🛟 🏝️ 🔧 📐
Engineering Challenge

Welcome to Floatia

Design, build, test, and explain a floating prototype for a new community. You have learned how engineers work. This is where you become one.

🛟
The Challenge
Can your team design a small vessel that floats, carries the cargo Floatia needs, and can be built from your drawing alone?
1 Understand 2 Criteria 3 Materials 4 Scale 5 Build & Test 6 Defend 7 Improve
🔬 Learning Science Focus 🏗️ Transfer of Learning 🔁 Iterative Design ✏️ Generation Effect 🗂️ Productive Artifacts 🔍 Metacognition
Challenge Goals

What You'll Prove You Can Do

This is not a lesson. It is your chance to work like an engineer. By the end of the challenge, your team will be able to:

🛠️
Build a working prototype of a solution to a real problem, then test it to see how well it meets the goal.
6.MS-ETS2-3(MA)
📊
Use your test results to decide what to change, then refine the prototype to make it work better.
6.MS-ETS2-3(MA)
🗣️
Explain and defend your engineering decisions by tying every choice back to the criteria and constraints.
6.MS-ETS2-3(MA)
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Name the assessed target before the challenge begins: build, test, and refine a prototype and defend the decisions behind it.
  • The primary assessed standard is 6.MS-ETS2-3(MA). Skills from Engineering Design (6.MS-ETS1-1), Choosing Materials (6.MS-ETS2-1/2-2), and Designing to Scale (6.MS-ETS1-5) are applied here, not re-taught or re-badged.
Cognitive science
  • Goal setting
  • Advance organizer
  • Transfer of learning
Bloom's / DOK
  • Apply to Create
  • DOK 3 to 4 (extended design, testing, and defense over multiple periods)
Accessibility considerations
  • Each goal paired with an icon and the standard code
  • Short, plain-language statements
  • One card per goal, no crowding
📚 Teacher Playbook · Running the Challenge
Preparation
  • Confirm students have completed Engineering Design, Choosing Materials, and Designing to Scale.
  • Set up water-test stations: a shallow tub or bin per group, towels, and a set of identical weights for cargo.
  • Print or share grid paper for scaled drawings. Preview each on-page organizer so you can point students to it.
Materials per team
  • Hull stock: aluminum foil, index cards, plastic wrap, or a foam tray
  • Structure: craft sticks, straws, tape, small binder clips
  • Cargo: identical washers or pennies
  • Shared: ruler, grid paper, water tub, paper towels
Pacing (five periods)
  • Day 1: Stages 1 and 2, define the problem and lock criteria and constraints.
  • Day 2: Stages 3 and 4, choose materials and draw to scale.
  • Day 3: Stage 5, build and run the first test.
  • Day 4: Stage 5 retest and Stage 6, defend decisions.
  • Day 5: Stage 7 redesign, plus quiz.
Safety, checkpoints, extensions
  • Safety: keep water away from outlets, wipe spills at once to prevent slips, carry scissors point-down, do not drink test water.
  • Checkpoints: approve criteria before building, and approve the scaled drawing before the first test.
  • Extension: cap the material budget, or raise the cargo target for teams that finish early.
Key Vocabulary

Words You Already Know

Choose a card to see what each word means. You met all of these in earlier lessons. Today you put them to work.

📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Reactivate, not pre-teach. These terms all appeared in earlier engineering lessons; the cards are a quick refresher before students apply them.
  • Buoyancy is a supporting concept kept qualitative. The assessed focus is building, testing, and refining a prototype, not calculating density.
Cognitive science
  • Retrieval of prior vocabulary
  • Reduced extraneous load
Bloom's / DOK
  • Remember to Understand
  • DOK 1
Accessibility considerations
  • Click to reveal, no hover
  • One card open at a time
  • Plain, short definitions
1 Stage One · Understand the Problem

Welcome to Floatia

Floatia is a brand new community being built on the water. Homes, gardens, and workshops all sit on floating platforms. The people of Floatia need a small vessel that can carry supplies from platform to platform without sinking. Your engineering team has been hired to design one. Before you touch a single material, an engineer does one thing first: understand the problem completely.

