Today for our STEM unit we got to pretend we were material engineers and look at properties of objects. We then looked at how if we changed materials how the new properties would affect the way the object worked. For example we talked about the properties of a spoon and we discussed what would be different if the spoon was made of paper, rock, or glass. We also talked about how some properties are important to how an object works and some are just for looks. For example we looked at a quilt. The weight of the material is important to if the blanket will keep you warm but the color is not. Here are the anchor charts of the class' thinking.

Then we continued with our jobs as material engineers. To we took 3 materials (brick, paper, and straw) and brainstormed their properties. Then we decided if they would be a good material to keep you warm based on their properties and had to defend our thinking with proof. Here is our work.