Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Universal Language of Engineering Drawings

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students practice the ability to produce clear, complete, accurate and detailed design drawings through an engineering design challenge. Using only the specified materials, teams are challenged to draw a design for a wind-powered car....
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Pharmaceutical Research Design Problem

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Through this lesson and its associated activity, students explore the role of biomedical engineers working for pharmaceutical companies. First, students gain background knowledge about what biomedical engineers do, how to become a...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design Step 7: Improve and Redesign/manufacture a Product

For Teachers 9th - 10th
As students learn more about the manufacturing process, they use what they learned from testing their designs in the previous activity to continue to improve and redesign. Students also have the opportunity to manufacture their final...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Drawing Designs in Detail

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students practice creating rudimentary detail drawings. They learn how engineers communicate the technical information about their designs using the basic components of detail drawings. They practice creating their own drawings of a...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Drawing Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students use a compass and a permanent magnet to trace the magnetic field lines produced by the magnet. By positioning the compass in enough spots around the magnet, the overall magnet field will be evident from the collection of arrows...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Working Together to Live Together

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students experience civil and environmental engineering by planning a housing development in an existing biome, while also protecting the native species that live there. They conduct research, draw plans, make brochures and give...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design a Flying Machine

For Teachers 5th - 7th
The purpose of this activity is for the students to draw a design for their own flying machine. They will apply their knowledge of aircraft design and the forces acting on them. The students will start with a brainstorming activity where...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Engineering in Reverse!

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students learn about the process of reverse engineering and how this technique is used to improve upon technology. Students analyze push-toys and draw diagrams of the predicted mechanisms inside the toys. Then, they disassemble the toys...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Teaching the Engineering Design Process

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process (EDP) while learning about assistive devices and biomedical engineering. They first go through a design-build-test activity to learn the steps of the cyclical engineering design...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Engineer a Coin Sorter

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students learn about the engineering design process and how it is used to engineer products for everyday use. Students individually brainstorm solutions for sorting coins and draw at least two design ideas. They work in small groups to...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Requirements & Constraints: Making Model Parking Garages

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
The difference between an architect and an engineer is sometimes confusing because their roles in building design can be similar. Students experience a bit of both professions by following a set of requirements and meeting given...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Off Road Wheelchair Challenge

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students further their understanding of the engineering design process (EDP) while being introduced to assistive technology devices and biomedical engineering. They are given a fictional client statement and are tasked to follow the...
Lesson Plan
Other

Ontario Council for Technology Education: Designing a Tool Storage Board [Pdf]

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students begin this project by taking an inventory of hand tools at home. They then categorize their tools and make a detailed list in a spreadsheet. After research on tool storage, they will choose materials and a tool board style, then...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Simple Machines

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Through a five-lesson series with five hands-on activities, students are introduced to six simple machines - inclined plane, wedge, screw, lever, pulley, wheel-and-axle - as well as compound machines, which are combinations of two or...
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make Drawings of Three Dimensional Objects

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Using the Glass Box Theory, students will make scaled technical drawings of 3D objects. This site includes the challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Learn to Draw Proportions

For Students Pre-K - 1st
In this challenge, students will draw an animal with accurate proportions. The website includes tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their process.
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Naturally Organized

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students work in teams to design a tabletop supply organizer inspired by the natural home of an insect species. Their prototype stores the group's classroom supplies (scissors, crayon boxes, pencils, and glue sticks). In addition to...
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Plane Painting Machine

For Students Pre-K - 1st
A challenge where student create a plane painting machine which draws a design on your airplane. The site includes the challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs Nova: The Design Process: From Idea to Solution

For Teachers 9th - 10th
What does innovation look like, and how can one generate innovative ideas in the classroom? This collection is built around "design thinking" and is intended to help educators and learners explore the invention of real, practical...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Libraries:industrial Drawings at the Smithsonian: Doodles & Drafts

For Students 9th - 10th
Drawing is a key element in an inventor's skill set. When it comes to the working out of new ideas, inventors turn to pencil and paper. Mixing art and science, this exhibition site showcases a collection of industrial drawings that...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What Happened to the Water? Designing Ways to Get and Clean

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this scenario-based activity, students design ways to either clean a water source or find a new water source, depending on given hypothetical family scenarios. They act as engineers to draw and write about what they could do to...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Stack It Up!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students analyze and begin to design a pyramid. Working in engineering teams, they perform calculations to determine the area of the pyramid base, stone block volumes, and the number of blocks required for their pyramid base. They make a...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Build It Better!

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students learn about tornados and how engineers design structures to better withstand them. Students then design and draw a house that will better withstand a tornado. Students also learn about the Fujita Tornado Damage Score.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Portable Wheelchair Ramp Challenge

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process while learning more about assistive devices and biomedical engineering applied to basic structural engineering concepts. Their engineering challenge is to design, build and test...