TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Great Divide
In this activity, students will use cookies to simulate the distribution of our nonrenewable resources (energy). Then, they will discuss how the world's growing population affects the fairness and effectiveness of this distribution of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Trash Talkin'
In this activity, students collect, categorize, weigh and analyze classroom solid waste. The class collects waste for a week and then student groups spend a day sorting and analyzing the garbage with respect to recyclable and non...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Composting Nature's Disappearing Act
In this activity, students explore the idea of biodegradability by building and observing a model landfill. This serves as an introduction to the idea of composting. Students learn about the role of engineering in solid waste management.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Wind Power
In this activity, students develop an understanding of how engineers use wind to generate electricity. They will build a model anemometer to better understand and measure wind speed.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Water Power
In this activity, students observe a model of a waterwheel to investigate the transformations of energy involved in turning the blades of a hydro-turbine into work. Students work as engineers to create a model for a new waterwheel while...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Write On!
In this activity, students create a book, newspaper or other published work to communicate what they have learned about engineering and the environment.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Too Much Pressure!
In this activity, students learn how engineers design faucets. Students will learn about water pressure by building a simple system to model faucets and test the relationship between pressure, area and force. This is a great outdoor...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Floating and Falling Flows
Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Density Rainbow and the Great Viscosity Race
Students explore the densities and viscosities of fluids as they create a colorful 'rainbow' using household liquids. While letting the fluids in the rainbow settle, students conduct 'The Great Viscosity Race,' another short experiment...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Walk, Run, Jump!
In this activity, students participate in a series of timed relay races using their skeletal muscles. The compare the movement of skeletal muscle and relate how engineers help astronauts exercise skeletal muscles in space.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Muscles, Muscles Everywhere
This activity helps students learn about the three different types of muscles and how outer space affects astronauts' muscles. They will discover how important it is for astronauts to get adequate exercise both on Earth and in outer...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Fascinating Friction!
In this activity, students use wood, wax paper and oil to investigate the importance of lubrication between materials and to understand the concept of friction. Using wax paper and oil placed between pieces of wood, the function of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Blood Cell Basics
In this lesson students learn about the circulatory system and how it relates to engineering. Then in a hands-on activity they create a model of blood. Students also act out cholesterol in a blocked artery and look at blood cell in a...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Beat Goes On
In this activity, students learn about their heart rate and different ways it can be measured. Students construct a simple measurement device using clay and a toothpick, and then use this device to measure their heart rate under...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Do You Have the Strength?
In this activity, students squeeze a tennis ball to demonstrate the strength of the human heart. Working in teams, they think of ways to keep the heart beating if the natural mechanism were to fail. The goal of this activity is to get...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: 20/20 Vision
In this activity, students determine their own eyesight and calculate what a good average eyesight value for the class would be. Students learn about technologies to enhance eyesight and how engineers play an important role in the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Sound Line
Students learn the decibel reading of various noises and why high-level readings damage hearing. Sound types and decibel readings are written on sheets of paper, and students arrange the sounds from the lowest to highest decibel levels....
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Endocrine Excitement!
In this activity, students are divided into a group of hormones and a group of receptors. The hormones have to find their matching receptors, and the pair, once matched, perform a given action. This activity helps students learn about...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Just Breathe
Students explore the inhalation/exhalation process that occurs in the lungs during respiration. Using everyday materials, they create a model pair of lungs.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Hot or Not
This activity explains what a fever is and how the immune system uses it to try and protect the body against germs. The students then explore temperature further by creating a model of a thermometer and completing a temperature...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Cars From the Future
Students learn about air pollution caused by cars and what engineers are doing to try to help with the problem. Students then design their own environmentally friendly car and give a presentation to experience how engineers have to be...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Solid, Liquid or Gas?
Students are given a variety of materials and asked to identify if each material as a solid, liquid or gas. They use their five senses - sight, sound, smell, texture and taste - to identify the other characteristics of each item.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Product Development and the Environment
In this activity, students investigate the life cycle of an engineered product and how the product impacts the environment. They analyze a product using a simple life cycle assessment that assigns fictional numerical values for different...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Living With Your Liver
Students learn the function of the liver and how biomedical engineers can use liver regeneration to help people. Students test the effects of chemical toxins on a beef liver and how salt changes the liver's ability to break down these...