Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Defining an Engineering Design Problem With Paper Airplanes
In this fun lesson, you will be the "customer" ordering a paper airplane, and your student teams will be engineering companies that will manufacture planes. Before they start making planes, they need to define the criteria and...
Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, Stevens Institute of Technology
Ciese: Scratch My Back: Children's Engineering Activity
This instructional activity is based on the book Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup. In the book, a big, smelly bear has an itch in the middle of his back and can't scratch it. Nothing the bear tries works. Using the Engineering Design...
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Engineering Ups and Downs
Engineering design lesson examines the principles behind working elevators. Teams of students explore how elevators work, then design, build, and evaluate their own elevator to service a toy car garage.
Thinkport Education
Thinkport: Designing a Healthier, Happier Meal: The Engineering Design Process
See how STEM professionals typically work on teams to complete projects.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Strongest Pump of All
In this lesson the students will learn how the heart functions. Students will be introduced to the concept of action potential generation. The lesson will explain how action potential generation causes the electrical current that causes...
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: Maze Challenge
As the first engineering design challenge of the unit, students are introduced to the logic for solving a maze. student groups apply that logic to program LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robots to navigate through a maze, first with no sensors, and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Red Cabbage Chemistry
Students take advantage of the natural ability of red cabbage juice to perform as a pH indicator to test the pH of seven common household liquids. Then they evaluate the accuracy of the red cabbage indicator, by testing the pH of the...
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Tinkering With Tops
Learners learn about the engineering design process as they design, build, and test spinning tops using everyday materials. The objective of the design is to have the top spin at least 10 seconds within a thirty centimeter diameter.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: A Mini World
As students learn about the creation of biodomes, they are introduced to the steps of the engineering design process, including guidelines for brainstorming. Students learn how engineers are involved in the design and construction of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Olympic Engineering
The lesson begins by introducing Olympics as the unit theme. The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the techniques of engineering problem solving. Specific techniques covered in the lesson include brainstorming and the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Edible Rovers
Students act as Mars exploratory rover engineers. They evaluate rover equipment options and determine what parts fit in a provided NASA budget. With a given parts list, teams use these constraints to design for their rover. The students...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Car Collision Testing & Tradeoffs: Don't Crack Humpty
Student groups are provided with a generic car base on which to design a device/enclosure to protect an egg as it rolls down a ramp at increasing slopes. During this activity, student teams design, build and test their prototype...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy Systems and Solutions
The Energy Systems and Solutions unit brings students through the exploration of science and engineering concepts as they relate to energy issues in everyday life. Issues surrounding energy production and energy consumption provide a...
Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, Stevens Institute of Technology
Ciese: Reverse Engineering of a Common Product
A telecollaborative project where students communicate engineering concepts across the globe. Student tasks are to deconstruct a common device, then design reassembly instructions for others worldwide to follow to attempt to reconstruct...
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: Hybrid Vehicle Design Challenge
This module is written for a first-year algebra-based physics class, though it could easily be modified for conceptual physics. It is intended to provide hands-on activities to teach the overarching concept of energy, as it relates to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Implementing Biomimicry and Sustainable Design
This unit provides students with an opportunity to study ecological relationships with an emphasis on the Sonoran Desert. Students appreciate the complexity and balance that supports the exchange of energy and matter within food webs....
PBS
Pbs Kids: Design Squad Nation: Games: Fidgit
This resource allows students to practice engineering skills while trying to win a fun interactive game.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Protect Those Eyes
Students design and build prototypes for protective eyewear. They choose different activities or sports that require protective eyewear and design a device for that particular use. Students learn about the many ways in which the eyes can...
Other
Lincoln Public Schools: Applied Technology & Engineering: Bridge Busters [Pdf]
In this activity, students design and build the lightest bridge to support the heaviest load. They investigate different bridge designs and building materials, learn key terminology, and test their prototypes in order to meet the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Engineering and the Periodic Table
Students learn about the periodic table and how pervasive the elements are in our daily lives. After reviewing the table organization and facts about the first 20 elements, they play an element identification game. They also learn that...
Other
University of Cincinnati: Project Step: Build a Bridge
In this two-period lesson, students work in teams to focus on the real-world application of bridge design and construction based on capacity, cost, and aesthetics.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Sticks and Stones Will Break That Bone!
Students learn about the strength of bones and methods of helping to mend fractured bones. During a class demonstration, a chicken bone is broken by applying a load until it reaches a point of failure (fracture). Then, working as...