Engineering and Design
7th Grade Science · 5 lessons
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Lessons
- 1Control Groups in ExperimentsA controlled experiment compares an experimental group that receives the treatment with a control group that does not. The control group acts as a baseline, so any difference in results can be traced to the variable being tested.Lesson
- 2Quadrats and Estimating PopulationsCounting every organism in a field is impossible, so ecologists count within randomly placed quadrats and scale up by area. Random placement matters: putting quadrats where the plants look best guarantees an overestimate.Experiment
- 3Reading a Sustainability Trade-offAlmost every environmental choice trades one harm against another. Biofuel cuts fossil carbon but competes with food crops for land; hydroelectricity is clean to run but floods valleys. Naming the trade-off is the analysis.Lesson
- 4Optimising Against Several CriteriaReal designs are judged on several criteria at once, and the best compromise depends on which matter most. Scoring each option against weighted criteria makes the reasoning visible instead of leaving it to instinct.Lesson
- 5Safety Factors in EngineeringEngineers design structures to carry several times the load they will ever meet, because materials vary, loads are uncertain and failure is expensive. A safety factor of four means the design would survive four times its rated load.Experiment
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