Make the strongest beam possible using taffy? Groups mold a taffy-water mixture into a beam and a reinforcing material of their choice. To finish the final installment of a two-part series, participants test its strength by adding...

Find an answer to the age-old debate of whether life exists on Mars. Groups determine criteria to help look for signs of life on Mars. The activity has the class simulate testing Martian soil samples for signs of life before drawing...

Students recognize that compression and tension forces are important considerations in building structures. They construct their own building structure using marshmellows and spaghetti to see which structure can hold the most weight.

The London Bridge should not have fallen down. And here's why. After a brief history of bridges and the three main types, class members are introduce to the concepts of tension and compression, the two main forces acting upon bridges. 

Discover how innovations can help your school and community. In the three-part STEM lesson, scholars learn the meaning of innovation and brainstorm innovations in their schools. They identify issues in their communities and think of...

An MRI uses both a magnetic and electricity, so how do the two interact with each other? Class members observe the effects on a charged particle when it is subject to both an electrical and magnetic field. The teacher background...

Take a very basic understanding of circuits and develop a strong understanding of the parts and function of a circuit. This activity is developed to be an independent exploration of circuits from the basics to series and parallel models....

Pupils revisit the concepts of ergonomics and order picking examined in previous lesson plan and use the results of a simulation to brainstorm ergonomic designs for medical supply stations.

Groups suspend objects within layers of liquids to determine the densities of different liquids and compare them to the densities of objects calculated in Part 1. The groups then carefully test their calculations by layering the...

Scholars explore systems design and its relation to meal picking by using computer simulations to test systems designs. They learn about the Pick-to-Light System and calculate average picking times.

Perform an activity on performance testing with a instructional activity focused on the purpose of wheel bearings on skateboards. Learners conduct performance testing on a skateboard to collect and interpret data.

Japan is one of only a handful of countries that constructs buildings that are almost earthquake proof. The 13th lesson in the 20-part series challenges scholars to build structures to test against earthquakes. With limited materials and...

How much information about you is out there? Scholars explore this question as they investigate data breaches and how these violations occur. They then take part in an activity where they research how easily people could get access to...

See what it feels like to be a robot. Scholars use programming vocabulary to program a human robot and test out their codes by acting them out. The code should result in stacking six cups into a pyramid.

The Diary of a Wimpy Antenna? In the last installment of a six-part series, your class constructs a model of a radio antenna and tests its torque. Pupils use the results to design a better model that resists bending and twisting forces.

Students examine how regional geology affects bridge foundations. In this physical science activity, students explore how bridge types are constructed for different purposes.

Students study invention steps and design their own invention. In this invention lesson, students discuss inventions and the process of inventing. Studnets write in an inventor's journal and study various types of inventions....

Learners discover the fundamentals and daily applications of simple machines. They practice basic engineering theory through their hands-on demonstrations of levers.

Students examine how everyday appliances might soon possess the capacity "to think" as a result of recent technological advances. A display of their knowledge of this new technology by creating a poster design of a "smart" machine.

Students study mechanical engineering and how it plays a part in the creation of windmills. They design and test their own windmills using various materials and sail designs.

Students, operating under simulated budget constraints, build pop-rockets and launch them. Working in pairs, they complete budget worksheets and use their "Blast Off Bucks" to pay for the construction. They then redesign their rockets...

Students examine the roles of the immune system in keeping the body healthy. They see how engineers contribute to this process by creating antibiotics, and vaccinations. They discuss how an astronauts' immune system may be suppressed...

Learners examine renewable energy sources such as solar, water, and wind. They experiment to determine how renewable energy is transformed into electricity. They investigate the role of engineers who work in the field of renewable energy.

Young scholars drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy. They see how varying the height from which water is dropped affects the splash size. In seeing how falling...