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Fall STEAM Challenge - Wildlife Rescue!
Welcome to our Fall STEAM Challenge!
Attention, Wildlife Rescue Engineers!
A local wildlife rescue team has received an emergency call. A small animal has been injured and is stranded in an area that is difficult — and unsafe — for people to reach.
The rescue team needs your help.
You have been asked to design a rescue device that can safely move the animal from one location to another without touching the animal directly with your hands.
But there’s a catch...
The animal is fragile, the terrain is tricky, and your rescue device must be strong enough to carry its passenger safely.
Your mission is to plan, build, test, and improve a device that can rescue the animal and deliver it safely to the wildlife care team.
The animal is counting on you!
🐾 Your Challenge
🐾 Your Challenge
Can you design a device that safely transports a rescued animal from Point A to Point B without touching the animal directly?
Your rescue device must:
Safely hold the animal
Move the animal from the starting point to the rescue zone
Keep the animal from falling
Be operated without directly touching the animal during the rescue
Be tested and improved by your engineering team
Wildlife Rescue Engineers — your mission begins now!
Objective: Students will design a device that safely transports a rescued animal from Point A to Point B without touching the animal directly.
Many students will try to just "shovel" it up - this is ok for younger students, but for older students we want them to think beyond that.
The No-Touch Rescue: Create a "Danger Zone" - Students must design a device that can reach into the zone, grab/support the animal, and bring it back to safety. They must operate the rescue device from OUTSIDE the Danger Zone.
Think:
long-handled scoop
grabber
sling
basket on a string
lifting mechanism
claw
"stretcher" that slides underneath
This activity should be done multiple times. Once they try to rescue it, they should analyze how successful their design is and see if they can redesign it to be a better design.
Helpful Links:
Watch some videos about simple machines to help them get some ideas of the device they might want to make:
Simple Machines: Levers (2:45)
What is a Lever: Acrobatic Science for Kids (5:45) (more about equilibrium)
Simple Machines for Kids (7:00)
Here is also a video about Wildlife Rescues - it's a short one about a fox that got a leg and tail trapped in some netting, how they rescued him and nursed him back to health! (6:24)
Possible Materials:
Craft sticks (different sizes)
cardboard pieces or small paper plates
Tape (scotch, masking, blue, etc.) or Glue
Scissors
Rubber Bands
Straws, Pipe Cleaners, String/yarn
A Stuffed Animal (or of various sizes)
Small weights or counters (coins, beans, buttons)
Where can you get materials (other than purchasing it all yourself)?
Ask students to each bring in something
Ask parents to donate items
Science Center - I can give you many of these basic items! Just give me a bit of notice...
See if anything is already in your school's STEAM Lab
Don't forget about the Engineering Design Process! Give them time to IMPROVE their designs, to TEST them out, and SHARE their results!
Engineers and scientists and many other people in multiple industries do this all the time!
This is also a great time to talk about FAILURE!
Failure is part of life! Failure is OK and good for us! Famous people, inventors, heroes, and more FAIL all the time! We would never improve if we didn't fail!
Extensions:
Students can continue to adjust their designs to rescue a larger animal, from further away, or in different terrain such as over a ravine. If they were required to move it to a different location, make the location further away. You could also change the season or weather (even if this is the Fall Challenge!) - how would their device need to be different in the snow or rain?
Careers:
Mechanical Engineer: They design and build machines or devices, like automated systems used in factories or recycling plants.
Wildlife Rehabilitator: Cares for injured or orphaned wild animals and helps them recover so they can return to the wild.
Wildlife Biologist: Studies wild animals, their habitats, and how human activities affect wildlife populations.
Environmental Scientist: They study the environment and how humans impact it, working to protect natural resources and public health
Environmental Engineer: Develops solutions to environmental problems and designs systems that help protect people, animals, and ecosystems.
Search and Rescue Specialist: Uses specialized equipment and problem-solving skills to locate and safely rescue people or animals in difficult environments.
Share with parents or during STEAM Night or Open House! Have students show how they made their rescue devices. Maybe even set up a station for the families to try to make their own!
See the STEM Challenge Resources page for:
More on the Engineering Design Process
Planning Tools
Pre and Post Activity Ideas
Don't forget to REFLECT!
Don't forget to REFLECT!
Questions to ask the students:
What was the most effective design? Why?
Was there something that worked well for each group?
Is there a material that would have worked well that we didn't have?
What frustrated you about this challenge?
If we did this challenge again in a month, what would you do differently?
How well do you think your group collaborated, cooperated, and communicated to each other?
How was this challenge about perseverance?
Why Reflect in STEM?
Why Reflect in STEM?
Reflection in STEM is essential to both student understanding and teacher evaluation of students’ learning. Reflecting helps students make connections, understand their successes and failures, and become aware of their learning. Reflections help teachers identify where different students are in their learning process.
MOST IMPORTANTLY - HAVE FUN!!!
K–2 NGSS Connections
K–2 NGSS Connections
K-LS1-1 – Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals need to survive.
K-PS2-1 – Pushes & pulls can change the motion of an object.
K-2-ETS1-1 – Ask questions and define a simple design problem.
K-2-ETS1-2 – Develop simple sketches/models to show how the device works.
K-2-ETS1-3 – Test and compare different solutions.
3–5 NGSS Connections
3–5 NGSS Connections
3-PS2-1 – Balanced and unbalanced forces affect motion.
3-LS4-4 - Make a claim about the merit of a design solution that reduces the impacts of a change in the environment on organisms
3-5-ETS1-1 – Define a problem with criteria & constraints.
3-5-ETS1-2 – Generate and compare multiple solutions.
3-5-ETS1-3 – Plan and carry out tests to improve a design.
Middle School NGSS Connections
Middle School NGSS Connections
MS - ETS1-1 - Define the criteria and constraints of a problem with precision to ensure a successful solution, taking relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment into account.
MS-ETS1-2 – Evaluate competing design solutions.
MS-ETS1-3 – Analyze data from tests to determine best characteristics of a design.
MS-ETS1-4 - Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process.
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