Design Teacher Resources

Learners design an instrument. In this sound, vibration and pitch instructional activity, students learn about the characteristics of sound, vibration and pitch.  Learners design a guitar using the assembled craft materials and...

In this electrical circuit activity, high schoolers answer 5 open ended questions about the design and safety of an AC-DC power supply.

In this physics worksheet, learners design and build an electrical circuit using LED as a light source. They complete 2 short answer questions about their design.

In this physics activity, students design and build a signal generator. They write a lab report and answer 4 short answer questions about their design.

In this electrical learning exercise students design an intercom circuit and answer 2 open-ended questions about the volume control and microphone of the intercom. This learning exercise can be printed and the answers to the questions...

Students design a tornado-proof building. In this inquiry-based instructional activity, students demonstrate their knowledge of tornadoes and the damage they can cause by trying to design a building that can withstand a tornado.

In this DC motor activity, the learner answers 3 open-ended questions pertaining to the design of a DC motor. The activity is printable and the answers are revealed online.

Students read and discuss the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and design a structure that will withstand a clay bear's force sitting on it. They develop a list of activities that the three bears do that real bears can't do, and in...

Students examine the discipline of biomedical engineering or bioengineering. They complete worksheets by participating in reading background information and completing a hands on activity. They design a prototype of a cast to set a...

What to do, bunnies are getting into the garden and eating all the carrots! After reading the story Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! the class works together to design a device that will keep those bunnies out of the garden. They get together in...

Introduce the background of design and designers and their role in communicating their thoughts to others. In groups, you can assign participation in a writing cluster on various designers and write paragraphs to submit to magazines. To...

As a part of an architecture unit, 10th graders research and draw a building's exterior. They view images of buildings Frank Lloyd Wright has designed, attend lecture, conduct research on architectural design, and then draw an exterior...

Class members work in pairs to build a catapult to launch a grape a given distance. The catapult project, a compound machine, reinforces pupils' understanding of simple machines.

Students listen to and watch the opera, Don Pasquale, by Donizetti. They discuss the importance of sets and costumes in an opera and then, with a partner, design a period costume for each of the main characters in the opera.

Fabric dyeing and textile art has been around for hundreds of years. Budding fabric artists explore the Batik dyeing technique and color blending as they create unique and personal designs. The full step-by-step procedure and materials...

Explore the concept of shapes by using tools in Kid Pix Deluxe 4 computer program. This techno-shapes lesson has pupils watching a video about shapes, and using the Kid Deluxe 4 computer program to draw shapes. They get to...

Students attempt to design the tallest structure that they can with the given materials which are wooden dowels and rubber bands. They discuss the physics of their structure and how they would improve it the next time they built a...

Budding artists explore the shapes and parts that make insects so fascinating to study, then use what they see to create original insect inspired designs. They use wax, dye, and fabric to create their designs.

A project-based learning plan focuses on landscapes in the community. After identifying problems, such as dead trees or misplaced automatic sprinklers, learners design solutions, contact local organizations to fix the problems, and do...

After a brief lecture on levers, torque, projectiles, and the five-step engineering design cycle, young physical science learners or engineers build catapults out of craft sticks. This is an open-ended exploration of what works and what...

Students design a solution to a problem based on the Industrial Revolution. In this design lesson plan, students come up with architectural designs and present them to teachers in a simulated factory.

A few class periods will be required to complete this physics investigation with your high schoolers. There is an unavailable video written into the lesson plan, but there is plenty of material here to bridge the gap. Two terrific...

Bugs can be creepy - and fun! Kids create a positive and negative design by repeatedly drawing a simple insect overlaid with a geometric shape. The outcome is really neat and will help build spacial reasoning, visual acuteness,...

Learners discuss what makes a healthy and balanced meal, and then they make them out of clay. They use hand building techniques, radial design, and their knowledge of healthy foods to create unique mini-sized meals for a wall display.