Worksheet

Hail Guards for the Okapi Care Room

Compare model hail guards for a zoo care room. Use damage, daylight, and cost evidence to judge designs and recommend further testing.

Grade 3ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to3-ESS3-1

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
13 questions
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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 compare test results to judge designs that reduce damage from hail.
Students use damage, daylight, and cost limits to choose a protective design.
Students support a design judgment with evidence and identify a model test's limits.

How to use

Read the investigation together, then have students use the graph and design records independently. Discuss why a successful model still needs more testing.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

3-ESS3-1

Judge a design that reduces the damage from a weather hazard such as floods, strong winds or lightning.

Preview

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Hail Guards for the Okapi Care Room

Use model-test results to judge protective designs.

A Small Model of a Big Problem

Read about the problem and the model test. Choose one answer for each question.

Protecting the Skylights

At a zoo, keepers prepare food in a care room beside the okapi habitat. Windows in the roof, called skylights, let daylight into the room. During a storm, falling hail cracked a skylight. Rain then dripped onto the work counter. The zoo wants a guard above each skylight that can reduce damage while letting daylight through.

A class built small models to compare guards. Tissue-paper squares stood for skylights. Tears in the tissue stood for damage. The class tested wide mesh, fine mesh, a clear panel, and solid card. Mesh is a material with many openings. They also tested an open frame with no guard.

For each design, the class tested ten new tissue windows. An adult dropped one soft clay ball above each window from the same marked height. The class used balls of the same size and kept the window size and guard height the same. They counted torn windows, then repeated the test twice with fresh tissue. Each design had thirty window tests altogether.

The class also measured light beneath each guard using the same lamp and meter. A higher meter score meant more light. These were indoor model tests, away from animals.

Which problem should the guard be designed to reduce?

A. Daylight shining onto the work counter
B. Hail striking and breaking a skylight
C. Keepers carrying food into the room
D. Warm air rising toward the skylight

Why did the class keep the clay balls the same size?

A. To make the guards cost the same amount
B. To make the light scores easier to read
C. To make the tissue act like a clear panel
D. To compare guards with similar falling objects

Another group drops balls from a low height for wide mesh and a high height for fine mesh. What is the problem with comparing those results?

A. Using two mesh designs makes counting tears harder.
B. Using soft balls makes the light readings higher.
C. Both the guard and the drop height have changed.
D. Both groups should reuse the torn tissue windows.

What Happened to the Windows?

Use the graph. Each bar shows the total torn windows from thirty tests. Fewer torn windows means less model damage.

How many fewer windows tore with fine mesh than with wide mesh? fewer windows

Select the two comparisons supported by the graph.

Wide mesh had half as many torn windows as the open frame.Fine mesh had more torn windows than wide mesh.The clear panel and solid card had equal numbers of torn windows.The open frame and wide mesh had equal numbers of torn windows.

Which pair tied for the least model damage?

A. Wide mesh and fine mesh
B. Open frame and wide mesh
C. Fine mesh and clear panel
D. Clear panel and solid card

The class repeats the same test with fresh tissue. Which prediction is best supported by the results?

A. Wide mesh will probably have more damage than an open frame.
B. Fine mesh will probably have less damage than an open frame.
C. Solid card will probably have more damage than fine mesh.
D. The clear panel will probably have more damage than wide mesh.

A student says, “The tallest bar shows the best protection.” Which correction uses the graph correctly?

A. The tallest bar shows the most light passing through.
B. The tallest bar shows the most window tests completed.
C. The tallest bar shows the most damage, not the best protection.
D. The tallest bar shows the highest cost, not the best protection.

Choose a Design for More Testing

Use the graph and the records below. A design must meet all three limits to be chosen.

Design limits
• Damage: no more than 3 torn windows in thirty tests.
• Daylight: a light score of 6 or higher.
• Cost: no more than 6 supply tokens for one model guard.

Class design records
Open frame — cost: 0 tokens; light score: 10
Wide mesh — cost: 2 tokens; light score: 9
Fine mesh — cost: 5 tokens; light score: 7
Clear panel — cost: 8 tokens; light score: 8
Solid card — cost: 4 tokens; light score: 0

Which guard meets the damage, daylight, and cost limits?

A. Fine mesh
B. Solid card
C. Wide mesh
D. Clear panel

10.

Each guard below fails one limit. Match the guard to the reason it fails.

Wide mesh
Clear panel
Solid card

A. Its light score is too low.
B. Too many model windows tore.
C. Its cost is too high.

11.

Suppose the class can spend up to 8 tokens instead of 6. The daylight limit stays the same. Which guard now gives the least model damage while meeting the cost and daylight limits?

A. Wide mesh
B. Solid card
C. Fine mesh
D. Clear panel

12.

The class wants to improve fine mesh so it has fewer tears but still meets the light and cost limits. Which plan would give the most useful evidence?

A. Test smaller mesh openings and count tears without measuring light or cost.
B. Test smaller mesh openings the same way, then check tears, light, and cost.
C. Test the same mesh with smaller balls, then compare it with the old results.
D. Test the same mesh from a lower height, then compare it with the old results.

13.

A worker says, “Fine mesh is worth testing further, but these results do not yet tell us how well it would protect a real skylight.” Explain both parts of the claim. Use numbers from the page and one difference between the model test and a real hailstorm.