Scholars participate in two design challenges concerning flight in the second instructional activity of the series. They design balloon crafts that have neutral buoyancy and forward motion.

Launch a activity on flight with a challenging resource that asks scholars to first brainstorm and test ways to move a ping pong ball with given materials, then apply the results to design a launcher for them.

It's okay to play with your food—just this once! Scholars design and create meshes and chutes to sort pasta by size and shape. They test their designs and make improvements as necessary.

Will your next buoyancy lab rise to the occasion? Make a splash with action figure divers! Teams of young physicists explore the relationship between mass and buoyancy by adding weights or balloons to achieve a diver that neither sinks...

Middle schoolers visualize a communication system. They encode, decode, transmit, receive and store messages. Students use a code sheet and flashlight for this process. They will also maintain a storage sheet from which they can retrieve...

Students distinguish between diffusion and osmosis and describe ways that drugs can be administered.  In this diffusion lesson students research career paths and create a presentation to give to the class. 

Students explore the design process. They discuss why new products are made, examine backscratchers brought in from home and discuss why it is a useful device, and working with a partner draw and construct a backscratcher.

Students construct a controlled experiment using Lego vehicles. They create a standard vehicle, test the vehicle on different surfaces, and calculate the average results.

Students examine the concept that static electricity is a phenomenon that involves positive and negative charges. They explore the Static Electricity section of the Science, Technology and Engineering website to learn more about the...

Students build a robot out of a 3-¿¿ inch floppy disk drive, two floppy disks, and some other miscellaneous supplies. They apply information they gather about electrical circuits from a web-based circuit design program.

Students examine rocks and minerals. Using the internet, students research rocks and how they are formed. They use word processing software to list minerals and materials that form specific rocks.

Students examine the inhalation and exhalation process. They create a model pair of lungs from given materials. They discover the technology that has been developed based on engineers examining the respiratory system.

Students research how water is used to generate electricity. They investigate water's potential-to-kinetic energy transfer in hands-on activities about falling water and waterwheels. They take measurements, calculate averages and graph...

Students analyze the basic concept of Global Positioning Systems using triangulation and measurement on a small scale in the classroom. They describe a satellite and how it helps in locating a person on Earth. They explain how...

Students explore how sound waves move through liquids, solids and gases in a series of simple sound energy experiments. They describe how sound needs molecules to move and that changing the medium that it travels through changes the...

Learners measure the pH of soil samples from a hypothetical site to locate a contaminant spill and will predict the direction of groundwater flow using mathematical modeling. They use the engineering design process to develop...

Learners, after reading the Web page Turbojet Thrust and completing the activity, explain how jet engines use air to produce thrust. The educational software ""FoilSim" is used in this lesson to help students calculate thrust.

Learners work together to use a sample seismograph. They role play the position of an engineering firm that is to analyze the machine. They discover how engineers develop new machines to take measurements.

Young scholars identify the parts of an engine using a graph. In this statistics instructional activity, students make a graph from their collected data. They calculate the volume of a cylinder using a line of...

Students explore the effect of chemical erosion on statues and monuments. They use chalk to see what happens when limestone is placed in liquids with different pH values. They also discover several things that engineers are doing to...

Learners determine how engineers decide on choices for final designs and sites for construction. They look at a surveyor's report while they evaluate sites where a pyramid could be build. They consider the distance the pyramid would be...

Learners experiment with a vibrating ruler and a kazoo to study the different pitches and frequencies they produce. They create both high and low pitch sound waves. They examine how engineers use sound energy when designing electronic...

Fourth graders study how environmental engineers monitor water quality. They use environmental indicators to determine the quality of stream water in their area. They count the number of macroinverabrates and use the information they...

Students apply their knowledge of technology to help them build. In this science and technology lesson, students build straw towers and investigate the strength and form of the structure. They analyze the best design the make the...