Designing Shelters for UV-Sensitive Animals – STEM Building Challenge

In this engaging and educational science experiment, students will explore how shelters can protect living things from the sun’s harmful effects. Specifically, they will investigate how different shelter designs can shield UV-sensitive animals from ultraviolet (UV) radiation. By applying the scientific method, students will work in small groups to design, create, and test a shelter to protect an animal from high levels of UV exposure.

This resource focuses on the following key learning objectives:

• Understand the importance of shelters in protecting living organisms from environmental factors like UV radiation.
• Investigate how different materials and designs can offer protection from the elements.
• Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills through hands-on activities.
• Use observation and data recording to make predictions and conclusions.

How It Works: In our awesome engineering projects, students will:

1. Design a Shelter: Work in small groups to design a shelter for a hypothetical UV-sensitive animal (such as a tiny insect, amphibian, or reptile).
2. Make Predictions: Before building their shelters, students will predict which materials or designs will best protect their animals from UV rays.
3. Construct the Shelter: Students will create their shelter using materials provided in the resource or classroom supplies.
4. Test and Observe: Students will test the shelters using UV-sensitive indicators (e.g., UV-sensitive beads or paper) to measure how well their shelters protect from UV exposure.
5. Record Results: Throughout the experiment, students will record their predictions, observations, and results using the printable worksheets provided.

Download and Print Your Awesome Engineering Projects!

This resource is available as a printable PDF and Editable Google Slides resource file. To get your copy, click the dropdown arrow on the download button and select your preferred file type.

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan and Teach Starter Collaborator.

Looking for more? Make sure you check out these awesome engineering projects to bring a bit of scientific fun to your classroom today!

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