eGFI
Zero-Energy Home Design
Challenge young engineers to design a one-bedroom scale house that would collect and maintain as much heat as possible. Special constraints must be adhered to, but creativity is also allowed. Diagrams and background information are...
DiscoverE
Windy City Tower
Your class will be blown away when they build their own city tower structure! Engineering scholars partner up to plan, build, and test their own paper towers. As they build, they gain valuable design skills, learn about wind tunnel...
Purdue University
Design of a Reindeer Habitat for an Indiana Zoo
What would Rudolph ask for in his ideal home? Pupils analyze the characteristics of the reindeer to create their perfect zoo habitats. A STEM lesson focuses on the design of the habitat while factoring constraints such as space, diet,...
GeoGebra
Too Big, or Not Too Big
Determine whether the point is just right. The interactive allows participants to input a constraint equation. Pupils pick a point and determine whether it is too big, not too big, or just right for the constraint. Using the graphing...
Curated OER
Criteria and Constraints in Aircraft Design
Young scholars investigate criteria and constraints for designing any aircraft. They define these terms and categorize a series of examples of both. Using the constraints and criteria set before them, they design and construct airplanes...
North Carolina State University
Pipe Cleaner Towers
Small groups work together to create a tower out of 15 pipe cleaners under a set of imposed limitations. First, restrict team members to use only one arm, and then remove the use of spoken language. There is also a time limit. The brief...
Teach Engineering
Exploring Variables While Testing and Improving Mint-Mobiles (for High School)
Mint candies are good for more than just one's breath. Using basic materials such as mint candies, straws, index cards, and Popsicle sticks, scholars create race cars that meet a given budget as well as design constraints. They perform...
Lincoln Public Schools
Cereal Box Project
Challenge your class with this fun and engaging engineering design project. The goal, to create a brand new cereal complete with a list of ingredients, a name and logo, and a box to hold it in. Starting with a survey to determine the...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Working with Wind Energy
After reading about how wind turbines work to collect clean energy, groups brainstorm and design their own windmill. Within the provided financial and physical constraints, groups must build a working windmill using only the materials...
Kenan Fellows
Electricity: Sources, Usage, Challenges, and the Future
What does the future of energy look like? Junior engineers collaborate to discover a solution to the global energy crisis during a very hands-on lesson. The unit focuses on learning through collaboration to develop a deep understanding...
Curated OER
Boat Hull Design
Working in small groups students develop three alternative boat designs. They discuss the rationale for the type of hull, propeller, location of ballast, and type of building material used in their design. They build their boat.
DiscoverE
Design a Flotation Device
Save the soup! Scholars devise a flotation device using straws, balloons, foam, corks, and other objects. A can of soup must stay afloat for at least a minute with this device—your dinner might depend on it!
Bowland
Highway Link Design
Discover a renewed appreciation for the highway transportation department. with a lesson that has scholars design a highway route that meets certain conditions, including traffic flow, curves, speed limits, financial costs, and...
Purdue University
Design of an Earthen Dam for a Lafayette Neighborhood
How do dams support bodies of water? Scholars engage in a hands-on STEM activity where they design, build, and test dams to learn about bodies of water and how humans use natural resources. They learn how criteria and constraints affect...
Curated OER
Cantilever Beam Design
Students design a cantilever I-beam given specific criteria. For this technology lesson, students analyze stress and deflection using a computer program. They present their result in class orally.
Curated OER
Design Packing to Safely Mail Raw Spaghetti
Young scholars investigate and determine a way to mail raw spaghetti. In small groups, they package their raw spaghetti using various packing materials, mail the package through the postal system, and evaluate their packing design after...
Curated OER
Lesson 2 - Design Process-Measuring Wind Speed
A terrific lesson focused on the design process. It begins with a presentation, "Design: Solve a Problem," which lists the steps of the process and then introduces the specific challenge: to build a device that measures wind speed....
Teach Engineering
Straw Bridges
Pairs work as engineering teams to design and build model bridges from drinking straws and tape. In this third segment in a series of 10, teams compete in an attempt to build the strongest bridge. To help with the design, the groups...
Discovery Education
Jets in Flight
This Discovery Education activity provides the information needed to understand the basics of flight. Before taking off, young pilots learn the eight stages of the engineering design process. Small groups then design and build an...
Teach Engineering
Super Slinger Engineering Challenge
How well can you launch a ping-pong ball? Small groups design launchers that can launch a ping-pong ball 20 feet into a target. The teams follow the engineering design process as they develop a solution that meets the design...
DiscoverE
Tape Dispenser Challenge
Help your class get out of a sticky situation! Future engineers explore existing tape dispensers and then design a new system for dispensing tape. To put these systems to the test, they build and evaluate prototypes of their designs.
DiscoverE
Pipe Maze
Here's a lesson that is simply a-MAZE-ing! Introduce science scholars to pipeline systems through a hands-on project. Partnered pupils participate in the design, construct, and test a PVC pipeline maze. Reusable materials and clear...
DiscoverE
Working with Watermills
Water is a powerful force; harness it through watermills. The task at hand is to create a simple watermill that functions in flowing water for at least three minutes. Scholars work together in teams to design and construct such a...
Radford University
How Do I Design a Raised Bed Garden to Accommodate My Plants?
Give plants the best place to grow. Given constraints on plant spacing, pupils design a raised bed garden using graph paper, then calculate the perimeter, surface area, and volume. They use the provided costs of lumber and soil to...