DiscoverE
Emergency Shelter
Save yourself! Groups create a sturdy emergency shelter out of bamboo. The shelter must be large enough to fit one person. Now the most important question: Which member of the group gets to use the shelter in an emergency?
Teach Engineering
Live Like an Animal
When your parents say that your room's a pig sty, tell them about biomimicry. The sixth installment of a nine-part Life Science unit has scholars research the shelters used by animals in the natural world, like turtle shells. Using the...
Teach Engineering
Ranking the Rocks for Desired Properties
Math rocks! Cavern design teams determine the rankings of rock types based upon desirability points. The points are connected to the properties of the rocks and their usefulness in building a cavern.
Teach Engineering
Rocks, Rocks, Rocks: Test, Identify Properties and Classify
Time is growing short. Teams work together to identify physical properties of rocks in order to determine the properties that would best suit their cavern shelter design.
Curated OER
Building an African Compound
Students, in small groups create a model of a compound that might be found in a rural African village. As a class, students orally contribute to a summary paragraph on what they have learned about different forms of shelter found in Africa.
Curated OER
Rain Garden
Students build rain gardens. In this community service lesson, students study the effectiveness of rain gardens in allowing water to run off. Students build a community rain garden at their school.
Polk County Education
Winter Survival/Hike
Hibernation isn't just about staying fed, it's about staying warm. Young environmentalists explore the importance of staying warm in the wilderness with a short lesson about surviving in the wild. Using gelatin to represent warm-blooded...
Curated OER
Make A Farm
Students use legos to create a farm. In this farm lesson plan, students create farm animals, a fence, a barn, trees, and more.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Design Squad: Build: Speedy Shelter
This challenge is to design and build a sturdy emergency shelter that can fit one person and easy to build. Are you up to the challenge?
PBS
Pbs Kids: Design Squad: Build
Do you like to build and create new things? Check out this collection of 48 different engineering activities providing opportunities for creative building using things around the house. These include activities like spinning, rubber band...
University of Arizona
University of Arizona Press: Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings
Complete description of the book, "Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings." A great resource to assist in the study of shelter. Read an excerpt of the book, and a summary as well.
Read Works
Read Works: Reef Building
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about wildlife workers who are building artificial reefs to provide food and shelter for sea life. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Center Card: Build an Animal Habitat
Children design an animal habitat and talk about how the habitat provides the animal's basic needs -- shelter, water, and food -- using this block center activity. It includes three resources.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Design Squad Challenge: Speedy Shelter (Pdf)
This is a hands-on challenge to invent a sturdy emergency shelter that's easy to build. Provides a full list of materials with ideas on how to build, test, and redesign it if necessary. Activity focuses on the engineering design process...
PBS
Pbs Kids: Science Rocks: Build a Tent
This site provides instructions on how to build a tent including materials needed. It focuses primarily on a model tent but gives hints to adapt it to an outdoor tent that could provide shelter from the weather.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Testing the Caverns
Students build model caverns and bury them in a tray of sand. They test the models by dropping balls onto them to simulate an asteroid hitting the Earth. By molding papier-mache or clay around balloons (to form domes), or around small...
Read Works
Read Works: Tornado Scientists
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about tornadoes and the scientists who study them. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Home, Sweet Home!
In this activity, the students will use wax paper shaped as leaves and kite string to build a shelter to protect them from the rain. The students will then test the shelters for durability and water resistance.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Live Like an Animal
In this activity, students design an innovative human shelter that is inspired and informed by an animal structure. Each group is assigned an animal class, and they gather information about shelters used by the animals in that class....
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Cold Room? Heat It Up With a Homemade Solar Air Heater
Humans need food, water, and warm shelter to survive. But a lot of humans depend on fossil fuels to supply gas and electricity to heat our homes. But burning fossil fuels to create energy is harmful to the environment. In this science...
Read Works
Read Works: Native American
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about historical Native American daily life including: clothing, beliefs, food, shelter, and goods. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading...