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9th grade · Science · Unit 20 of 28

Engineering for Sustainability

Designing solutions that reduce human impact on Earth.

What your child practices

Practices how engineers tackle big challenges such as clean water and pollution: setting criteria and constraints, breaking a problem into smaller parts, using models and computer simulations to test ideas and manage resources sustainably, and refining technologies that reduce human impacts on natural systems.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: HS-ESS3-3; HS-ESS3-4; HS-ETS1-1; HS-ETS1-2; HS-ETS1-4 · managing resources sustainably, refining technologies that reduce human impacts, and designing solutions to large challenges with criteria, constraints and simulations

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A growing population needs more water, food and energy.
  2. Engineers set criteria and constraints, break problems into parts and test with models.
  3. Good solutions, like fishing limits, let resources renew themselves.

Example: How do fishing limits help fish populations? Fewer fish are caught. More survive to have young. Answer: they let enough fish survive to reproduce

Engineering for Sustainability in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 20 of 28 in 9th grade Science, after Air Masses & Fronts and before Moon, Tides & Seasons.

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

    Sustainable resource use means…

    • using only fossil fuels
    • meeting today's needs without harming future generations
    • using everything up quickly
    • never using resources

  2. Question 2

    Which reduces the impact of farm runoff on rivers?

    • Removing all trees
    • Planting strips of plants along streams
    • Paving the fields
    • Adding more fertilizer

  3. Question 3

    Criteria are…

    • the cost of materials only
    • the limits on a solution
    • the final product
    • what a solution must do to succeed

  4. Question 4

    Engineers break a complex problem into smaller parts so they can…

    • avoid solving it
    • skip testing
    • solve each part and combine the solutions
    • make it harder

  5. Question 5

    Which is a global challenge engineers work on?

    • Supplying clean drinking water
    • Picking a song
    • Choosing a favorite color
    • Naming a pet

  6. Question 6

    A new filter cuts car pollution by 40% but doubles the cost. Engineers might refine it by…

    • removing the benefit
    • finding cheaper materials that keep most of the benefit
    • doubling the pollution
    • stopping all testing

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