Lesson Idea | Engineering Design Challenge - Straw Glider I

This lesson, Engineering Design Challenge - Straw Glider I, introduces students in grades 3–5 to the engineering design process by guiding them through building, testing, and improving a simple straw glider. Working in teams, students learn to ask questions, brainstorm solutions, plan their designs, create and test their gliders, and make improvements based on results. The activity encourages hands-on problem-solving, teamwork, and creativity while connecting to science, technology, and math standards. Designed for elementary classrooms, it helps students develop a basic understanding of engineering concepts through fun, structured experimentation.

Standards

Ohio Learning Standards/Technology (2017)
Design and Technology
3-5.DT.1.b. Give examples of how requirements for a product can limit the design possibilities for that product.
3-5.DT.1.c. Describe a process as a series of actions and how it is used to produce a result.
3-5.DT.2.a. Critique needs and opportunities for designing solutions.
3-5.DT.2.b. Plan and implement a design process: identify a problem, think about ways to solve the problem, develop possible solutions, test, and evaluate solution(s), present a possible solution, and redesign to improve the solution.
3-5.DT.2.c. Generate, develop and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate terms and graphical representations.

Ohio Learning Standards/Science (2018)
Expectations for learning
Nature of Science

Physical Science
5.PS.1: Force and Motion

Ohio Learning Standards/Mathematics (2017)
Measurement and Data
4.MD.1: Express a larger measurement unit in terms of a smaller unit.
6.SP.5.c. Find the quantitative measures of center (median and/or mean).