TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Dam Pass or Fail
Students conduct Internet research to investigate the purpose and current functioning status of some of the largest dams throughout the world. They investigate the success or failure of eight dams and complete a worksheet. While...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Design, Build and Test Your Own Landfill
Students design and build model landfills using materials similar to those used by engineers for full-scale landfills. Their completed small-size landfills are "rained" on and subjected to other erosion processes. The goal is to create...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Pump It!
Pumps are used to get drinking water to our houses every day! And in disaster situations, pumps are essential to keep flood water out. In this hands-on activity, student groups design, build, test and improve devices to pump water as if...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Shake It Up! Engineering for Seismic Waves
Students learn about how engineers design and build shake tables to test the ability of buildings to withstand the various types of seismic waves generated by earthquakes. Just like engineers, students design and build shake tables to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Tippy Tap Plus Piping
The Tippy Tap hand-washing station is an inexpensive and effective device used extensively in the developing world. One shortcoming of the homemade device is that it must be manually refilled with water and therefore is of limited use in...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Protecting Our City With Levees
Students design and build their own model levees. Acting as engineers for their city, teams create sturdy barriers to prevent water from flooding a city in the event of a hurricane.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Test a Beam
Students measure different types of small-sized beams and calculate their respective moments of inertia. They compare their calculations to how much the beams bend when loads are placed on them, gaining insight into the ideal geometry...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Traffic Lights
Students learn about traffic lights and their importance in maintaining public safety and order. Using a Parallax Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller, students work in teams on the engineering challenge to build a traffic light with a specific...
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: Grading Congestion
Students construct a model roadway with congestion and apply their knowledge of level of service (LOS) to assign a grade to the road conditions. The roadway is simply a track outlined with cones or ropes with a few students walking...
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: 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: 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: Wimpy Radar Antenna
Students will reinforce an antenna tower made from foam insulation, so that it will withstand a 480 N-cm bending moment (torque) and a 280 N-cm twisting moment (torque) with minimal deflection. One class will be used to discuss the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Asteroid Impact
Asteroid Impact is an 8-10 class long (350-450 min) earth science curricular unit where student teams are posed with the scenario that an asteroid will impact earth. They must design the location and size of underground caverns to save...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy Efficient Housing
We all know that it takes energy to provide us with the basics of shelter: heating, cooling, lighting, electricity, sanitation and cooking. To create energy-efficient housing that is practical for people to use every day requires...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Building Towards the Future
This curricular unit introduces students to basic Civil Engineering concepts in an exciting and interactive manner. Bridges and skyscrapers, the two most visible products of Civil Engineers, will be discussed in depth. Students will have...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Homes for Different Climates
Students learn about some of the different climate zones in China and consider what would be appropriate design, construction and materials for houses in those areas. This prepares them to conduct the associated activity(ies) in which...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Survive That Tsunami!
Students use a table-top-sized tsunami generator to observe the formation and devastation of a tsunami. They see how a tsunami moves across the ocean and what happens when it reaches the continental shelf. Students make villages of model...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Shapes of Strength
Students are introduced to brainstorming and the design process in problem solving as it relates to engineering. They perform an activity to develop and understand problem solving with an emphasis on learning from history. Using only...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Requirements & Constraints: Making Model Parking Garages
The difference between an architect and an engineer is sometimes confusing because their roles in building design can be similar. Students experience a bit of both professions by following a set of requirements and meeting given...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Fence That Farmland!
Students develop and solidify their understanding of the concept of perimeter as they engage in a portion of the civil engineering task of land surveying, using the technology of a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot to automate this task.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Bridges
Through a five-lesson series that includes numerous hands-on activities, students are introduced to the importance and pervasiveness of bridges for connecting people to resources, places and other people, with references to many...
Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Stem Resources: Buildings and Earthquakes
Do you think you can build a house that can withstand the shaking from an earthquake? In this activity, students design and construct model building that will be tested on a shake table with a force sensor. Activity includes questions...