Design Teacher Resources

Collaborative groups work together with a variety of materials to design an eight-inch canoe that floats for at least three minutes. There is no direct instruction involved in this plan, just a list of materials and a procedure for...

Hold a competition in your science or engineering class to find out which group can design the most effective new style of paper cup from a single sheet of paper. Each group will be challenged by this activity and will have fun at the...

After reading about biomedical engineering and properties of materials, collaborative groups design a cast for setting a broken bone. They test for stability and mass, and then communicate their invention by creating a poster. This...

Here is a lesson in collaboration cleverly disguised as an engineering design activity. There is no background material for you to teach here,  just instructions about materials and rules for participating groups. Use this as...

Design protection from high-speed particles. The STEM lesson plan highlights why astronauts need protection from space debris. Pupils use the design process to design, build, and test a spacesuit that will protect a balloon from a...

Use simple machines to escape from a tree house. Pupils learn about simple machines and how they are useful in everyday life in a STEM lesson. Groups then design a device to rescue a friend stuck in a tree house.

What goes into a museum display? A secondary-level STEM project prompts groups to design a museum display for the Tech Museum of Innovation. They create an analogous, interactive model illustrating a science concept to complete the...

Engineering challenges are not just man-made ... nature has its own set of them. A hands-on STEM activity has groups designing a seed dispersal system. Each group can only use one sheet of paper — a tough task!

Dive into animation creation using Dreamworks® animated films. Compare and contrast characters, wonder and ponder why the plot is so important, and think of background and themes as your creativity unrolls onto paper.

After an overview of Islamic traditions and art, young artists create their own geometric shapes and patterns using only a straightedge and a compass.

Set clear planning goals and objectives for your school year with this nice set of printables. Designed for homeschool teachers, these handouts include spaces for outlining your school's mission and goals, objectives for each...

There's more to a quilt than just a pretty pattern—there's geometry! Explore angle classification using an artistic approach to show your class that quilt designs are really just intricate geometric patterns. Here, scholars create a...

Groups create a set for a play or story they select, build a model, and share their stage with the class. The team explains the rationale for their choices and the mood they feel their staging creates.

Dare to aim high. Learn form your mistakes. Take pride. Pay a compliment. These are just some of the positive and uplifting statements you'll find on this beautifully designed display, which you can hang up in your classroom for years to...

Put your students' map skills to the test with this engaging cross-curricular project. Given the task of developing new hiking trails for their local community, young cartographers must map out beginner and intermediate...

Learners that need extra support will benefit from this packet of materials that provide differentiated instructional materials designed for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's thematic unit study of color.

Explore different methods of architectural rendering and technical drawing. Pupils learn about cross hatching, parallel line rendering, random line rendering, rubbing, shading, and stippling in the second lesson of the series of 11....

Up, up, and away! Physics scholars learn the secrets to defying gravity through engineering. The video describes the forces acting on various parts of the plane and the designs that minimize these forces or increase opposing forces. The...

Let's start designing a house. Future architects create floor plans for a house given certain constraints. They calculate the area of each room in the house. This is the 11th lesson in a 15-part unit.

What types of materials absorb sound? Learners explore sound waves, the decibel scale, and how different materials affect sound. Then, they use their knowledge of sound meters to complete a STEM engineering design task to build...

Fifty eye-catching pages contain six lessons about Roald Dahl's novel, Matilda. Each lesson has a theme and covers a different subject—literacy, social-emotional learning, science, and geography. Scholars analyze characters, examine...

Do not let the class just sit and rot. Pupils learn how decomposition and nutrient recycling is important to an ecosystem. Groups design an experiment to determine how environmental conditions affect decomposition. They develop a poster...

Let everyone bring out their inner Stan Lee, and practice creating visually-pleasing comic strips that represent and liven up their stories, essays, personal experiences, and the personality of the creator.   

Why do experiments require a control? Guide scholars through designing an experiment to see what they can do to evaporate water faster with a lesson that stresses the importance of controlling all variables. The second activity...