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A Better Latch for Trail Boxes worksheet preview

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A Better Latch for Trail Boxes

Compare mountain trail boxes, use magnetic test evidence, and define a design problem with clear goals and limits.

Grade 3ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to3-PS2-4

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What’s included

  • Single worksheet
  • Auto-graded online
  • 1 NGSS standard
  • Printable answer key
  • 13 questions
  • Classroom-ready

Details

Format
Interactive · Printable
Grade
Grade 3
Subject
Science
Question types
Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

  • Students define a trail-box problem that magnetic attraction could help solve.
  • Students identify success criteria and limits for a magnetic latch design.
  • Students use material and gap tests to choose and evaluate magnetic latch designs.

How to use

Read the trail-box description together. Have students use the material tests and graph to evaluate designs before writing their own problem statement.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

3-PS2-4

Define a simple design problem that magnets can solve.

Preview

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A Better Latch for Trail Boxes

Compare two trail boxes and define a problem magnets could solve.

Compare the Trail Boxes

Read about the boxes. Use the observations to decide what needs to change.

Route Cards on the Mountain

Hikers on a mountain trail stop at two wooden boxes to read route cards. The Pine Box has a steel tab on its rim. The Stone Box has an aluminum tab in the same place. Both boxes have wooden lids that lift up. Neither lid has a latch. The boxes are the same size.

Volunteers bring both boxes indoors to compare them. They use the same gentle fan, at the same distance and speed, to model a breeze. They close each lid and run the fan for ten seconds. They repeat this six times for each box. Each lid blows open in five of its six trials.

The volunteers want each lid to stay closed in all six fan trials. Hikers must still be able to lift it with one hand and remove a route card. The team must keep the wooden boxes. It may add no more than one large, enclosed magnet and one extra tab to each box. Nothing may be taped onto the cards. An adult will attach all parts firmly before hikers use the boxes.

1.
Which design problem best fits the volunteers' observations and goals?
  • A. Make the lids open more easily when a breeze blows.
  • B. Keep the lids shut in a breeze but easy to lift by hand.
  • C. Keep the lids shut so hikers cannot remove the cards.
  • D. Make larger boxes so the lids can hold more cards.
2.
What does comparing the first fan trials show?
  • A. The steel tab already keeps the Pine Box closed.
  • B. The aluminum tab keeps the Stone Box closed longer.
  • C. Only the Stone Box needs a way to hold its lid shut.
  • D. Both boxes have the same problem in this test.

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