Berkeley Engineering and Mentors
Newspaper Towers
The challenge is quite simple: build a tall tower from a predesignated number of newspaper sheets. Emerging engineers work in teams to build the tallest structure. You will demonstrate some structure shapes and discuss their relative...
Little Bins for Little Hands
St. Patrick's Day Challenge Cards
Nineteen cards offer an assortment of St. Patrick's Day-themed STEM activities. Scholars choose from a variety of cards to take part in activities such as building coin towers, growing green carnations, tying a celtic knot, and more!
Curated OER
Russian Buildings
Russia has some of the world's most fantastic architecture. Let your class explore the spires, domes, arches and towers as they draw Russian buildings. First they design an original building, and then they add in additional buildings...
Curated OER
"N.A.S.A." Tower Structures Lesson Plan
Students, who are talented and gifted, create tower structure according to the given specifications that is able to support a tennis ball for 75 seconds but costs the least to build. They each design a tower in their journal but work in...
Curated OER
Newspaper Tower
Students design and construct a tower out of newspaper using a limited supply of newspaper, tape, and scissors. After completing their designs, they identify which designs can withstand the self-weight of the newspaper tower as well as...
Curated OER
Leaning Tower of Pasta
Students experiment with different structures to determine which ones are able to handle the greatest amount of load using spaghetti and marshmallows. They discuss how engineers design buildings, construct their buildings and complete a...
PBS
Kinetic Sculpture
Build a sculpture that moves on its own; no power source required! The second installment of a five-part series has individuals create a sculpture that moves with the wind. It can't topple over though, so some type of support is necessary.
Curated OER
Tower Investigation and the Egg
Pupils build three types of towers, engineering them to hold an egg one foot high for 15 seconds. They discover that engineering designs are subject to constraints such as time, money and size specifications. In this activity students...
Curated OER
Balsa Towers
Students build their own tower using concepts from previous lessons. They are given a set of materials to use and general guidelines. They share what they have created with their classmates.
Curated OER
Tower Challenge
Learners investigate how buildings are able to support a great amount of weight and stand on their own. They participate in a class discussion about engineering, and in small groups construct a free standing tower that is one meter...
Skyscraper Museum
What is a Skyscraper?
Skyscrapers are amazing feats of architectural design that create the iconic skylines of the world's biggest cities. Young architects explore the defining characteristics of these monstrous towers with the first lesson in this four-part...
DiscoverE
Kinetic Sculpture
Let your creativity run wild. Scholars build a sculpture out of basic materials. These sculptures must be able to move in the wind (from an electric fan). However, they must also withstand the wind enough to not fall over—it's quite the...
Curated OER
Construction Starts on Freedom Tower
Students are introduced to an image of Freedom Tower, then read a news article about the construction of this building that will be completed in 2011. In this current events instructional activity, the teacher introduces the article with...
Curated OER
Paper Towers
Students have the opportunity to use model-building as a way to help comprehend the forces and phenomena at work in the world around them. They describe gravity as a universal force that pulls everything toward the center of the earth....
Curated OER
Tower Challenge
Young scholars are given a problem to solve which is to construct a "Cost-effective" tower which supports a designated load. They work in teams to devise plans to create a tower capable of holding a standard brick using index cards.
Curated OER
Towers
Sixth graders study the different methods to build a shake table. In this earthquake lesson students build their own shake table and experiment with their own structure design.
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
ENERGY, Design Competition: Energy Systems of the Future!
Students examine energy, where it comes from and the different fuels that are used. In this energy lesson students design an energy infrastructure using a renewable energy source.
Curated OER
Tower O'Power
Students work together to design a tower from a computer program. They manufacture the pieces with a laser cutter and compete in a competition to determine the best design for stress relief on towers. They discover the work engineers...
Curated OER
The - Landmarks: referring to buildings and landmarks
In this building and landmarks instructional activity, students choose either 0 or The to go in front of a sentence about a famous building or landmark. Students complete 12 sentences.
Curated OER
Skyscrapers: Engineering Up!
Young scholars build their own newspaper skyscrapers with limited materials and time. They identify several different structural engineering principles relating to skyscrapers. They explain how their towers resisted the wind load.
Curated OER
Castle/Fort Unit
Students compare and contrast castles and forts. They observe buildings in their community and consider how castles and forts are similar. They design their own castle or fort and brainstorm materials to build with, discuss how the...
Curated OER
Navajo Sand Paintings
Research the use of sand paintings in the Navajo tribe. Your learners work together to design their own sand painting. They share their creation with the class describing what the symbols mean.
Curated OER
Building Blocks
Students study the relationship between landscape and building architecture. In this landscape architecture lesson plan, students examine the proposals for a new school building, and select the proposal they think is the best....