TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Inside the Dna
Students conduct their own research to discover and understand the methods designed by engineers and used by scientists to analyze or validate the molecular structure of DNA, proteins and enzymes, as well as basic information about gel...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Dna Forensics and Color Pigments
Students perform DNA forensics using food coloring to enhance their understanding of DNA fingerprinting, restriction enzymes, genotyping and DNA gel electrophoresis. They place small drops of different food coloring ("water-based paint")...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Would You Drink That?
This activity focuses on getting students to think about bacteria, water quality and water treatment processes. Students develop and test their hypotheses about the "cleanliness" of three water samples prepared by the teacher. Then they...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Keep It Moving! From Electrons to Electric Motors
Students act as engineers to apply what they know about how circuits work in electrical/motorized devices to design their own battery-operated model motor vehicles with specific paramaters. They calculate the work done by the vehicles...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Basically Acidic Ink
Students hypothesize whether vinegar and ammonia-based glass cleaner are acids or bases. They create designs on index cards using these substances as invisible inks. After the index cards have dried, they apply red cabbage juice as an...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Magical Motion
Students watch video clips from the October Sky and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movies to see examples of projectile motion. Then they explore the relationships between displacement, velocity and acceleration, and calculate...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Insulation Materials Investigation
Students test the insulation properties of different materials by timing how long it takes ice cubes to melt in the presence of various insulating materials. Students learn about the role that thermal insulation materials can play in...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Make That Invisible! Refractive Index Matching
Students determine the refractive index of a liquid with a simple technique using a semi-circular hollow block. Then they predict the refractive index of a material (a Pyrex glass tube) by matching it with the known refractive index of a...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What Works Best in a Radiator?
Students learn the importance of heat transfer and heat conductance. Using hot plates, student groups measure the temperature change of a liquid over a set time period and use the gathered data to calculate the heat transfer that occurs....
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Magic Magnetic Fluid
Students are introduced to a unique fluid--ferrofluids--the shape of which can be influenced by magnetic fields. This activity supplements traditional magnetism activities and offers comparisons between large-scale materials and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What Is a Nanometer?
Students are introduced to the nano-size length scale as they make measurements and calculate unit conversions. They measure common objects and convert their units to nanometers, giving them a simple reference frame for understanding the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Magnetic Fluids
In this fun, engaging activity, students are introduced to a unique type of fluid--ferrofluids--whose shape can be influenced by magnetic fields! Students act as materials engineers and create their own ferrofluids. They are challenged...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Quantum Dots and Colors
Students are introduced to the physical concept of the colors of rainbows as light energy in the form of waves with distinct wavelengths, but in a different manner than traditional kaleidoscopes. Looking at different quantum dot...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Thirsty for Gold
Student teams conduct an experiment that uses gold nanoparticles as sensors of chemical agents to determine which of four sports drinks has the most electrolytes. In this way, students are introduced to gold nanoparticles and their...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Optimization of Slime
Using their knowledge of the phases of matter, the scientific method, and polymers, student teams work as if they are chemical engineers to optimize the formula for slime. Hired by the fictional company, Slime Productions, students are...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Organic Solar Energy and Berries
Students learn about how a device made with dye from a plant, specifically cherries, blackberries, raspberries and/or black currents, can be used to convert light energy into electrical energy. They do this by building their own organic...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Element, Mixture, Compound
This hands-on activity will help the students have a better understanding of different types of materials as pure substances and mixtures and distinguishes the homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures by discussing some material they use...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Eat Iron?!!
To gain an understanding of mixtures and the concept of separation of mixtures, students use strong magnets to find the element of iron in iron-fortified breakfast cereal flakes. Through this activity, they see how the iron component of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What's a Wavelength?
Students measure the wavelength of sounds and learn basic vocabulary associated with waves. As a class, they brainstorm the difference between two tuning forks and the sounds they produce. Then they come up with a way to measure that...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Wizardry and Chemistry
Students learn how common pop culture references (Harry Potter books) can relate to chemistry. While making and demonstrating their own low-intensity sparklers (muggle-versions of magic wands), students learn and come to appreciate the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Working Together to Live Together
Students experience civil and environmental engineering by planning a housing development in an existing biome, while also protecting the native species that live there. They conduct research, draw plans, make brochures and give...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Things That Matter to Flocculants
Prior to reaching households, water is exposed to a variety of treatments designed to render it fit for human consumption and use. One of the first treatment steps is the removal of suspended solids using chemical additives called...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: At the Doctor's
In this simulation of a doctor's office, students play the roles of physician, nurse, patients, and time-keeper, with the objective to improve the patient waiting time. They collect and graph data as part of their analysis. This serves...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Whose Field Line Is It, Anyway?
Students teams each use a bar magnet, sheet of paper and iron shavings to reveal the field lines as they travel around a magnet. They repeat the activity with an electromagnet made by wrapping thin wire around a nail and connecting...