Curated OER
Reading: An Amazing Swimsuit
In this inventions worksheet, students read a one page text about the new type of swimsuit used in the 2008 Beijing Olympics called the Speedo LZR Racer. Students answer 10 true or false questions about the passage.
Teach Engineering
Exploring Energy: What Is Energy?
...Then the water heater exploded like a bomb. Using a video of an exploding water heater, the resource presents the definitions of energy, potential energy, and kinetic energy to be used in later lessons of the unit.
Curated OER
Introduction To Orbital Mechanics
Students use NASA drawings to build a model satellite for a specific mission. They design a set of drawings for their satellite showing its subsystems as well.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Chemical Reactions and Electricity
After a discussion of chemical reactions and electricity, scholars break into groups and follow a scripted activity to discover if fruit can power a clock. After a concluding discussion, the class a presented with a challenge.
Teach Engineering
Alloy Advantage
Mix it up by using an intriguing resource that teaches young metallurgists that alloys are a metal mixture. They learn about the advantages of using alloys over pure metals and investigate titanium alloys as an example to finish the...
Teach Engineering
Exploring Acceleration with an Android
Small groups use rubber bands to accelerate an Android device along a track of books. They collect the acceleration data and analyze it in order to determine the device's velocity.
Teach Engineering
Archimedes' Principle, Pascal's Law and Bernoulli's Principle
What do Pascal's law, Archimedes' Principle, and Bernoulli's Principle have to do with fluid mechanics? The included PowerPoint presentation provides the basic definitions and equations associated with the three. A set of homework...
Curated OER
TE Lesson: Navigating at the Speed of Satellites
Students study the basic concepts of the Global Positioning System and how it increases the accuracy of navigation. They examine trilateration and how the speed of light is used to calculate distances.
Curated OER
TE Activity: A Roundabout Way to Mars
Students investigate Hohmann orbit transfers using cardboard and string while focusing on the orbits of Earth and Mars. They look at the planets orbits around the sun and transfer orbit form one planet to another to determine what a...
Curated OER
Balloonautics
Students are introduced to basic aerodynamics through a discussion of thrust and drag and a hands-on activity. They examine the forces of thrust, drag, air pressure, aerodynamic shapes and Newton's Third Law Of Motion.
Curated OER
Balloon Rockets
Students build pinwheel airplanes and balloon rockets to determine which ones fly faster and which fly farther.
Teach Engineering
Electromagnets
Show your class what goes on with a magnet that can be turned on and off with a resource that provides the information needed to build an electromagnet. The information allows the class to understand that creating loops with the current...
NASA
Space Vectors
How do you determine the position coordinates of objects in space? Using the provided worksheet, class members determine the location of the space shuttle based upon its spherical coordinates from the Dryden Flight Research Center.
Curated OER
Two-Cell Battery
Students build their own two-cell battery and determine which electrolyte solution is best suited for making a battery. They discuss background information for their experiment, construct and test their battery, and using the chart on...
Curated OER
Vector Voyage!
Students use vector analysis to examine the concept of dead reckoning. They listen to a teacher-led lecture, complete a Vector Voyage Worksheet with the teacher, answer discussion questions, and use the Pythagorean Theorem for speed...
Curated OER
Robot Gears
Students build simple gear trains and record data to discover how to compute gear ratios. They investigate the definition of torque and how torque can be increased or decreased in a gear train.
Curated OER
The Case of the Biological Biosphere: Health, Math, Technology
Students investigate various aspects of the human body in this imaginative Tree House Detective episode about the biological biosphere. In a series of They take measurements, analyze data, and use technology. The lessons revolve around...
Curated OER
Satellite Tracker
Young scholars use satellite tracking software to monitor different satellites. They predict and graph the motion of the space station. They create a 3-D display of its path and share it with the class.
Curated OER
A New Century Of Flight
Students study an article on high speed travel. In this investigative lesson students students read an article, answer questions then work in groups to calculate problems.
Curated OER
Design a Running Shoe for a Triathlete
Students examine the design and construction of athletic footwear. They analyze the magnitude and directions of forces on the foot and leg in different sports, interview people, and design a running shoe for a triathlete.
Curated OER
3-2-1 Blast Off!
Students explore physics by participating in a flight experiment. In this rocket design lesson, students discuss the scientific process and how chemical reaction can create the energy needed to boost a rocket. Students utilize...
Curated OER
Calibrating a Roverbot
High schoolers build and program a Lego Mindstorms Roverbot to travel for a given amount of time. They gather data on time versus distance traveled to determine a calibration constant for their robot, which relates time to distance.
Curated OER
Biomechanics of Joints
Students investigate range of motion in human joints and the mechanical devices they emulate. They construct a human arm model with three joints which emulate the wrist, elbow and shoulder.
Curated OER
From Future Flight to Past Flight
Students complete a set of CD-ROM's to introduce them to the flight program at NASA. In groups, they research a topic related to flight and put their information on a CD-ROM. To end the lesson, they share their material with other...