TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor?
In the first part of the activity, each student chews a piece of gum until it loses its flavor, and then leaves the gum to dry for several days before weighing it to determine the amount of mass lost. This mass corresponds to the amount...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Bombs Away!
In this hands-on activity students learn create a device to protect a dropped egg and deliver it close to a target. Students learn about engineering as well as potential and kinetic energy and energy transfer
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: How Fast Can a Carrot Rot?
Students conduct experiments to determine what environmental factors favor decomposition by soil microbes. They use chunks of carrots for the materials to be decomposed, and their experiments are carried out in plastic bags filled with...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Determining Densities
Students will use two different methods to determine the densities of a variety of materials and objects. The first method involves direct measurement of the volumes of objects that have simple geometric shapes, while the second uses the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Cereal Magnets
In this activity, students will design a process that removes the most iron from the cereal. This activity is meant for the students to experiment with different materials using what they know about iron, magnets, and forces to design...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Sliding and Stuttering
Students use a spring scale to drag an object such as a ceramic coffee cup along a table top or the floor. The spring scale allows them to measure the frictional force that exists between the moving cup and the surface it slides on. By...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Does Weight Matter?
Using the same method for measuring friction that was used in the previous lesson (Discovering Friction), students design and conduct an experiment to determine if weight added incrementally to an object affects the amount of friction...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Heave Ho!
Students will discover the scientific basis for the use of inclined planes. They will explore, using a spring scale, a bag of rocks and an inclined plane, how dragging objects up a slope is easier than lifting them straight up into the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Puck Stops Here
After learning about transfer of energy, specifically the loss of kinetic energy to friction, students get a chance to test friction. In groups they are given a wooden block, different fabrics, and weights and asked to design the "best"...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Strum Along
Music and sound are two different concepts that share much in common. Determining the difference between the two can sometimes be difficult due to the subjective nature of deciding what is or is not music. The goal of this activity is to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Cooking With the Sun Creating a Solar Oven
For this activity, students will be given a set of materials: cardboard, a set of insulating materials (i.e. foam, newspaper, etc.), aluminum foil, and Plexiglas. Students will then become engineers in building a solar oven from the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Growing and Graphing
Students visit a 2nd and a 4th grade class to measure the heights of older students using large building blocks as a non-standard unit of measure. They can also measure adults in the school community. Results are displayed in...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: A Tasty Experiment
Students conduct an experiment to determine whether or not the sense of smell is important to being able to recognize foods by taste. They do this by attempting to identify several different foods that have similar textures. For some of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Electrocardiograph Building
This activity will build upon the concepts taught in the lesson The Strongest Pump of All. The activity will pull together the concepts of bioelectricity, electrical circuits, and biology. It will allow the students the opportunity to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: A House Is a House for Me
Students brainstorm and discuss the different types of materials used to build houses in various climates. Small models of houses are built and tested against different climates.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Seeing the World Through a Different Lens
Students will participate in a variety of activities modeling different disabilities. After discussing their experiences, students work in teams to devise or improve on an adaptive device.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Seeing the World Through a Different Lens
Students will participate in a variety of activities modeling different disabilities. After discussing their experiences, students work in teams to devise or improve on an adaptive device.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Build a Birdhouse
Students learn about different types of birds and their differing needs for nests and bird houses. Students then build a bird house.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Broken Bones
The purpose of this activity is to introduce students to the concept of the engineering design process and to teach them how to apply it. In "Broken Bones," students will explore the steps of the engineering design process. They will...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Building Tetrahedral Kites
Students build a tetrahedral kite and test it out. While building they are learning about flight and the manufacturing process
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Design Weather Instruments Using Lego Sensors
Students will design and create a LEGO structure that will house and protect a temperature sensor. They will leave the structure in a safe spot and check the temperature regularly and chart it.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Build an Earthquake City
Students learn about earthquakes and how they effect structures. Student then apply their knowledge by trying to build an earthquake resistant city.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Manufacturing Technologies: Making a Picture Frame
The goal of this activity is to demonstrate the basic processes involved in a manufacturing system while producing your own picture frame.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Hydraulic Arm Challenge
Students will design and build a mechanical arm that lifts and moves an empty 12-ounce soda can using hydraulics for power. Small design teams (1-2 students) will design and build a single axis for use in the completed mechanical arm....