OwlSheets
A Pickup Tool for the Snowplow Garage worksheet preview

WorksheetPremium

A Pickup Tool for the Snowplow Garage

Use material tests and a graph to define a magnetic pickup-tool problem for a snowy town's snowplow garage.

Grade 3ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned to3-PS2-4

Buy this worksheet: $1.50

Or unlock every Premium worksheet with Premium

PrintUnlock to print
Answer keyUnlock to see answers
Assign to classUnlock to assign with a class code

What’s included

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

Details

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

About this worksheet

What students practice

  • Students define a pickup-tool design problem that magnetic attraction could help solve.
  • Students identify success goals and limits for a magnetic pickup tool.
  • Students use material tests and retrieval data to evaluate possible designs.

How to use

Read the garage problem together. Have students compare the material tests and graph, then write a design problem with a goal, a limit, and supporting evidence.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

3-PS2-4

Define a simple design problem that magnets can solve.

Preview

OwlSheets.com

Name Date

A Pickup Tool for the Snowplow Garage

Use test evidence to define a problem magnets could solve.

What Needs to Change?

Read about the garage. Use the observations to identify the problem, goals, and limits.

A Washer Under the Shelf

Snow covers the streets of Maple Crossing. Inside the town's snowplow garage, workers prepare the plows for another trip. Sometimes a small steel washer, a flat ring used with a bolt, rolls under a fixed parts shelf. The shelf cannot be moved during a repair. The opening beneath it is too low for a worker's gloved hand.

A worker named Nia tries sliding a wooden stick toward a washer. The stick pushes the washer farther under the shelf. The garage team wants a tool that can bring the washer back out while the worker's hand stays outside the opening. Students build a dry cardboard model of the space under the shelf. They place a steel washer 16 centimeters inside the opening for each trial.

For the model test, the tool should bring the washer completely out in at least seven of eight trials. It must use one existing rod: 10, 20, or 30 centimeters long. The finished tool must be no longer than 25 centimeters to fit its storage tray. The team may add one large, enclosed magnet. An adult must attach it firmly, with no loose parts.

1.
Which design problem best fits the garage team's needs?
  • A. Make a tool that pushes washers farther beneath the shelf.
  • B. Make a tool that retrieves washers without reaching a hand underneath.
  • C. Make a larger shelf that stores more washers during repairs.
  • D. Make a tray that stores washers beneath the fixed shelf.
2.
Which observation shows why simply repeating Nia's wooden-stick method may not solve the problem?
  • A. The washer is a flat ring used with a bolt.
  • B. The town's streets are covered with snow.
  • C. The garage has a tray for storing tools.
  • D. The stick moved the washer away from the opening.

The preview shows the first questions. Unlock the worksheet to see all of it.

Related worksheets