Positives

• Students are encouraged to rethink designs and materials if they aren't the best fit, just as engineers would do.
• The inquiry-based nature of the lesson is great for keeping students engaged and learning.

Additional Prerequisites

• The Try Engineering link under Internet Connections and the link for ITEEA under Alignment to Curriculum Frameworks are broken.
• Students should know about green energy, solar energy, and green building.
• It may benefit students to understand why people want to use solar instead of fossil fuels or other energy sources.
• Students should know how to measure and build three-dimensional models.

Differentiation

• Students can think of simple ways the school can implement passive solar heating and cooling and write a proposal for their building.
• Language arts students can do more research about solar energy and its use in homes and businesses and then produce an informative piece of writing to teach others.
• Students can discuss what active solar elements they could implement in their models to achieve better results.
• Social studies students can brainstorm ways the government can incentivize homeowners to implement more solar energy.