Grade 4 students analyze three-trial iteration scenarios in this advanced worksheet, predicting failure causes and identifying improvements. Four multiple-choice questions track teams improving towers, bridges, parachutes, and stability fixes across trials. Five fill-in-the-blanks reinforce iteration vocabulary like structure, constraint, failure, and independent variable. Grade 4 learners discover that real engineering is rarely first-try success — it requires testing, measuring, learning, and iterating again until the design finally works well.
Style:
Engineering Design Challenges
Part A: Multiple Choice
Circle the best answer for each question.
1. Maya's tower fell after 5 seconds in trial 1, 8 in trial 2, 15 in trial 3. What is happening?
A) Her design is improving each trial
B) Her tower is getting shorter
C) She is using less tape
D) The wind is changing
2. A bridge held 200g, 150g, then 250g. Which trial gave the best result?
A) Trial 1
B) Trial 3
C) Trial 2
D) All equal
3. Sam's parachute fell too fast in trials 1 and 2. What change should he try next?
A) Smaller canopy
B) Heavier load
C) Make canopy bigger
D) Shorter strings
4. After adding more tape, a tower stopped wobbling. What did the tape change?
A) The cost
B) The color
C) The height
D) The stability
Part B: Fill in the Blank
Write the correct answer on each line.
1. Doing the design steps over and over to improve is called iteration.
2. If a tower keeps falling at the top, the structure is probably too weak there.
3. Changing the budget rule from $5 to $3 is a new constraint on the project.
4. Engineers learn most from a failure because it shows what does not work.
5. If only the glue type changes between trials, glue is the independent variable.
Engineering Design Challenges
★ Part A: Multiple Choice
Circle the best answer for each question.
1. Maya's tower fell after 5 seconds in trial 1, 8 in trial 2, 15 in trial 3. What is happening?
A) Her design is improving each trial
B) Her tower is getting shorter
C) She is using less tape
D) The wind is changing
2. A bridge held 200g, 150g, then 250g. Which trial gave the best result?
A) Trial 1
B) Trial 3
C) Trial 2
D) All equal
3. Sam's parachute fell too fast in trials 1 and 2. What change should he try next?
A) Smaller canopy
B) Heavier load
C) Make canopy bigger
D) Shorter strings
4. After adding more tape, a tower stopped wobbling. What did the tape change?
A) The cost
B) The color
C) The height
D) The stability
★ Part B: Fill in the Blank
Write the correct answer on each line.
1) Doing the design steps over and over to improve is called iteration.
2) If a tower keeps falling at the top, the structure is probably too weak there.
3) Changing the budget rule from $5 to $3 is a new constraint on the project.
4) Engineers learn most from a failure because it shows what does not work.
5) If only the glue type changes between trials, glue is the independent variable.
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9 Questions
12-18 minutes
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