Defining Design Problems with Criteria and Constraints gives Grade 6 science students focused practice in engineering design, with an emphasis on identifying what a solution must do and defining what success looks like.

Students examine how criteria and constraints shape possible design solutions. They identify the required function of a design, use success measures to define a design problem, and explain how limits such as materials, cost, and safety can affect which solutions are possible. The resource also connects cause-and-effect reasoning to potential impacts of design decisions on people and natural systems.

What students practice

• Identifying the required function of a design by describing what a solution must do
• Using criteria to define measures of success
• Recognizing constraints that limit possible solutions
• Explaining how materials, cost, and safety influence design choices
• Connecting design decisions with possible effects on people and natural systems

Question and activity variety

The worksheet combines multiple-choice questions, true/false statements, short-answer responses, a dialogue, matching, a cloze passage, a labeled diagram, a reading passage, and an essay. This mix gives students opportunities to recognize key ideas, apply engineering-design reasoning, interpret information, and communicate their thinking in writing.

What you receive

• ✔️ Student worksheet focused on defining engineering design problems through criteria and constraints
• ✔️ Separate Teacher Guide PDF with learning objectives, teaching tips, discussion questions, and common mistakes

Practical classroom use

Use the worksheet as independent practice, a guided classroom lesson, review after instruction, or written evidence of student thinking during an engineering design unit. The Teacher Guide supports instruction with prompts for discussion and reminders about common misconceptions, helping teachers connect student responses to the central engineering-design concepts.

The resource is suited to Grade 6 science instruction and is framed around the NGSS approach to engineering design. Rather than focusing only on vocabulary, students work with the reasoning behind a design problem: what the solution needs to accomplish, how success can be measured, what limits must be considered, and how design choices may affect systems beyond the immediate solution.