YES Elementary (formerly Engineering is Elementary)
Museum of Science (Boston) · Youth Engineering Solutions (YES) · Grades K-5
Standards-aligned K-5 engineering units from the Museum of Science. Each unit centers a real-world engineering challenge (designing sun hats, pollinators, magnetic dog doors, plastic filters, safety vests) and walks students through the engineering design process across nine. .
Free curriculum downloads · Materials kits $50-200+ per unit
Overview
Standards-aligned K-5 engineering units from the Museum of Science. Each unit centers a real-world engineering challenge (designing sun hats, pollinators, magnetic dog doors, plastic filters, safety vests) and walks students through the engineering design process across nine 45-minute lessons. Curricula are free; materials kits cost real money. Formerly Engineering is Elementary; the brand was consolidated into YES.
Strengths
- •Designed by Boston Museum of Science with three decades of research and development
- •Each unit is a complete 9-lesson sequence. Teacher guide, story/comic, engineering notebook, slides, vocabulary cards, assessment tools, family resources
- •Curriculum PDFs are free to download; only materials kits cost money
- •Standards-aligned (NGSS). Satisfies portfolio reviewers and charter requirements
- •Tested in classrooms across all 50 states. Pedagogy is real, not boutique
- •Pod-friendly: built for groups of 15-30, scales down well to a 4-8 kid pod
- •Engineering challenges connect to careers and inclusive STEM identity
Limitations
- •Materials kits are expensive: a full year of units with kits can run $500-1500+
- •Without kits, parent must source materials (significant prep per unit)
- •Teacher guides are written for classroom teachers. Homeschool families need to translate
- •Standalone units, not a comprehensive K-5 science sequence. Best as enrichment or STEM block, not the only science
- •Free PDFs require account creation at yes.mos.org
Best fit for
- •Pods running a STEM-focused block (multi-week unit format works for cohorts)
- •Microschools and learning centers with budget for materials kits
- •Families with one parent comfortable facilitating a classroom-style lesson
- •Kids ages 5-11 who like to build, test, and iterate
- •Charter portfolio families needing NGSS-aligned evidence
What's in the line
7 separate products in this brand. Pick the right one for your child's age and stage.
Each YES Elementary unit is a complete 9-lesson sequence. Pick by your pod's grade tier. Kindergarten units run side-by-side, Lower Elementary and Upper Elementary each have their own set. Curricula are free to download from yes.mos.org after creating an account; materials kits ship separately and are priced for school budgets.
Kindergarten
Engineering Sun Hats
5-6 · K · Energy
Students explore the cooling effects of shade as they engineer sun hats that block sunlight and meet users' needs.
Engineering Trash Collectors
5-6 · K · Earth & Human Activity
How materials behave in water becomes the design constraint as students engineer a collector to remove trash from a model pond.
Lower Elementary
Engineering Pumpkin Pollinators
6-8 · 1-2 · Matter · Ecosystems
After learning about pollinators and their importance, students engineer hand pollinators that move pollen between pumpkin flowers.
Engineering Nightlights
6-8 · 1-2 · Waves
Students investigate how materials interact with light as they engineer nightlights that meet user preferences and communicate a message.
Upper Elementary
Engineering Magnetic Dog Doors
8-11 · 3-5 · Motion & Stability
Students engineer dog door systems for an animal shelter that open or stay closed using magnetic forces.
Engineering Plastic Filters
8-11 · 3-5 · Ecosystems · Earth's Systems
Students consider effects of plastics on marine ecosystems and engineer filters to reduce plastic waste entering the ocean.
Engineering Safety Vests
8-11 · 3-5 · Waves · Energy
Students engineer vests with an electric communication system to increase safety in a busy intersection.
The honest read
The free curriculum-plus-paid-kit model is the catch. The lesson content is unmatched (there is no better engineering curriculum at the K-5 level) but the kits are priced for school budgets, not single families. Pods solve this by sharing one kit across multiple families. Solo homeschool families can source materials independently using the supply lists, but that's 1-2 hours of prep per unit. Worth it for the right pod; expensive for a single family.
Get YES Elementary (formerly Engineering is Elementary)
Standards-aligned K-5 engineering units from the Museum of Science. Each unit centers a real-world engineering challenge (designing sun hats, pollinators, magnetic dog doors, plastic filters, safety vests) and walks students through the engineering design process across nine. .
GET ITRelated in Science
YES Elementary (formerly Engineering is Elementary)
Free curriculum downloads · Materials kits $50-200+ per unit