Curated OER
Turn It Upside Down: Introduction to Computer-Aided Design
High schoolers explore a computer-aided design program. Students chart out roller coaster design, computer graphics and architecture. High schoolers focus on understanding the connections between mathematics, science, technology and...
Science NetLinks
Green Roof Design
Green roofs aren't just eco-friendly — they are literally green with trees. Groups learn about the concept of green roofs in order to be able to design one. The groups design a 5,000-square-foot green roof for a fictional apartment row...
Curated OER
Cover Up: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering
Blend art, adolescent snacking habits, and math to create new cereal boxes. Secondary learners review scale drawings. They use this information to construct cereal boxes to scale and will compare their creation to the original product to...
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Design and Draw a Mixed-Media Structure
Mix up your lessons with a resource on mixed-media structures. Scholars design a structure out of paper, balloons, and string that will lift a pencil to the greatest height; they construct the structure at a later time.
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...
DiscoverE
Arts and Engineering Activity Packet: Grades 3-5
Art and science sometimes go hand in hand. A set of four activities for learners in grades 3-5 teaches engineering concepts as part of art projects. Class members build homemade robots, elastic puppets, musical instruments, and...
Teach Engineering
Working Together to Live Together
Whose home is it anyway? Design teams plan a housing development in which they must also protect a native species. The teams consist of a project manager, civil engineer, environmental engineer, and graphic designer. Teams present their...
DiscoverE
Designing Highway Interchanges
How do engineers determine the most efficient highway designs? Introduce young scientists to the world of topology, the branch of mathematics that examines how things are connected. Teams use model highways to create the most...
Curated OER
The Math in the Design and Building of Bridges
Research various types of bridge designs. Your class will be asked to consider what it would be like without bridges while learning about how they work. They will construct a model bridge based on given parameters. They then calculate...
Curated OER
Engineering Pop-Ups
Students explore the art of paper engineering and pop-up-books. They listen to a teacher-led lecture on pop-up books, discuss the process of paper engineering, and plan, design and construct an original pop-up book.
Trash For Teaching
The Light-House Project
Groups work together to design a lighthouse, from designing and drawing the wiring diagram, to creating prototypes of the switch and circuit, to envisioning and building a scale model along with a blueprint. By including different...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Build Your Own Robot Arm
Engineers team up to design and construct an 18-inch-long robotic arm that can successfully pick up a paper cup. Each group is given the exact same set of materials, but it is up to them to decide what to use and how to use it. It is a...
Curated OER
Copper Sheet Boxes: Artistic Engineering
Secondary artists create a metal box made from copper tooling foil and solid oil paint sticks (Shiva Paintstiks). The exacting design develops organizational principles and the painted finish allows for individual expression of...
Curated OER
Suspension Bridge Drawing Lesson
Students study the basic artistic styles of suspension bridges. They follow step-by-step instructions to draw a suspension bridge. Students discover volcabulary related to the architecture of bridges. They examine websites of bridges.
Curated OER
Designing a 2-liter Pop Bottle Piece to be Used for Water Rockets
Students design and create water rockets using recycled materials. In this technology lesson plan, students measure and sketch their project design before drawing them using SolidWorks. They construct the bottle as accurately as possible.
Curated OER
Future Engineers: Tools for Success
Seventh graders create and engineer model transportation vehicles using crafting materials. They use technical drawing to develop their ideas and choose the appropriate tools and processes during the manufacturing of their designs. They...
Curated OER
Civil Engineering: Designing Bridges
Students examine the bridges of the United States. They discuss the concept of balance. They draw their own design of a suspension bridge.
National First Ladies' Library
Fashion Trends in the 1960s: Hippies, Flower Children, and Design
Middle schoolers use the Internet to research and examine clothing styles of 1960s, draw pictures of various clothing and accessories popular in that decade, trace images on top of foil tray or pan to design a stamp, and make a timeline...
Curated OER
Fish Tanks: Volume and Surface Area
Given a very realistic challenge, your young geometers design residential fish tanks in rectangular and triangular prism shapes. They compute the volume of water each will hold. They also determine the size of plastic covers for each...
Curated OER
Toothpick Sculpture
You'll be surprized at how much engineering, design, and creativity can go into a toothpick and a marshmallow. Learners make toothpick sculptures where they construct three-dimentional models by sticking marshmallows and toothpicks...
NASA
Egg Drop Lander
You have to crack a few eggs to make a good engineer! Working in small groups, young scholars design, build, and test devices that protect an egg from breaking when dropped from a ladder.
Curated OER
Goldberg's Gears
Students engage in a instructional activity that is concerned with the design principles employed by the engineer Reuben Goldberg. They read a biographical sketch of the artist and then create the context for studying how machines work....
Curated OER
Make an Alarm!
Learners read the story, Dear Mr. Henshaw. They build an alarm system for something in the classroom, as the main character Leigh does to protect his lunchbox from thieves. Students explore alarms and use their creativity to create an...
Berkeley Engineering and Mentors
Marshmallow Catapaults
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...