Lesson 16 of 84 · Human Impacts on Earth
Lesson⭐ 30 XP🌿 Wild JungleEngineering Constraints and Criteria
Human Impacts on Earth.
🎯 Your mission
Understand the idea. Then look for it everywhere.
⚡ The twist
Living things break the rules of non-living things — find the rule they break.
Mind = Blown
🦠 You have more bacterial cells in your body than human cells.
Make a hypothesis first
Predict: what will happen to the plant if you change the water?
What You'll Learn
Engineers must consider constraints (limitations like cost, time, and materials) and criteria (requirements the solution must meet) when designing solutions to problems.
Key Words
- criteria
- iteration
Steps
Read about Human Impacts on Earth and write down three key facts.
Conduct a design challenge: build a car powered only by a balloon. Measure how far it travels and iterate on your design at least twice.
Watch carefully for any changes and note the time.
Create a data table to organize your measurements.
Check Your Understanding
Question 1
1 of 3What is peer review?
Where you see this in real life
This is why plants grow toward windows and why scabs form.
Stretch Challenge
Try this in real life this week.
Watch a plant or pet for 5 minutes today and write down what you noticed.
For the dinner table
“Tell me something you noticed about your own body today.”
Next Smart Experiment
We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.
Share this experiment
Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.
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