K-PS3-2: Designing a Shade from the Sun
Also called NGSS K-PS3-2 · Topic: Weather and Climate · Physical Science
The Official Wording
Use tools and materials to design and build a structure that will reduce the warming effect of sunlight on an area.
Clarification statement: Examples of structures could include umbrellas, canopies, and tents that minimize the warming effect of the sun.
NGSS Lead States, 2013 · Read it on nextgenscience.org · checked October 15, 2026
What K-PS3-2 Means in Plain English
Kindergartners design and build a shade, like a little umbrella or tent, from simple materials to keep a spot from getting as warm in the sun. They test it, compare it with no shade or with a classmate's design, and improve it.
Results are judged with warmer and cooler, or by which ice cube melts less, not with exact temperatures. It uses what children learned about sunlight in K-PS3-1 and the design steps in K-2-ETS1-2 and K-2-ETS1-3.
K-PS3-2 I Can Statements
- I can build a shade that blocks the sun.
- I can test my shade to see if it keeps a spot cooler.
- I can make my shade better after a test.
K-PS3-2 Worked Example
A shade challenge a class can run at a sunny outdoor table with ice cubes and craft sticks.
Can a shade we build keep an ice cube from melting as fast in the sun?
Set It Up: An ice cube on each of four small plates, craft sticks, clay, tape, and covers made of cloth, foil and paper, at a sunny table outside.
- Name the problem: the sun warms our spot, and we want it cooler.Goal: slow the melting
- Push four craft sticks into clay and tape a cover on top, like a tiny tent.A cloth shade, a foil shade and a paper shade
- Set three plates under the shades and one with no shade, all at the same time.Four plates in the sun
- Check after 20 minutes and line the plates up from biggest piece of ice to smallest.No shade: mostly puddle. Shades: bigger pieces left
- Improve the weakest shade, like doubling the paper, and test again.Double paper: more ice left
Every shade left more ice than the uncovered plate, and doubling the paper made the thin shade work better.
Why it works: A cover stops the sun's rays before they reach the spot, so less of their energy gets there to warm it.
Common Mistakes with K-PS3-2
A shade that misses the spot
A foil roof set so the sun shines in from the side
Try this: Check where the shadow falls. The spot you want cooler must sit inside the shade's shadow the whole time.
No plate to compare with
Testing a shade without an uncovered ice cube beside it
Try this: Always set one ice cube in the open sun too. Without it, you cannot tell how much the shade helped.
Stopping after one try
“Mine fell over, so shades don't work.”
Try this: Engineers fix and test again. Make the legs sturdier or the roof wider, then run the same test a second time.
Where K-PS3-2 Fits
Practice K-PS3-2
Quick Check
- Why does an ice cube melt more slowly under a shade?
- Your shade blew over in the wind. What should you do?
- Name two things people use to make shade on a sunny day.