Teach Engineering
Wimpy Radar Antenna
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.
Teach Engineering
Exploring the Forces of Tension
Let the resource stretch the minds of your young scientists with a lesson about tensile strength and stiffness of materials. Groups consider how easily materials stretch and relate this property to engineering design.
Teach Engineering
Fairly Fundamental Facts About Forces and Structures
Don't twist and turn looking for a resource. The first installment of a six-part series teaches young engineers about the five fundamental forces of compression, tension, shear, bending, and torsion. These forces help explain different...
Teach Engineering
Investigating Torque
Torque--a teachable moment? Here's a lesson on torque (or moment) and variables that include size, reinforcement, structural bracing, and material that affect torque.
Teach Engineering
Levers that Lift
Introduce your class to to the remaining three simple machines-- the lever, pulley, and the wheel-and-axle with a plan that includes the three different types of levers in the discussion of levers. The instructional activity...
Teach Engineering
Solenoids
Metal slinkies, coils of wire, magnetic fields, and MRIs. To determine the safety hazards of MRI machines, class members use the provided formula to calculate the magnetic field along the axis of the solenoid.
Teach Engineering
Weather Basics
Weather — there's more to it than meets the eye of the storm. With this resource young meteorologists learn about the basics of weather, including information about the factors that influence the weather, common weather vocabulary,...
Teach Engineering
The Advantage of Machines
Show your students how to make their work easier. The first lesson in a series of 10 introduces the class to work and the way simple machines can be make work easier. The simple machines scholars can find in everyday items are...
Teach Engineering
Ampere's Law
Help your class find the the magnetic field of a toroid, a solenoid bent into a circle with an activity that allows the class to see how a loop of wire carrying an electrical charge behaves much like a magnet. The resource provides...
Teach Engineering
Breathing Cells
Pairs work together to determine whether unknown solutions are either acids or bases by using a red cabbage indicator solution. After determining the general pH of the unknown solution, classmates blow into the same indicator after...
Teach Engineering
Magnetic Fields
Introduce your class to magnetic fields with an activity that demonstrates that a compass is affected by the magnetic field of the earth, unless a closer, stronger magnetic field is present. Pupils can use this fact in the...
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...
Curated OER
My First PowerPoint Presentation
Have your class explore the way to create a presentation using PowerPoint. This lesson provides a step-by-step explanation to describe how to explain this process to your class. The end product is a presentation on colors, but any topic...
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster September #1
For this internet research worksheet, 3rd graders answer five unrelated questions by using the Fact Monster search engine for their research.
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster September #2
In this internet research learning exercise, 3rd graders use the Fact Monster search engine to find the answers to five multiple choice questions. A sample question asks: "Which ocean borders the African country of Ghana?"
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster October #1
In this internet research worksheet, students search for the answers to five multiple choice questions. They are directed to use the Fact Monster search engine.
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster September #4
For this internet research worksheet, 3rd graders answer five unrelated multiple choice questions by using the Fact Monster search engine. A sample question asks; "Which of the traits below is not a trait of a good citizen?"
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster Hunt #23
In this internet research activity, students answer three multiple choice and seven short answer questions by using the Fact Monster search engine.
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster Hunt #26
In this internet research worksheet, students use the Fact Monster search engine to find the answers to ten unrelated questions.
Discovery Education
It's Too Loud!
STEM scholars investigate sound attenuation by conducting an experiment in which they compare the farthest distance that they can hear a sound with and without ear protection.
Curated OER
Fire Brigade
Young scholars examine how a community works together to protect them from fire. They work together to design a functional tool that could be helpful in fighting fires. They share their tool with the class.
Teach Engineering
Thrown for a Loop
Round and round it goes. Class members observe a current carrying loop in a magnetic field and calculate its associated torque. They then apply what they have learned to example problems to solve for the torque and to calculate the...
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster Hunt #21
In this internet research worksheet, students answer ten unrelated questions by using the Fact Monster search engine. A sample question asks: "Achilles, one of the strongest heroes in Greek mythology, met his death when he was wounded in...
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster Hunt #25
In this Internet research worksheet, students use the Fact Monster search engine to find the answers to two multiple choice and eight short answer questions.