Curated OER
Building Challenges
Students work together to complete different building challenges. They use prior knowledge to build tunnels and different types of bridges. They share their creations with the group.
Curated OER
TE Activity: Wow! That Captures It!
Students examine how motion capture technology allows computer based animators to design realistic effects in animation. They study how the center of gravity contributes to animation and how to use the center of gravity to write an...
Curated OER
Secrets of Lost Empires II -- Roman Bath
Students build an arch with no mortar following the design of the Romans. They use cookies to represent the blocks used and work to distribute the weight on the stones.
Curated OER
Tension and Compression
Students experience the forces of tension and compression by manipulating objects that are strong in each but not in both. Students construct a simple model of a beam bridge.
Curated OER
Solutions, Suspensions, and Colloids
In this solutions, suspension, and colloids worksheet, students answer questions as it relates to their reading information about solutions, suspensions, and colloids. Students observe different examples and complete a chart as they...
Teach Engineering
Investigating Torque
Torque--a teachable moment? Here's a lesson plan on torque (or moment) and variables that include size, reinforcement, structural bracing, and material that affect torque.
Curated OER
The Energy of Music
Students discover how engineers use sound energy. They participate in hands-on activities in which they discover how we know sound exists. They identify different pitches and frequencies as well.
Curated OER
Construct with Solids
Students discover which properties of solids lend themselves to building a tower through hands on trial and error and observation of others as they are building. They write down the steps it took them to build the tower and label an...
Curated OER
Strong as the Weakest Link
Students discover the types of stress that materials undergo. They examine how bridges and skyscrapers are built to withhold the tension. They create their own structure out of marshmallows and spaghetti.
Curated OER
Sea to Sky
Young scholars investigate the Earth's major landforms and how they occur, and how engineers apply this knowledge for the design of transportation systems, mining, and measuring natural hazards. They listen to a teacher-led lecture,...
Curated OER
Let's Settle It!
Students investigate and record data about sedimentation rates. They make a sedimentation bottle using aquarium gravel, sand and potting soil. They discuss the sedimentation rates that they see in their bottles.
Curated OER
Breaking Beams
Young scholars work together designing and building their own beams. They discover the concepts of stress and strain. They participate in a competition to determine the best beam.
Curated OER
TE Activity: Build Your Own Mobile
Students inquire into how the center of mass is the key factor in designing cars. They construct an oddly shaped object and determine its center of mass. They find that engineers are able to predict how objects will behave while they are...
Curated OER
Earthquake Shake Table
Students build an earthquake shake table. They design and build the table and test their completed structures using sandbags.
Curated OER
Jobs and Places
Students explore where jobs can be done. In this geography and careers lesson, the teacher presents the idea that some jobs are location specific while other are not, then students consider a list of jobs and determine where each would...
Curated OER
Environment: Wild Wind Direction
Students examine the different types of wind patterns. Using common materials, they construct weather vanes to measure and record wind direction over a two-week period. After analyzing the data, they draw conclusions about the...
Curated OER
Tornado!: Types and Formation
Learners discuss the different types of tornadoes and how they form. Working in groups, they record journal entries by conducting experiments with water bottles simulating vortex formation.
Curated OER
Close Enough?
Students examine how navigation is based on mathematics and how making a mistake in measuring an angle could have an impact on a target. They observe a teacher-led lecture, use a calculator to complete two worksheets, and participate in...
Curated OER
Forces and Graphing
Middle schoolers analyze graphs to determine relationships between variables and rates of change. They determine the basic concepts about static reaction forces. They determine the slope and equation of a line.
Curated OER
Strong as the Weakest Link
Students recognize that compression and tension forces are important considerations in building structures. They construct their own building structure using marshmellows and spaghetti to see which structure can hold the most weight.
Teach Engineering
Projectile Magic
What do the movies October Key and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone have in common? The fourth installment of a five-part module presents equations regarding projectile motion and how to rearrange them. Scholars view video clips...
Teach Engineering
Constructing Sonoran Desert Food Chains and Food Webs
Investigate desert biomes by creating food chains and food webs. Groups first research feeding habits of organisms in the Sonoran Desert. This information helps pupils draw food chains and webs to determine relationship between organisms.
Teach Engineering
Gumdrop Atoms
There's nothing sticky about the resource, unless you count the gumdrops! Scholars create a model of a lithium atom, complete with protons, neutrons, and electrons. It's just that these models are made with gumdrops and toothpicks.
Teach Engineering
Biomes and Population Dynamics - Balance Within Natural Systems
How large can a population become? The fifth installment of a nine-part unit teaches young ecologists about limiting factors that determine the carrying capacity of species in the Sonoran Desert. Here is a PowerPoint to help present this...