Teacher Notes
Build Your Settlement (90 minutes) > Print/View All Notes
On this page, students will use the computer to simulate creating a settlement. They should record information on pages 12 – 22 in their Engineering Portfolios as they complete each step in the tool. Note that for pages 21 and 22, you may wish to provide students with lined paper to complete the activities by hand.
Students will choose the locations of various parts of the settlement and then test their settlement against natural disasters, such as floods and blizzards. They will then have an opportunity to revise their settlements to make them more resilient against a future disaster of the same kind.
As students complete the simulation, circulate between groups, offering guidance. If students are having difficulty deciding where to place certain pieces, suggest that they explore the pros and cons of different locations. If their settlement is destroyed significantly by a natural disaster, encourage students to consider how the placement of their pieces contributed to the destruction. Ask students how they might change their settlement to make it stronger.
Note that in most cases, students will not build a perfect settlement. The factors that determine success vary based on the type of disaster and the placement of structures. Like early settlements in the New World, there are always challenges to overcome.
Math Extension:- Have students gather data from each individual or group to identify whether their colonies were successful in the face of a particular natural disaster.
- Have students determine the success rate of colonies affected by a hurricane, drought, flood and blizzard by calculating the percentage of successful colonies for each type of disaster. Students may also calculate the success rate of the colonies for all disasters combined.
- Ask students to explain some of the factors that may have contributed to these success rates.
Standards Addressed:
3.B.1.c , 3.C.1.a, 3.D.1.b , 3.D.1.c,
D2.Geo.8.3-5, D4.6.3-5, D4.7.3-5,
MP.4,
5.G.2,
SSOP1, SSOP6,
MTLSS 3.A.1, MTLSS 6.3,
3-5-ETS1-1,
3-5-ETS1-2,
3-5-ETS1-3
