Teach Engineering
Exploring the Forces of Tension
Let the resource stretch the minds of your young scientists with a instructional activity about tensile strength and stiffness of materials. Groups consider how easily materials stretch and relate this property to engineering design.
Teach Engineering
Complex Networks and Graphs
Show your class how engineers use graphs to understand large and complex systems. The resource provides the beginnings of graph theory by introducing the class to set theory, graphs, and degree distributions of a graph.
Teach Engineering
Rube Goldberg and the Meaning of Machines
A Rube Goldberg machine does not really look like it would make work easier. Introduce your class to Rube Goldberg with a resource that shows how his inventions make simple tasks harder to complete.
Kenan Fellows
Designing a Water Treatment Plant
How does dirty water get clean enough to drink? After viewing a PowerPoint that outlines the process water goes through at a water treatment plant, groups work together to design a chlorination chamber for a treatment plant.
Intel
Prototyping
I need something to test. The three sessions in this lesson have individuals build and test a prototype of their design. The first two sessions are devoted to prepping for the prototype by drawing up specifications and materials. The...
National Gallery of Canada
Who Am I?
Connect design elements and principles to identity a culture with a discussion and related art activity. After analyzing artwork in relation to design, class members talk about personal and cultural identity. Using items that represent...
National Gallery of Canada
Reinventing the World
After examining and discussing Guy Ben-Ner's Treehouse Kit, a contemporary art installation with a sculptural and video element, small groups work together to create short silent films. The films should be built around a particular topic...
Curated OER
Design Space
Learners will develop an understanding design space. The arrangement of shapes is taught to create simple perspective. The differences in the size of shapes is shown in order to help learners see how they should be arranged in...
Curated OER
Tour + Workshop = DESIGN: Shape
Ask elementary students to explore shapes in everyday objects. They will discuss the elements of design and describe the shapes they see in visual images. Students will then design and "build" a new 3D shape. Finally they will show and...
Curated OER
Design Your Own Building
Students explore the use of design principles in the real world. They evaluate how problems can be solved using design principles. In groups, students design the floor plan for a building of their choice.
Curated OER
Coast-to-Coast Book Design -Part 2: What is Design?
Students explore the concept of design, and identify items in their lives that have been designed. They explore the concept of book design and create and arrange their own page layout.
Curated OER
What's Shaking? Three-Lesson Unit
Your young architects use the Internet to research tall structures or sky scrapers to help in the design of their scale drawings. This is lesson one of three in which learners design, build, and test model skyscrapers for seismic safety....
Curated OER
Design Challenge: Cup in the Cupboard
Students design device that will place a cup into a cupboard for a physically challenged person. They study the engineering design and how structure relates to function.
Curated OER
What Floats Your Boat?
This open-ended boat building exercise is meant to be part of a three-lesson series on ships. Links to the other two lessons are included. This particular part is mostly a group lab activity in which they build a boat, find its load line...
Curated OER
Goldberg's Gears
Pupils engage in a instructional activity that is concerned with the design principles employed by the engineer Reuben Goldberg. They read a biographical sketch of the artist and then create the context for studying how machines work....
Curated OER
Follow the Firefly
Students read stories and create a replica of their main character by using "Neon Twistables." They fold several sheets of paper and create several scenes from their book. Students create a booklet, place a title on it, and design an...
Curated OER
Division Drag Race Board Game
This clevel instructional activity has learners design a math game board with rules. They create unique drag-race cars using problem-solving skills, plus modeling and painting techniques. They solve division problems with remainders to...
Curated OER
Design Your School
Students research the schools of yesterday, today, and the future. They read a book by Louis Sachar and discuss information and human values presented by this writer of humorous, offbeat literature. Afterward, they use recycled materials...
Curated OER
Design A Playground
Students engage in a lesson plan that is concerned with the concept of designing a dream playground. They conduct a survey of specific traits needed for the equipment. Students draw a picture of the ideal playground and then construct a...
Curated OER
Costume for an Inaugural Ball
Students research fashions past and present. They design period costumes for inaugural balls, using color, patterns, shapes and researched information. In addition, they discuss the natural resources, technology and other factors that...
Curated OER
Me and My Logo
Students design their own emblem. In this introduction lesson plan, students get to know one another by designing an emblem that combines symbols that represent themselves. They express themselves to their classmates.
Curated OER
High-end/Low-end: Exploring Price and Value in Design
Students analyze elements of design and compare/contrast elements of price and design. In this design lesson, students consider the differences between high-end and low-end design. After completing an analysis of design in small groups,...
Curated OER
Sensing Energy: Designing to Stay Cool
Students examine the energy the sun produces on a daily basis. In groups, they discover the properties of visible and invisible light. They also adjust the exposure time to change the properties of various objects. To end the lesson,...
Curated OER
Toothpick Sculpture
You'll be surprized at how much engineering, design, and creativity can go into a toothpick and a marshmallow. Learners make toothpick sculptures where they construct three-dimentional models by sticking marshmallows and toothpicks...