

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