📨
The Request from Floatia
"Build us a small vessel that floats on its own, still floats when it carries our cargo, and stays steady enough not to tip. We will build the winning design from your drawing, so make it clear."

Open each part of the request below. An engineer never starts building until every one of these is clear. Open all four.

Opened 0 of 4
🧭 Now the problem is clear: a floating vessel that carries cargo across water, simple to use, and clear enough to build from a drawing. That is what you are solving.

You Have Done This Before

You are not starting from nothing. Three lessons built the exact skills this challenge needs. Remember what each one taught you to be.

🧩
Engineers solve problems.
From Engineering Design. You learned to turn a request into a solution by building, testing, and improving. That is the whole shape of today.
🧰
Engineers choose materials for what they need them to do.
From Choosing Materials. You learned that a material is right or wrong because of its properties, not because it looks nice.
📐
Engineers communicate so others can build.
From Designing to Scale. You learned that a drawing only works when someone else can build from it exactly.
Today you use all three at once. Solve the problem, choose the materials, and communicate the plan. That is what an engineer does. Now it is you.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Frame an authentic problem and slow students down to define it before building, the first move of the design process.
  • Deliberately revisit the three prior engineering identities so students realize they already hold every skill the challenge needs.
Cognitive science
  • Problem framing
  • Activating prior knowledge
  • Curiosity and purpose
Bloom's / DOK
  • Understand to Analyze
  • DOK 2
Classroom checkpoint
  • Ask each team to restate the problem in one sentence before moving on.
  • No identity statement is added; the three prior ones are intentionally reused.
2 Stage Two · Criteria and Constraints

What Counts as Success?

Before designing, engineers pin down two lists. Criteria are what the solution must do to succeed. Constraints are the limits you must work inside. Read each item from Floatia's request and decide which it is. Tag all five.

The vessel must float on the water by itself.
The vessel must still float while carrying the cargo.
You may only use the materials your team is given.
Your team has a set amount of class time to build.
The vessel must stay steady and not tip over.
📝
Your Artifact
On paper, make two columns titled Criteria and Constraints. Write Floatia's five items in the right column, then add any your team decides on, such as a maximum size. You will check every design decision against this list.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Criteria and constraints are the backbone of the design process and the measuring stick for every later decision and defense.
  • The sorter forces a judgment on each item rather than passive reading, then explains the reasoning.
Cognitive science
  • Categorization
  • Immediate feedback
  • Generation effect
Bloom's / DOK
  • Understand to Analyze
  • DOK 2
Classroom checkpoint
  • Approve each team's criteria and constraints list before they build.
  • Applies 6.MS-ETS1-1 as a supporting skill inside the capstone.
3 Stage Three · Choose Materials

Right Material for the Job

A material is right or wrong because of what it does, not how it looks. For each part of your vessel, choose the material whose properties fit the job. Pick one for each. You will get an engineer's read on your choice.

Decisions made 0 of 3
🧰
Your Artifact
Build a material decision table on paper with three columns: the part, the material you chose, and the property that makes it right for the job. This table is half of your defense in Stage 6.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Applies the Choosing Materials skill: match a material to a job by its properties rather than its appearance.
  • The reveal always names the property that made a choice work, keeping the reasoning visible.
Cognitive science
  • Decision before feedback
  • Property to function mapping
Bloom's / DOK
  • Apply to Analyze
  • DOK 2 to 3
Classroom checkpoint
  • Materials are a menu, not a mandate. Teams may justify a different choice with a property reason.
  • Applies 6.MS-ETS2-1(MA) and 6.MS-ETS2-2(MA) as supporting skills.
4 Stage Four · Create a Scaled Design

Draw It So a Teammate Can Build It

Floatia builds from your drawing, so the plan has to communicate. Draw your vessel to scale on grid paper. Then use this checklist to be sure a teammate could build it without asking you a single question. Check each item once your drawing has it.

