Lessons in Building from the Three Little Pigs

By Clarkees

What is your house built of? Bricks, wood, straw?

Lead an investigation into building materials by testing the choices made by the Three Little Pigs. The following lesson plan can be adapted and augmented with other resources to create a mini unit around the properties of building materials, sustainability and design processes.

Three little pigs

Click on the image for work sheet or access through The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education

Have a look at a variety of ways that people make bricks today.

This clip is quite thought provoking at the end and it may not suit your purposes to play entire clip.

 

H.O.T. Question It

  • Compare the working environments depicted in these clips.
  • What considerations do you need to keep in mind when designing a brick making machine for a remote location, now design one.
  • How could the machine from China in the last clip benefit the Indian community depicted in the second clip?

Years 3 – 4

  • Recognise the role of people in design and technologies occupations and explore factors, including sustainability that impact on the design of products, services and environments to meet community needs  (ACTDEK010)
  • Investigate the suitability of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment for a range of purposes (ACTDEK013)
  • Critique needs or opportunities for designing and explore and test a variety of materials, components, tools and equipment and the techniques needed to produce designed solutions (ACTDEP014)
  • Plan a sequence of production steps when making designed solutions individually and collaboratively (ACTDEP018)

Years 5 – 6

  • Investigate how people in design and technologies occupations address competing considerations, including sustainability in the design of products, services and environments for current and future use (ACTDEK019)
  • Investigate characteristics and properties of a range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment and evaluate the impact of their use (ACTDEK023)

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] (2014). Design and Technologies: Foundation to Year 10 curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/design-and-technologies/Curriculum/F-10

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