First Grade: Solids and Liquids
STEM Investigation – Lesson 2
What is an Engineer and what do they do?
60 minutes
Area of Focus
Overview
Explanation
Overview: Students will have opportunities to explore the work of engineers as well
as various kinds of engineering. They will look at pictures of towers and design a tower
with limited materials from the marshmallow challenge. Students discuss problems they
encountered in building a tower and will watch a Rube Goldberg video.
Standards
Science:
 K-1 APPC A problem may have more than one acceptable solution.
 K-1 SYSA Living and nonliving things are made of parts. People give names to
the parts that are different from the name of the whole object, plant, or
animal.
 K-1 SYSB Some objects can easily be taken apart and put back together again
while other objects cannot be taken apart with damaging them.
CCSS ELA:
 1 SL.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about
grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups
Learning Target
Assessment
Materials

Completion of the Problem Solving Design sheet and attempting the marshmallow tower.
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Vocabulary
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I can explain what an engineer is and what they do.
Pictures of Eiffel Tower, Space Needle, Tower of London
For each team of 2,3, or 4 student the following materials: 10 pieces of dry spaghetti,
1 meter of masking tape; 1 meter of string; 1 marshmallow
Engineering Design Process sheet, one per student
Internet access
Engineer- someone who designs an object or process to solve a problem
Design- an idea for a specific purpose
System- parts that work together to create something whole
Area of Focus
What is an engineer?
Student engineers
Explanation
Teacher Notes
Engage
 Remind students of materials they looked at in lesson 1 in
the Mystery Bags. Introduce the vocabulary word Engineer.
Discuss what problems were solved by the items in the
Mystery Bags.
 Explain that there are different types of Engineers – they all
work to design something to solve a problem – but they
work on different problems.
 Show students pictures of towers and ask, “Why would
someone build a tower like one of these?”
Towers can be built to
bring people in like the
World’s Fair; they are
used to support large
electronic materials;
they give a view of a
large area; they are
used to keep people.
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
Looking at a student
engineer.
Engineers
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Tell students they will be engineers today and work in a
group. Engineers need to work with others to get ideas and
the students need to work together.
Tell students that their group will need to make the tallest
structure they can in 18 minutes. Tell them they will have:
10 pieces of dry spaghetti, 1 meter of masking tape; 1
meter of string; 1 marshmallow (you might tell them they
will each get another marshmallow at the end of the
activity).
Explore
 Hand out one copy of the Engineering Design Process
sheet and read with students. Introduce them to the steps.
Give them time to talk to their team, draw an idea
independently, and then discuss which idea they will use.
 Have students gather materials and start the timer. Give
them 18 minutes. When time is up measure the towers for
the tallest.
 Ask if anyone has an idea for Step 6 (from sheet) and how
they might improve a design.
Explain
 Tell students they are going to watch a video of a boy
named Rube Goldberg who is an engineer. Tell them as
they watch it to think about what problem he is solving.
Show video:
http://teachscience4all.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/audrisrube-goldberg-video
Evaluate
 Ask students what an engineer does (designs something
to solve a problem).
 Can anyone be an engineer?
 Do they think it would be a fun job?
 What problem did they solve when they made their
tower?
Any reasonable
response is
acceptable.
Remind students to
use words that
support each other
ideas. We usually
don’t know if things
work out until we try
them.
Collect Design Process
sheet for later
assessment.
Engineering Design Process
Name: ____________________________________
You are going to design a tower with your team using the materials from your teacher. First,
you must design your tower.
The Engineering Design Process has 6 steps.
Step 1: Define the problem: The problem is you need to create the tallest FREE STANDING
structure with the materials you have in 18 minutes.
Step 2: Gather information: Think about your materials and think about the tower pictures
you looked at.
Step 3: Imagine and Explore: Talk to your team and brainstorm ideas.
Step 4: Make a plan: Draw a diagram of how you think your tower should be built. Think
about your materials and label them.
Step 5: Create and test: Talk with your team and decide which plan you will follow. Start when
your teacher tells you to begin.
Step 6: Improve your design: Think of what might work better if you could change your design.
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