November/December 2023

How Legos Saved a Turtle

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Academic Standards

 

Reading Objective:

Students will examine how the engineering design process was used to design and build a Lego wheelchair for an injured turtle.

Reading Level:

510L; GRL: K

 

Next Generation Science Standards:

K-2-ETS-1: Engineering Design

2-PS1: Finding materials best suited for a purpose; Reassembling objects made of small sets of pieces

 

Vocabulary:

plastron, infected, engineer, design

Use these questions to check students’ understanding and stimulate discussion:

 

1. What part of the turtle was broken?
(the bottom part of its shell)

2. What did the turtle need to heal?
(a wheelchair)

3. What does an engineer do?

4. How did the Lego engineer help the turtle?

Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

 

  • Box turtles like the Lego turtle have personalities. They’re either shy or they’re bold. The Lego turtle was bold, the zoo doctors say. He liked to explore. They fell in love with his outgoing style
  • Box turtles have a small range, or area where they’re OK living. If you see one in the road, it’s fine to help it across. But don’t carry or drive it away from its home. It would not do well.

Materials: Pencils, copies of the skill sheet

Overview:  Students think like engineers as they plan, design, and draw a wheelchair for an injured animal.

Directions:

  1. Remind students that doctors helped the injured turtle by finding an engineer to design a wheelchair to keep the bottom of its shell off the ground so it could heal.
  2. Tell kids it’s their turn to be engineers. Can they help a hurt animal by designing a wheelchair that will help it heal? (You might point out that people use wheelchairs for many reasons; it’s not always to heal from injuries.)
  3. Before passing out the skill sheets, scaffold the engineering process with questions: • What kind of injured animal will kids choose? • What part of the animal is hurt—a leg or something else? • How will the wheelchair help—by elevating the injured part or by making sure it bears no weight?
  4. Kids at this point may want to switch their animal—that’s OK.
  5. Now pass out skill sheets and let kids start designing.
  6. As kids work, they can consult with their fellow student engineers. If there’s time, they can share their designs with the rest of the class.