LABScI
Catapult: Flight of the Marshmallows
Watch your marshmallows fly. The engaging STEM activity has groups create a catapult to launch marshmallows. After testing their prototypes, they consider improvements and redesign their catapults.
Curated OER
Snail Car
Students design and create robotic cars using Legos and the Robolab program. They hold a "snail race" where the slowest car that can be determined to be actually moving is the winner.
Curated OER
Inventions: The Impact
Students understand that inventions fulfill a need. For this inventions lesson, students create simple designs of inventions that fill a need and understand the value of how inventions help society.
Curated OER
Energetic Musical Instruments
Students apply the principles and concepts associated with energy and the transfer of energy in an engineering context through the designing and making of a musical instrument. After the accomplishment of the design, students must...
Curated OER
Manufacturing Technologies: Making a Picture Frame
Young scholars use cereal boxes, paint, buttons and glue to design and make a frame for a photograph. They consider the different processes involved in making the frame and discuss how their observations apply to manufacturing systems...
Curated OER
Building an Underwater Habitat
Learners investigate underwater habitats. In this underwater habitat lesson, students study Aquarius and design their own underwater habitat that can sustain life. Learners work in groups and present their habitats to the class. Students...
Concord Consortium
School Bus Routes
Plan the way to school. Given a map of a school district, class members portray a transportation consultant hired to develop a bus transportation plan that will pick up the eligible riders and get them to school. The plan must contain...
Curated OER
Design an Egyptian Playground
Middle schoolers are broken up into four groups. Each group will use their knowledge about Egypt to originate a playground for Egyptian children. This will involve brainstorming ideas on paper, building a prototype with Legos or other...
Curated OER
Designing a Tropical Reserve System
Young scholars explain the complexity of resource, land use, and conservation decisions.
Curated OER
Model Storage Facility
Students design a storage facility that can withstand extreme wind loads. In this physics instructional activity, students decide how to build their facility considering budget constraints. They evaluate their design and present it to...
Curated OER
Eek, It leaks!
Students construct model landfill liners out of two-inch strips of garbage bags within resource constraints. The challenge is to construct a bag that will hold one cup of water without leaking. This represents similar challenges that...
Curated OER
Tessellations
Students create tessellations. In this math lesson, students explore symmetry and patterns through the creation of a tessellation. Students design and create their own tessellation.
Curated OER
Journey to the Afterlife
Students work together to design an Egyptian funerary barge. They discover the importance of the afterlife to Egyptians. They create their boat and share their design with the class. They compare and contrast the technology of Ancient...
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
TE Activity: The Boxes Go Mobile
Young scholars create a mobile of boxes and cubes that they made in a previous instructional activity that can be accessed from this page. They design the mobile using method that an engineer would use to balance the items based on...
California Academy of Science
Optimal and Sustainable: Renewable Energy Revamp
More than 100 cities around the world have shifted from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Scholars investigate a city wanting to make this switch, but needs help determining how to make the shift. Groups consider all options,...
Achieve
Framing a House
If members of your class wonder where they can use the math they learn in middle school, let them discover the answer. Learners apply geometry concepts of scale and measure to calculate the costs of framing a house addition.
Code.org
Multi-screen Apps
Scholars continue their study of event-driven programming by creating a multi-screen app in the fifth lesson of the series. They incorporate previously learned elements and events in the mini-project.
Curated OER
Earthquake Proof Structures
Eighth graders build a structure that is able to withstand a simulated earthquake. They research earthquakes, earthquake measurement, and society's preparation for and reaction to them. Pupils build models and present them to the...
Curated OER
Build an Approximate Scale Model of an Object
Students create a model of an object of their choice using sketches that they have drawn. They study what a scale model is and how to construct one. They examine the uses for scale models and why they are produced.
Curated OER
Engineering For The 3 Little Pigs
Students engage in a lesson which demonstrates the importance of rocks, soils and minerals in engineering and how using the right material for the right job is important. The students build three different sand castles and test them for...
Curated OER
Unit on Gandhi and Ahimsa
Students explore the history of Gandhi and his viewpoint and example of nonviolence. In this World History lesson plan, students complete numerous research assignments and activities over the course of nine lessons to expand their...
Curated OER
Clay Portrait Project
Students discuss facial proportions and mix colors similar to flesh tones. In this art lesson plan, students draw and paint a portrait and then translate this image into a 3D form using clay.
Curated OER
The Need For Shelter
Fifth graders build a shelter to protect themselves from rain. They perform durability and water proof testing on the shelters. They make observations of plants found in the Amazon rainforest.