The town of Faraday is getting a new train that floats above its tracks.

Students are challenged to figure out how a floating train works in order to explain it to the citizens of Faraday. Students develop models of how the train rises, floats, and then falls back to the track, and then write an explanation of how the train works.

An adopted wolf in Graystone National Park (“Wolf 44”) has some traits that appear similar to one wolf pack in the park and other traits that appear to be similar to a different wolf pack.

Students play the role of wildlife biologists working in Graystone National Park. They study two wolf packs and are challenged to figure out why an adopted wolf (“Wolf 44”) in one of the packs has certain traits. Students observe variation between and within different species, investigate inherited traits and those that result from the environment, and explain the origin of several of the adopted wolf’s traits.

Over the last 10 years, a population of grove snails has changed: The number of grove snails with yellow shells has decreased, while the number of snails with banded shells has increased.

In their role as biomimicry engineers, students work to figure out how the traits of grove snails affect their survival in different environments, then apply what they learn to designing solutions to different problems. They explore how the traits of different organisms make them more likely or less likely to survive, collecting and interpreting data to understand how organisms’ traits affect their survival in different environments. Students then apply their understanding to a new challenge: Using the structural traits of giraffes as inspiration, they design effective solutions for the removal of invasive plants.

Three different islands, each a contender for becoming an Orangutan reserve, experience different weather patterns.

In their role as meteorologists, students gather evidence to decide where to build an orangutan reserve by analyzing patterns in weather data to determine which of three fictional islands has weather most like that of orangutans’ existing habitats, Borneo and Sumatra. Students then determine what additional evidence they will need to make the strongest argument. After choosing the strongest evidence, students use data to make arguments about which island’s weather is most similar to orangutans’ hot, rainy habitats. They then discern patterns in where natural hazards occur to figure out what natural hazards the Wildlife Protection Organization must prepare for.