Science 3: Building Materials

Help keep the Fidgits safe during a hurricane or earthquake. You need to design a way to bring emergency supplies to the trapped Fidgits. You'll need to design and build to get to the Fidgits.

Through this lesson, students will explore the forces of gravity and buoyancy while designing a raft to hold the most weight possible.

Ayoung designer named Nick demonstrates a painless process for designing and constructing attractive, sturdy chairs from cardboard.

What are the physical properties of materials? This video presents not only the definitions of physical properties but also concrete examples.

Here you will find activities are hands-on challenges that focus on the engineering design process and videos that explain building concepts. Teacher resources accompany each video

What can you make with things around the classroom or house? First, choose an activity you are interested in. Next, choose an item and spin the wheel to see what you could make.

What are manmade things? What are natural things? How can you tell which is which

Learn about many of the natural and man-made materials that you will see in the world

Learn about Natural and Man Made objects. Get practice with sorting through

Learn about what materials are made by nature and what materials are made (manufactured) by people.

The orange arrows will move the slide show or you can let the images change on their own. After the slide show, test your understanding of natural resources.

By building canoes using only materials harvested from the land, Indigenous peoples are connecting to the past and ensuring their culture survives.

Watch to see how Inuit peoples made igloos out of the snow.

A teepee is a structure, traditionally made of animal skins upon wooden poles and a smoke flap at the top. Learn about them in this video

An animated Ted Ed video that explains the way that snow can be used to keep you warm in the winter.

Resources for teachers to use with students to explore how things can be built with different kinds of materials. Click an image rather than a link to bypass the sign-in prompt

A lesson plan for teachers that will guide students in learning about building with materials and about different kinds of energy.

This lesson plan provides students with the opportunity to learn about the traditional skill of igloo building through experiential land-based learning.

This lesson will explore traditional Indigenous materials and techniques used in building everyday objects. Activity Sheet; Card Game

Here you will find activities are hands-on challenges that focus on the engineering design process and videos that explain building concepts. Teacher resources accompany each video

Students construct simple structures based on the light-but-strong design of the geodesic dome using gumdrops and toothpicks.