What Is the Problem?

What Is the Problem? Worksheet: Defining an engineering problem (Grade 4 Science, TEKS 4.1A)

Students sort four rules for a new playground trash can as must do or limit, then use a table of three designs to circle the one that costs too much and the one that follows every rule. The page teaches the skill first, so no prior lesson is needed, and every student task is sort or circle. One sheet is one page, with two short parts and nothing to write from scratch.

What's Inside

• A short teach box on what a solution must do and its limits
• Part A: write M or L for four rules, first one done
• A table of three trash can designs with cost and time
• Part B: three circle the answer questions, first one done
• Ollie the owl, with a hint that matches the answer key
• A visual answer key with answers marked in red, plus a short teacher note with what to watch for

How Teachers Use It

Each sheet follows the same three steps: read the short teach box, sort four items with the first one done for you, then answer three quick questions with the first one done for you. It takes 6 to 8 minutes and prints clearly in black and white. The focus skill is defining problems with criteria and constraints, part of TEKS 4.1A: ask questions and define problems based on observations or information from text, phenomena, models, or investigations.

Why It Works

Every answer comes from what is printed on the page, so students practice the thinking, not recall. Each sheet stays inside one story, every question is one step, and wrong choices are believable, not silly. Pair it with the other seven Grade 4 Science Practices sheets to cover observing, inferring, asking testable questions, questioning texts, models, and investigations, and defining engineering problems.