0 of 5 checked
Blueprint ready. A teammate could now build your vessel from the drawing alone. That is what designing to scale is for. Trade drawings with another team and see if they can read yours.
📐
Your Artifact
A scaled drawing of your vessel on grid paper with a scale, measurements, labels, and a scale bar. This drawing is the plan you build from and part of your defense.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Applies Designing to Scale so the plan can be built by someone else, the heart of communicating a design.
  • The checklist makes the standard for a buildable drawing concrete and self-checkable.
Cognitive science
  • Success criteria made visible
  • Self-assessment
Bloom's / DOK
  • Apply to Create
  • DOK 3
Classroom checkpoint
  • Approve the scaled drawing before any team starts building.
  • Applies 6.MS-ETS1-5(MA) as a supporting skill.
5 Stage Five · Build and Test

Build the Prototype. Then Test It.

Now build your vessel from your drawing and put it in the water. A prototype is meant to be tested, not admired. Run the test, then record what actually happened below. Be honest. A test that reveals a problem is a success, because now you know what to fix.

Test 1 · Empty float

With no cargo, does the vessel float on its own?

Test 2 · Cargo load

Add the cargo one piece at a time. What happens?

Test 3 · Stability

Does the loaded vessel stay steady, or tip?

📊
Your Artifact
A test data record: what you tried, what happened, and how much cargo it held before failing. Keep the numbers. They are the evidence you use to decide what to redesign.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • This is the assessed core of 6.MS-ETS2-3(MA): construct a prototype and test it against the criteria.
  • The readout treats a failed test as useful data, not a loss, and points toward the redesign in Stage 7.
Cognitive science
  • Learning from feedback
  • Evidence-based reasoning
Bloom's / DOK
  • Apply to Evaluate
  • DOK 3 to 4
Safety note
  • Water away from outlets, wipe spills at once, and no drinking the test water.
  • Have teams record cargo held as a number to compare across redesigns.
6 Stage Six · Explain and Defend

Defend Your Engineering Decisions

Anyone can build something. An engineer can explain why they built it that way. To defend a decision, tie a choice to a reason and a result. Build one engineering claim below, then write your own for the rest of your design.

We chose because , and our test showed .
🗣️
Your Artifact
A written engineering explanation, two or three claims long, where each claim links a choice to a reason and to test evidence. This is how engineers show their design was a decision, not a guess.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Defending decisions with evidence is part of the assessed standard and the deepest thinking in the challenge.
  • The sentence frame models the choice, reason, evidence structure before students write their own.
Cognitive science
  • Self-explanation
  • Claim, evidence, reasoning
Bloom's / DOK
  • Analyze to Evaluate
  • DOK 3 to 4
Classroom checkpoint
  • Run a short design review where teams defend one decision aloud and take a question.
  • The frame is a scaffold, not a script. Push students to write claims in their own words.
7 Stage Seven · Reflect and Improve

Redesign Like an Engineer

No engineer stops at the first build. The best teams look at their test data and change one thing on purpose. Before you read the engineering habit below, commit to an answer.

🔧 Your vessel held some cargo, then sank. What is the smartest next move?
The Engineering Habit

Change one thing on purpose, then test again. If you change everything at once, you never learn which change helped. A wider hull, a lower load, or a stiffer frame is one clear move you can measure against your last result. That is iteration, and it is how real designs get better.

