Earth Science · Weather Hazards
Severe Weather: Design a Wind-Safe Shelter
Engineer a classroom shelter roof that resists strong model wind; test two designs fairly, compare data, and improve a solution.
Lesson plan
Severe Weather: Design a Wind-Safe Shelter
A step-by-step guide to help you teach this lesson.
Plan with confidence
Lesson overview
What students will learn
- Describe how strong winds can damage a roof and why engineers test shelter connections.
- Identify a measurable success criterion and a materials constraint, and plan a fair fan test.
Key science ideas
- Strong winds can lift weakly attached roof pieces.
- We can compare two model connections under the same fan speed, distance, roof size and number of trials.
- Our criterion: roof stays attached in at least 4 of 5 fan trials.
Lesson at a glance
- Grade 3
- 45 min
- ~12 min prep
- 3-ESS3-1
- 6 materials
What’s included
- Lesson Plan
- Investigation
- Teacher Slides
- Printable Worksheet
- Teacher Answer Key
- Interactive Activity
- Vocabulary