Lesson 50 of 84 · Engineering and Design
Lesson⭐ 30 XP🛠️ Engineer ShopHow Light Travels (Part 3)
Engineering and Design.
🎯 Your mission
Master the concept. Use it tomorrow.
⚡ The twist
The first design always fails. That's the point.
Mind = Blown
🛠️ The first computer bug was a literal moth stuck inside a machine in 1947.
Make a hypothesis first
Guess: what's the weakest part of this build?
What You'll Learn
Light travels in straight lines and can be reflected, refracted, or absorbed. Mirrors reflect light, lenses refract (bend) light, and dark surfaces absorb light.
Key Words
- data
- observation
Steps
Read about Engineering and Design and write down three key facts.
Design an experiment to test a hypothesis. Identify your independent variable, dependent variable, and controls. Run the experiment and present results.
Compare the before and after states.
Write your conclusion: did the results match your hypothesis? What would you change next time?
Check Your Understanding
Question 1
1 of 3What is sound?
Where you see this in real life
Your phone, your bike, your shoes — all designed with this idea.
Stretch Challenge
Try this in real life this week.
Build something — anything — out of stuff in your recycling bin.
For the dinner table
“What's something around the house you'd redesign — and how?”
Next Smart Experiment
We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.
Share this experiment
Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.
Checkout complete lesson on Engineering and Design for 5th Grade
Get the full Engineering and Design track as a printable PDF — all lessons, worksheets, and answer keys.