This box is just for your thinking. Nothing here is saved or sent. Copy your best idea onto your redesign notes.
🔁
Your Artifact
Redesign notes: the one change you chose, the reason from your test data, and what happened when you tested the new version. A before and after is the clearest proof of engineering.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Refining a prototype from test results completes 6.MS-ETS2-3(MA) and models real engineering.
  • Predicting first, then reflecting, turns a single build into a transferable habit of mind.
Cognitive science
  • Iteration and controlled change
  • Metacognition
Bloom's / DOK
  • Evaluate to Create
  • DOK 4
Classroom checkpoint
  • Require one measured redesign so the before and after can be compared with numbers.
  • The reflection textarea is local only and never submitted anywhere.
Quick Check

Two Quick Checks

Two fast questions before the quiz. These are not graded. Pulling the answer from memory now helps it stick.

Quick Check 1
Choose the best answer.
Your prototype sinks under half the cargo. What is the best next step?
Quick Check 2
Choose the best answer.
Floatia will build your vessel from your drawing. What makes the drawing good engineering?
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Two low-stakes retrieval checks on the two ideas the challenge leans on most: iteration and building from a clear drawing.
Cognitive science
  • Retrieval practice
  • Immediate feedback
Bloom's / DOK
  • Understand to Apply
  • DOK 2
Accessibility considerations
  • Keyboard friendly radios with visible focus
  • Try Again allows a second attempt with no penalty
Evaluate · Quiz

Show What an Engineer Knows

Ten questions on how engineers work: defining the problem, choosing materials, drawing to scale, and building, testing, and improving a prototype. These are about your thinking, not just the vessel. Answer every question, then submit.

Your score will not be sent Your score will be sent to your teacher
0 / 10 selected

🛟 The Challenge You Took On You came to Floatia with one job: design a vessel that floats, carries the cargo, and can be built from your drawing alone. You defined the problem, chose materials for what they do, drew it to scale, built it, tested it, and improved it. That is not a lesson. That is engineering.
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Measure understanding with ten items, most of them new drawings to judge rather than definitions.
  • Distractors are often the "make it prettier" choice, so wrong answers still surface the big idea: communication over decoration.
Cognitive science
  • Retrieval practice
  • Transfer
  • Feedback loops
Bloom's / DOK
  • Understand to Apply
  • DOK 1 to 2 (mix of vocabulary recall and judging fresh drawings for buildability)
Accessibility considerations
  • Practice mode works independently with no submission
  • Plausible, evenly placed options of varied length
  • Progress bar and required fields before classroom submit
More Learning

Push the Challenge Further

Floatia is the capstone, not the finish line. Once your vessel floats and carries its cargo, raise the bar. Try one: add a stricter material budget, double the cargo target, or design a version that a resident could load with one hand. Each new limit is a new criterion, and every strong engineer goes looking for the next one.

🚀
More Challenges Coming Soon
Floatia is the first LyfeLabz Engineering Challenge. More build challenges, each with a new problem to solve, are on the way.
Coming Soon
📚 Instructional Design
Why this section exists
  • Floatia itself is the capstone, so More Learning holds only optional extensions that raise the bar for teams who finish early.
  • Each extension adds a new criterion or constraint, keeping the engineering thinking going rather than adding busywork.
Cognitive science
  • Challenge and stretch goals
  • Transfer
Bloom's / DOK
  • Apply to Create
  • DOK 3 to 4
Accessibility considerations
  • Optional and self-paced
  • No penalty for skipping
  • Reuses the same materials, no new setup needed
Connections

Connections

Floatia does not stand alone. It is the moment three earlier ideas finally work together. Here is what each one gave you.

🧩
Lesson
Engineering Design
Engineering Design gave you the shape of the whole challenge: define a problem, build, test, and improve. Floatia is where that process stops being steps to read and becomes something you actually do.
Explore
🧰
Lesson
Choosing Materials
Choosing Materials taught you to pick a material for what it does, not how it looks. Floatia puts that to the test: the wrong hull sinks, so here the property of a material decides whether your vessel works.
Explore
📐
Lesson
Designing to Scale
Designing to Scale taught you to draw so someone else can build. Floatia depends on it: your vessel is built from your drawing alone, so a clear scaled plan is the difference between the right build and the wrong one.
Explore