TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Can You Canoe?
Teams of students learn about the engineering design process as they design, build, and test a model canoe made with everyday materials. Lesson focuses on how materials engineering has impacted the manufacturing of canoes over time.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Recycled Towers
Students learn about material reuse by designing and building the strongest and tallest towers they can, using only recycled materials. They follow design constraints and build their towers to withstand earthquake and high wind simulations.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Hot Potato, Cool Foil
Students explore material properties by applying some basic principles of heat transfer. They use calorimeters to determine the specific heat of three substances: aluminum, copper and another of their choice. Each substance is cooled in...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Materials Properties Make a Difference
Students investigate the materials properties-such as acoustical absorptivity, light reflectivity, thermal conductivity, hardness, and water resistancea-of various materials. They use sound, light and temperature sensors to collect data...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Fun Look at Material Science
Students are introduced to the multidisciplinary field of material science. Through a class demo and PowerPoint presentation, they learn the basic classes of materials (metals, ceramics, polymers, composites) and how they differ from one...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Battle of the Beams
Students explore the properties of composites using inexpensive materials and processing techniques. They create beams using Laffy Taffy and water, and a choice of various reinforcements (pasta, rice, candies) and fabricating...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Making Model Microfluidic Devices Using Jell O
Students create large-scale models of microfluidic devices using a process similar to that of the PDMS and plasma bonding that is used in the creation of lab-on-a-chip devices. They use disposable foam plates, plastic bendable straws and...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Open Courseware: Fundamentals of Materials Science
Provides entire curriculum for the Fundamental of Materials Science course taught at MIT, which "focuses on the fundamentals of structure, energetics, and bonding that underpin materials science." Includes lecture notes, assignments, and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Let's Make Silly Putty
Students make two different formulations of imitation Silly Putty with varying degrees of cross-linking. They witness how changes in the degree of cross-linking influence the putty properties.
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Nano Waterproofing
Lesson investigates the modification of a material at the nanoscale to enhance it with properties such as water and stain resistance.
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Materials Science Project Ideas
A list of projects ideas through which students test materials for various qualities, such as strength, flammability, density, and resistance to corrosion.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Design Packing to Safely Mail Raw Spaghetti
Students will use their creative skills to determine a way to mail raw spaghetti. The students will need to choose a way to safely package their raw spaghetti using only the materials provided. To test the packing designs, the spaghetti...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Design a Bicycle Helmet
The goal of the activities is for students to understand the basics of engineering associated with safety products. Using a bicycle helmet helps to protect the brain and neck during a crash. In order to do this effectively, helmets must...
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: A Century of Plastics
Lesson encourages students look for plastics in ther everyday lives and explore what products require the material.