Engineering a Habitat’s Humidity
Condensation forms on a window, creating water vapor, which means there is humidity in the air.Copyright 2013 Roland Tanglao, CC-BY-2.0, Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/roland/8532795969
Students design a temporary habitat for a future classroom pet—a hingeback tortoise. Based on their background research, students identify what type of environment this tortoise needs and how to recreate that environment in the classroom. The students divide into groups and investigate the features of a habitat for a hingeback tortoise. These features include how many holes a temporary habitat may need, the animal’s ideal type of bedding, and how much water is needed to create the necessary humidity level within the tortoise’s environment. Each group communicates and presents this information to the rest of the class after they research, brainstorm, collect and analyze data, and design their final plan.
Engineers solve problems and discover practical solutions that impact lives—and not just for people, but for animals as well. Engineers may be called upon to build habitats for animals to ensure that the animal is comfortable and is living in environment that is suited to its needs. Designing an optimal temporary habitat for a potential classroom pet is relevant to students’ lives because they may see and interact with the animal and its habitat every day in their classroom. Students are encouraged to think like engineers and use the engineering design process. They investigate and examine variables through research and design, and conduct background research on the tortoise’s ideal living conditions. They identify needs and constraints, research, imagine possible solutions, choose a solution, and then they create, test, and iterate upon a design to reach an optimal solution. Students also act as engineers as they communicate their results to their fellow engineers.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Understand the concept of how condensation forms in a humid environment.
- Identify humidity as the amount of moisture, or water vapor, in the air.
- Explain what happens when a liquid evaporates and when a gas condenses.
- Measure mass and volume of an object using a scale and a graduated cylinder.