Practical Action
Practical Action: Wind Power Challenge
In this unit, students explore how life for people in the rural mountainous regions of Peru is different as they live without access to electricity. They learn how small-scale wind turbines have changed people's lives, as with a supply...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Waste Not, Want Not: Use the Microbial Fuel Cell to Create Elec
Gross. What is that in the toilet? But maybe it's not just gross. Did you know there are bacteria that digest organic waste and create electrons? What if there was a way to collect those electrons to power a circuit? In this science fair...
PBS
Pbs Kids: Design Squad: Build: Glow Sticks
Test your electrical skills! Can you make a working glow stick with a nine-volt battery and a strand of lights?
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Business & Personal Finance: Module 1: Careers in Construction [Pdf]
If you have ever thought about a career in construction then this publication is for you! It talks about what you need to learn and do to get that first great job. Whether you want to be an environmental engineer, a skilled ironworker,...
The Tech Interactive
The Tech Museum of Innovation: Save the Hiker [Pdf]
Can you build a device that will deliver life-saving treatment to someone in a hazardous situation? During this instructional activity, students will learn how energy is converted and transferred between objects. Working in groups and...
Hunkins Experiments
Hunkin's Experiments
This amazing website provides access to 200 exciting experiments from cartoonist, broadcaster, and engineer, Tim Hunkin. Each experiment is categorized and illustrated.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Open Course Ware: Introduction to Electronics, Signals, and Measurement
Online, college-level course on electronics. Class features the practical introduction to electronics with a focus on measurement and signals. Accessible components include downloadable lecture notes, assignments, and previous quiz and...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Smart Bridges
In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about engineering innovations that could help detect a bridge's structural weaknesses before they become dangerous. [5:21]
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Siegmund Loewe
Siegmund Loewe was a German engineer and businessman that developed vacuum tube forerunners of the modern integrated circuit. He pioneered both radio and television broadcasting, and the company he established with his brother, David...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Gumdrop Atoms
In this activity, students make a model of a lithium atom using gumdrops and toothpicks. Using this model, they investigate the makeup of an atom, including its relative size. Students also practice adding and subtracting electrons from...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: What Is Energy?
With an introduction to the ideas of energy, students discuss specific types of energy and the practical sources of energy. Hands-on activities help them identify types of energy in their surroundings and enhance their understanding of...
Technovation
Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Hydroelectric Waterwheel
Can you generate electricity from the flow of water by designing a waterwheel? In this challenge, students will be using everyday objects to create their waterwheel. This site contains a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to...
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: The Eniac
This site has the description and history of the ENIAC, including its development and use in World War II.
Other
Cdli: Science Fairs Homepage
At this site from the Center for Distance Learning and Innovation there's a monstrous listing of possible science fair projects. You can choose from primary (grades 1-4), elementary (grades 4-6), intermediate (grades 7-9), or senior...
Curated OER
History Matters: Eyewitness to Murder: Recounting the Ludlow Massacre
An eyewitness account provided by an electrical engineer about the brutal Ludlow Massacre in which three women and eleven children were killed in a tent city in Ludlow, Colorado, during the height of the Colorado Coal Strike.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Ac Circuit Analysis
This electrical engineering activity uses a TI graphing calculator to analyze AC circuits including sine waves, capacitance and inductive reactance, solving series AC circuits, and RMS calculations.
MadSci Network
The Mad Scientist Network: How Is a Jet Engine Started?
Using a question and answer format, this page explains the details of how a jet engine can be started. The different types of starters and when they are usually used is discussed.
University of St. Andrews (UK)
University of St. Andrews: Charles Augustin De Coulomb
A large complete authoritative biography of Coulomb. Five large pictures, over a dozen links to contemporaries, references, a poster, other mathematicians. A fine source.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Education: Spotlight Biography Inventors
This site provides information on American inventors Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Singer, Wilbur Wright, Thomas Alva Edison, Elias Howe, and Alexander Graham Bell. It offers pictures from and...
Science Museum, London
Science Museum: Robot Bugs
Build a robot and watch how it moves. Activity is designed to help students learn how electrical circuits and switches control how things move.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Arc Lamp
Invented decades before it could be used, the first type of electric light was so brilliant it was used for lighthouses and street lamps.
Famous Scientists
Famous Scientists: Alexander Bain
Find out about the life and work of Alexander Bain, the Scottish inventor and engineer who was first to invent and patent the electric clock.
Black Past
Black Past: Woods, Granville T.
A fascinating encyclopedia article about Granville Woods, a black inventor,often referred to as the "black Edison."
Energy for Sustainable Development
Esd Bulgaria: Kids & Energy: Energy Pioneers: John Presper Eckert Jr.
A profile of John Presper Eckert Jr., an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer.