Lost in the Amazon

Through seven lessons and nine activities, students are guided through navigation, exploration and survival situations based in the Amazon rainforest.

The Lost in the Amazon unit provides a hypothetical scenario script to guide student teams from lesson to lesson and provide motivation for the activities. Each scene may be read aloud by the teacher to the class or students can take turns reading the scenarios out loud. Students can assume roles and act out the scenes within their groups. Working in teams encourages students to brainstorm and creatively problem solve.

Student handouts are provided to guide students through each activity; they include answers, where applicable. As with many engineering challenges, some questions are open-ended and thus, have multiple answers; in general, any answer is acceptable as long as it can be adequately justified.

The investigative, exploratory and problem solving nature of the unit is closely aligned with Colorado science standards 1, 2, 3 and 5 and mathematics standards 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Engineers work in teams to invent and develop solutions to problems. Following the steps of the engineering design process, engineers first identify and define the problem or challenge. They gather information and conduct research to learn about the topics related to the problem, and they brainstorm and propose multiple possible solutions. Engineers evaluate the various potential solutions and select one that best meets the criteria for success. Testing is often done to verify that the proposed solution will solve the problem or challenge. The Lost in the Amazon unit provides a project framework in which student teams act as engineering teams to solve a number of challenges using the engineering design process.

The ideal implementation of this curricular unit is for students to complete the activities in sequence. However, each activity is self-contained and can be conducted on its own.