Students will enter the Dream School project by listening to key ideas from If I Built a School, meeting school leaders who share real redesign needs, and trying a quick team build. They will begin to name school design criteria such as safety, space, materials, and function, and use talk, sketches, and simple models to connect imaginative ideas to real engineering choices.

Students will investigate real school needs, study examples from the text and community experts, and work in teams to create a design brief that names a specific school problem, clear success criteria, and realistic constraints before moving into concept selection.

Students will compare multiple dream school feature ideas against team criteria, choose one prototype direction with evidence, and begin building and documenting a testable model tied to safety, space, materials, and function.

Students will test their dream school prototypes and models against clear criteria, collect evidence with simple measurements and observations, revise based on peer and expert feedback, and prepare to explain how their design changed to better support learning, play, safety, and problem solving.

Students will present their revised dream school blueprint poster, labeled 3D model, special feature prototype, and class presentation board to school leaders and the facility planner, explain how evidence and feedback shaped their final design decisions, respond to audience questions, and leave a brief oral/visual reflection about teamwork and growth.