Materials Melting point

potassium 64

tin 232

aluminum 660

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Unit 1: Lesson 1 Science Study Guide

1. David is building a display case for his model cars and trucks, which are about 5 inches tall.

He draws a plan in which each shelf will be 3 inches tall. Why will he need to improve his

design?

A. He will have too many shelves in his display case.

B. His model cars and trucks are taller than 3 inches.

2. Sarah builds a paper bridge. She tests the bridge by rolling toy cars over it, but the bridge

collapses. What could Sarah use to help her bridge design?

A. She could use cardboard to make the bridge stronger.

B. She could use paper clips to make the bridge heavier.

3. Mark is building a wooden bookcase. He wants to place his large book collection on the

shelves. Which of these could Mark focus on?

A. wood type and color

B. shelf length and width

4. Kenzi wants to make a new motor for her toy car. The motor cannot get warmer than 120

degrees Fahrenheit, oF. Kenzi studies materials that she could use. Her data are in the table

below.

Which type of material should she use?

A. tin

B. potassium

5. The picture shows a bridge.

Which problem does building this bridge solve?

A. People need to be able to walk across the water.

B. People need place to roller skate up and down hills.

6. The city council wants to redesign a part of the city. They want many roads for people to

drive on. They want the school to have a large park. The picture below shows one design

made by engineers.

Does the design meet the two goals the city council wants?

A. The design does not have enough roads, so it’s

hard to go from one place to another. But,

the design puts a park by the school.

B. The design has plenty of roads for traffic flow

and it is easy to go from one place to another.

But, the design does not put a park by the

school.

7. Yoshi has to walk around a pond to get to the playground. The picture shows him thinking

like a scientist.

What is the problem Yoshi is trying to solve?

A. He needs to get to the playground without

getting his feet wet.

B. He needs to find another playground to go

to because it is too hard keeping his feet dry.

Other facts to review:

• The first step in the design process is to find a problem.

Before you can work on solving a problem, you should clearly know what you need or

want. When you design a solution, you need to test it to be sure it works. For difficult

problems, you should have specific criteria, or desirable features of the solution.

• Part of problem solving is identifying the constraints, or limits on the resources that you

can use to solve a problem. For example, people never have endless amounts of time,

money, or other resources to solve a problem.

• Vocabulary:

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Unit 1: Lesson 2 Science Study Guide

1. Tim built a paper airplane, but it doesn’t fly very well. He’s trying to think of ways to

improve it and asks some of his friends for ideas. Which step in the design process is he

using?

A. build a model

B. communicate

2. Kelly is an engineer who designed a new motor for a toy car. She notices that the motor gets

too hot after it runs for 15 minutes. As an engineer, what should she do?

A. communicate the results of the new motor design

B. research the problem.

3. Designers often work with other people. Why is working with others helpful in design?

A. There are more new ideas to think about.

B. There are fewer new ideas to think about.

4. Tommy is building a robot. When should Tommy research how to build it?

A. after he designs his plan

B. before he begins designing his plan

5. Brenda wants to build a paper bridge between two textbooks. What is the best way Brenda

could make her bridge stronger?

A. She could use straws under the bridge to help keep the bridge from collapsing when

toy cars cross it. The straws will hold up the paper when a toy car crosses the

bridge.

B. She could use two pieces of paper instead of one and make the bridge longer between

the two textbooks.

6. Engineers want to make a machine to wash dishes. They list the things they want the

machine to do.

1. clean the dishes well

2. cost less than $250

3. use less water

They research the problem and come up with a few designs. How should the engineers

decide which designs to build?

A. The engineers should think about how well their ideas meet the listed criteria and

build the design that best fits the criteria.

B. The engineers should begin to build the machine and test it to make sure it works.

Then, they should see if the machine meets all of their listed criteria.

7. Four groups of students use materials to build bridges. The table shows the materials and

results.

Why did Group #4’s design work so well?

A. The students used craft sticks to make the bridge more sturdy, so it held more cars.

B. The students communicated with the other groups.

Other facts to know:

• Sometimes the best way to begin solving a new problem is to look at how others have

solved similar problems. Good problem solvers also consider their constraints and criteria.

Once you come up with a model to solve your problem, you need to test it to see if it works

and if it meets all of your criteria.

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Unit 1: Lesson 3 Science Study Guide

1. Engineers design a plan and then test a prototype. Their data show that the prototype is not

working. What will the engineers do next?

A. start from the beginning

B. improve the design and test it again

2. What is the next step after an engineer designs and builds a prototype?

A. make drawings of the prototype

B. test the working prototype

3. Pax designed a box to keep a glass figurine from breaking when dropped from a distance

of 2 meters. He made drawings of his design. What should Pax do next?

A. build the box

B. collect and compare the test results

4. A scientist wants to keep hot chocolate hotter longer. She compared a new material to a

foam cup. She put boiling water in each cup and measured the temperature. Her data are

shown on the table below.

Does the data show that the new material is better than the foam?

A. Yes, the results show that the new material keeps the water at the same temperature

over time.

