Outstanding Ocean Designs

The students in my 5th/6th grade science/social studies class spent a lot of third trimester learning about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The objective of their culminating activity involved designing a solution to solving a problem with the garbage patch. They followed a process called IFORD.

Step 1 
I-Identify the Problem
The students had to identify the problem they wanted to focus on within the garbage patch.
Some problems the students chose to focus on were: How can we prevent crates from falling off cargo ships? How can we clean up the garbage patch without harming the sea life?

Step 2
F-Finding the Facts 
After the students determined the problem, they found the facts behind the problem that would help them in designing a solution. Some guiding questions the students used to help them research can be seen below.

• What is causing this problem?
• Where is this happening?
• How is it happening?
• Why is it happening?
• Are there smaller parts to this problem?
• What has been done to stop this problem so far? Have any of these solutions worked?

Step 3
O-List Your Options  
Using what they learned from their research the students designed possible solutions to solve their problems. Their designs were required to have evidence from their research to support why it would work in solving the issue. The students developed a couple designs before making their final decisions.

Step 4
R-Rank Your Options
The students created a pro and con list for each of their designs. They evaluated which design was the best course of action to solve the problem.

Step 5

D-Decision Making

Once the students decided on their best design choice, they created a 3-D prototype of their design using Tinkercad. They printed their designs on the 3-D printer. Some of the designs can be seen below.