Unit Overview

Kids engineer packages that can be dropped from an aircraft, protect what’s inside, and are easy to find once they reach the ground.

  • Grades 3–5
  • Setting: Out of school
  • 8 activities
  • 45 minutes per activity

Standards alignment

We’ve developed each EiE unit with careful attention to educational standards in both science and technology/engineering. View Standards Alignments.

Unit Map

Kids engineer a tower and are introduced to the Engineering Design Process as a problem-solving tool.

Kids explore the idea that they, as engineers, can design and improve technology.

Kids are introduced to the problem they will try to solve: designing an aid drop package that can protect its contents. Kids test hard casings and soft padding.

Kids test ways to slow down the aid drop package as it falls by exploring parachutes, wings, and canopies.

Kids consider what items should be packed in their aid drop packages to help people who are in a flood zone and need supplies.

Kids investigate how to ensure that their package is easy to spot after it is dropped and how to communicate what is inside their package.

Using their knowledge of how to protect aid drop supplies, how to make sure packages can be seen, and how to communicate what is inside, kids use the steps of the Engineering Design Process to engineer their own aid drop packages.

Kids continue to use the steps of the Engineering Design Process as they create their aid drop packages and improve their designs.

Kids present their aid drop package designs and explain how they used the Engineering Design Process.
To the Rescue: Engineering Aid Drop Packages unit cover

What's Included?

  • Educator Guide (PDF)
  • Engineering Journal (PDF)
  • Context-Setting Audio Messages (.mp3)
  • Print Materials (PDF)
  • Additional Resources