B. No, the results were the same for both cups.

5. Engineers build a prototype for a human-sized robot. They test the prototype. What should

they do next?

A. After testing the prototype, the engineers should evaluate the design to decide

whether building a full-scale robot is reasonable.

B. After testing the prototype, the engineers should rush to manufacture the full-scale

robot so they can sell it to customers.

6. Sam rolled a marble across a paper bridge.

The piece of paper fell of the books. How could Sam improve the paper bridge?

A. make the stack of books shorter

B. tape the paper to each stack of books

7. Martha has a problem with her automatic watering tool for her plants. The device is

supposed to water her plants a little at a time, but the water comes out too fast and floods

her plants. She designs a new watering device to water the plants more slowly and makes a

prototype. When she tests her prototype, what is the most important result she will watch

for?

A. how slowly the water comes out of it

B. how much it looks like the old automatic watering tool

Other facts to know:

• Engineers work to design and test solutions. Engineers can learn from failures because

failures are a way to make better and safer solutions.

• Problems often happen. Part of being an engineer is learning to accept that things get

better after a failure. Failure brings improvement.

• It is important to always communicate and record information about your design. Also,

keep track of any lessons you learned along the way.

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Unit 1 Science Study Guide

1. Tara’s bedroom door always slams shut when she has the window open. She decides to

make a doorstop. She doesn’t want the doorstop to scratch her wooden floor. Which

material is best for Tara to use?

A. a large brick

B. a large rock inside of a sock

2. A television stand is bolted to the floor, so it can’t be moved. The television has to be on the

stand. David and Cora work together to figure out how to plug the television into the outlet

that is across the room.

•David’s plan: Move the television across the room closer to the outlet and plug the

television into the outlet.

•Cora’s plan: Drag an extension cord across the room to plug into the outlet.

Which plan solves the problem based on the criterion?

A. Cora’s plan because the television needs to be on the stand and the stand is bolted to

the floor.

B. David’s plan because the television and stand can be easily moved.

3. Gary is trying to make a garden in his yard. He uses a shovel to remove some of the dirt.

The angle of the shovel hurts his back. He plans to design a shovel that will not hurt his

back. Which reason best explains why Gary wants to change the shovel?

A. It will earn him a lot of money when he sells it.

B. It will help him meet his needs.

4. Elizabeth needs to design a product that will keep the food from going down her drain when

she is cleaning dishes in her sink. What is her criterion?

A. The water must flow slowly.

B. The food must not go down the drain.

5. Cameron needs to give her plant as much sun as possible throughout the day. The pictures

show possible designs she could use for her plant. Compare the solutions. Which two (2)

letters show the best solutions for Cameron?

A. C and D

B. B and C

6. Mark is trying to fix his crayon sharpener that is jammed with a crayon. He wrote out his

plan.

1. Find where the sharpener is jammed.

2. Ask Susie for ideas on how to remove the broken crayon.

3. ?

4. Test the sharpener to see if it works again.

5. Redesign and repeat if it doesn’t work.

Which step should he write for step #3?

A. Remove the broken crayon from the sharpener.

B. Push another crayon into the sharpener to try to crush the broken piece into smaller

bits.

Step Action

1 B and C

2 D

3 A

4 ?

5 D

6 A

dirt

7. Harry wants to move his wagon easily through the dirt. He designed two types of tires, type

A and type B.

Harry wants to find out which tires work best in the dirt. He makes a list of things he could

try and makes the following table of steps:.

Which letters are missing from #4?

A. A and B

B. B and C

8. What is technology?

A. A real-world limit on the resources of a solution such as available time, money, or

materials.

B. Engineered products and processes that meet a want or need.

Weight in oz.

5

3

9. What is criteria (or criterion, if there is more than one)?

A. The desired features of a solution.

B. The process of using science and math to solve problems.

10. Lexy needs a light-weight rope to make a toy for her cat. She tests the weight of two types

of ropes. Her data are listed.

Which rope should Lexy use?

A. brand X, because it will be more sturdy

B. brand Y, because it weighs the least

11. People in town were having a hard time hearing the tornado siren in the middle of the night.

A new siren was designed. Picture 1 is the type of siren they had before. Picture 2 is the

type of siren they have now.

What are the improvements that were made to the new siren (Siren #2)?

A. The new siren has a larger speaker that lets sound travel in one direction.

B. The new siren has multiple speakers in a circle, allowing the sound to travel in all

directions.

12. Sally designed and built two birdhouses, as shown. She placed each 6 feet off the ground.

Sally watches the birds and notices that bluebirds do not visit Design 1. She studies the

needs of bluebirds. She lists the requirements for their homes.

•houses 4 inches wide by 4 inches deep and 10 inches tall.

•one opening that is 1.5 inches wide

•hung 4 to 6 feet off the ground

How can Design 1 be changed to meet the bluebirds’ needs?

A. Make the entry hole larger and the bird house taller. The entry hole should be at

least 1.5 inches and the bird house should be at least 10 inches tall.

B. Make the entry hole smaller and the bird house taller. The entry hole should be no

more than 1 inch and the bird house should be at least 12 inches tall.