Busy Beavers: An Engineering Design Challenge
Grade Levels: 4-6
Beavers are often called “nature’s engineers” due to their remarkable ability to change their habitat. This keystone species has amazing adaptations that enable it to survive and thrive, especially in the northeast, and students may have seen evidence of beavers in their community. This lesson aims to introduce students to beaver adaptations and then focus on the engineering aspect of building dams. After learning why and how beavers build dams in the wild, students will design their own dam using provided materials, work with a team on a unifying design, and build, test, re-design, and re-test their dams.
Full program (Part 1 and 2) – 2 hours
Part 1: Beavers in the Ecosystem – 1 hour
– focuses on the food chains, adaptations, and ecology of the beaver and explores how and why they build dams.
2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Standards Performance Expectations:
- 4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
- 5-PS3-1: Use a model to describe that the food animals digest (a) contains energy that was once energy from the sun, and (b) provides energy and nutrients for life processes, including body repair, growth, motion, body warmth, and reproduction.
- MS-LS2-1: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of periods of abundant and scarce resources on the growth of organisms and the size of populations in an ecosystem.
Part 2: Engineering Design Challenge – 1 hour
– an engineering challenge in which the students take inspiration from the beavers and work in teams to design, test, and re-design their own dam
2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Standards Performance Expectations:
- 3-5-ETS1-1: Define a simple design problem that reflects a need or a want. Include criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost that a potential solution must meet.
- 3-5-ETS1-2: Generate several possible solutions to a given design problem. Compare each solution based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the design problem.
- 3-5-ETS1-3: Plan and carry out tests of one or more design features of a given model or prototype in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify which features need to be improved. Apply the results of tests to redesign a model or prototype
Program Fee
Full program – Part 1 and 2 on same day: $340 + travel fee
Part 1 and 2 – On separate days: $175/Part + travel fee