How do dams support bodies of water? Scholars engage in a hands-on STEM activity where they design, build, and test dams to learn about bodies of water and how humans use natural resources. They learn how criteria and constraints affect...

Utilize the lesson on utilization. The second installment of a nine-part technology/engineering series teaches scholars about the flow of a balanced assembly line and the definition of utilization. Videos, activities, and simulations...

What a waste! The last installment of a nine-part technology/engineering series teaches learners about medical waste disposal systems. Conducting a simulation allows individuals to understand how monetary considerations constrain waste...

Investigate invisible forces. Young engineers design a setup that changes the direction of a steel ball using a magnetic force. The purpose of the setup is to model the gravitational pull of spacecraft by planetary bodies.

Future engineers create robotic arms like those on rovers built by NASA in the second lesson of the series. They test their devices by attempting to pick up and move cups to a specified location.

Although preparation-intensive, this would be an unforgettable experience in materials engineering. Stimulate learners' curiosity with a slide show and then introduce them to the components of concrete. Small groups mix and pour concrete...

Learners role-play as engineers designing wedge tools. They devise methods for shaping quarry rocks into pyramid blocks. Following a teacher demonstration, they use materials such as soap, clay, and foam for blocks and wood, plastic,...

Eighth graders design and build a gingerbread house. In this technology lesson, 8th graders research the important components of a house. They evaluate the strength of their design and suggest modifications when necessary.

Students, after studying extraction and gel electrophoresis, recombinant DNA, transgenic organisms, and reproductive cloning, summarize the main concepts in DNA technology. They analyze the applications of DNA: forensics, medicine,...

Students develop and build an irrigation system in which they move water from one source to two different locations. In this water irrigation lesson plan, students work in small groups to determine how civil engineers have developed...

Middle schoolers comprehend that inventions can change the way we live. They comprehend that many inventions start out with design flaws and are refined later by subsequent inventors and designers. Students are explained that the...

Levitation tricks have been documented from the early 1900s, so how do they do it? Scholars learn about the force of magnetism in an attractive resource. They watch videos and design experiments to understand the strength and...

Students complete an observational or natural science experiment. They do systematic and experimental work using experiments that have been done by others. They research their hypothesis and gather information from several sources. They...

Students explain the components of the engineering design process. In groups, they identify the materials that make concrete and practice curing cement using the various methods available. They develop a graph showing the amount of...

Middle schoolers 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...

Students design and build their own balsa wood model bridges. The technological development of bridges, the science principles that apply to bridge building, and the construction techniques and skills necessary for creating a bridge be...

Eighth graders explore mathematics by conducting a series of investigations using a colorimeter. In this math lesson plan, 8th graders explain the purpose of food irradiation. They collect data and graph them.

Students design a flower-pot and saucer. In this math activity, students incorporate the use of technology to correctly build and shape a flower pot. They calculate the necessary mass of the red clay used to make the pot.

Oh, no! An asteroid is on a collision course with Earth!. Class members must rise to the challenge of designing a shelter that will protect people from the impact and permit them to live in this shelter for one year. In this first lesson...

Time is growing short. Teams work together to identify physical properties of rocks in order to determine the properties that would best suit their cavern shelter design.

Math rocks! Cavern design teams determine the rankings of rock types based upon desirability points. The points are connected to the properties of the rocks and their usefulness in building a cavern. 

It is plane to see that simple machines help reduce the force needed to perform a task.  This resource introduces three of the simple machines--the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw, and  the formulas in order to be able...

Discover a world too small to see. In the lesson, young scientists learn about nanotechnology and brainstorm ideas for new applications of it. They perform an activity to determine how surface area changes when objects are made smaller...

Introduce gas laws using the popular topic of SCUBA diving. This activity makes a connection between the gas laws and the effect of pressure and temperature changes during diving. Young engineers complete introductory experiments to...