Tomorrow's engineers visit an intriguing website about inventions that have changed the way we live. Biographies of child inventors on the suggested website aren't easy to find, so make sure to find some stories to share in place of...

In this mind-bending activity, young engineers explore this question of whether or not light actually bends. Using holographic diffraction gratings, groups design and build a spectrograph. The groups then move on research a problem...

Prepare to accelerate your Android. Pupils prep for the upcoming activity in this third installment of a four-part series. The lesson plan progresses nicely by first introducing different types of acceleration to the class. The teacher...

Give your learners a leg up in their study of engineering. Groups design and create a prothestic for a leg. They test out their designs for strength, stability, durability, and comfort.

Students explore mass and volume. In this mass and volume lesson, students pretend to be on a hike and have lost their way. Students must cross a river get back on track. Students must use mass, volume, surface area, density, property...

Challenge young meteorologists to apply their knowledge of weather to build their own weather stations. The resource provides the directions to build a weather station that contains a wind vane, barometer, thermometer, and rain...

Class members use an applet on the Internet to simulate the spread of a disease. The simulation allows individuals to determine two nodes to vaccinate to limit the number of nodes infected. By running several simulations, scholars...

What does stretching a balloon have to do with equilibrium? Groups explore preconditioning by stretching a balloon to a point of equilibrium. They then measure the amount of force required to stretch the balloon to the same point several...

Does your shirt hate water? In the activity, future engineers observe the hydrophobic effect in fabrics. They brainstorm and test some ideas for waterproofing fabrics.

Educate your learners on the importance of using bio-diesel as an alternative transportation fuel. Provided here are several links to books (with reviews), a 24-page informational text in three reading levels, a corn activity, and...

Students design an investigation using yeast. In this environmental engineering lesson, students design an investigation to determine how environmental factors affect the growth of yeast. They will collect quantitative data and discuss...

What do physicists and musicians have in common? A lot more than you might think. After first viewing a slide show presentation and completing a series of skills practice worksheets on the physics of light, sound, and...

Let your creativity run wild. Scholars build a sculpture out of basic materials. These sculptures must be able to move in the wind (from an electric fan). However, they must also withstand the wind enough to not fall over—it's quite the...

Access countless activities to use in STEM curriculum. This app is a collection of science, technology, engineering, math, and even art ideas are cataloged by topic and easily accessed from one spot. 

Use whatever material floats your boat. Working in groups, scholars decide on a type of metal and a type of coating to use for building a boat. They test their creations by leaving their boats in a pool of water for several days before...

Introduce environmental science or engineering explorers to different forms of sampling. They read an article about "Robo-lobsters," lobsters being studied to help design robots that can used to sniff out pollution in ocean waters. The...

Middle schoolers participate in an activity that replicates the creation of sea floor bathymetry by taking a simplified form of soundings in the classroom. They discuss sea floor mapping technologies, sonar, soundings, and remote...

Students apply information regarding simple machines along with the math concept "ratios." The teacher introduces the concept that technology is the application of scientific knowledge and mathematics concepts to solve a problem. This is...

Elementary learners listen to a story, then sort objects from largest to smallest at six different stations around the classroom. Adaptable for a large range of age and ability groups. 

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.

If a ski lift had rockets, imagine how fast it would be! Scholars let their imaginations take flight as they build models for such a ski lift. Rather than using a rocket, though, they'll use a much safer balloon as the power source.

Create an egg-citing study of energy. Pupils investigate the effect of height and mass on the overall amount of energy of a falling object. The fourth segment in a six-part series on energy uses a weighted egg falling from different...

Let's go fishing ... for paper clips! Individuals create a device that attracts paper clips. This device relies on an electromagnetism, where a flow of electricity in a loop of wire wrapped around a nail causes magnetism.

Shake up your lessons on earthquakes. A simple seismograph lets scholars record "earthquakes" in the classroom. These earthquakes occur when classmates drop balls from different heights. Young scientists measure these with seismographs...