TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Curiosity Killed the App
Young scholars gain experience with the software/system design process, closely related to the engineering design process, to solve a problem. First, they learn about the Mars Curiosity rover and its mission, including the difficulties...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Naturally Organized
Young scholars work in teams to design a tabletop supply organizer inspired by the natural home of an insect species. Their prototype stores the group's classroom supplies (scissors, crayon boxes, pencils, and glue sticks). In addition...
Other
Cad Crowd: How Do Engineers Evaluate Different Design Ideas?
Explains all the things that must be taken into consideration when engineers evaluate the soundness and viability of a particular design.
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Engineer a Cane
This lesson focuses on how engineers improve assistive devices such as a cane to meet the needs of the elderly. Students work in teams to re-engineer a cane for a "client." They are assigned a client profile, develop a design to suit the...
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Biomimicry in Engineering
This lesson focuses on the concept of Biomimicry and students learn how engineers have incorporated structures and methods from the living world in products and solutions for all industries. Students then work in teams to develop a...
Other
Detroit Institute of Arts: Think Like an Engineer
In this STEAM activity, students are immersed in a world of transportation design as they use the design thinking process to create their own vehicle prototype out of everyday materials.
University of Hawai'i
University of Hawai'i: Exploring Our Fluid Earth: Activity: Design a Ship
In this activity, students apply their knowledge of buoyancy and ship stability to design a model ship. They test, evaluate, and refine the design of the model to optimize performance. Background information and other activities are...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Rockets
This unit teaches students how and why engineers design satellites to benefit life on Earth as well as allows students an opportunity to explore motion, rockets and rocket motion. Students discover that the motion of all objects...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Testing the Edges
Students gain experience using the software/systems (engineering) design process, specifically focusing on the testing phase. This problem-based learning activity uses the design process to solve open-ended challenges. In addition to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Oil on the Ocean
Students learn about oil spills and their environmental and economic effects. They experience the steps of the engineering design process as they brainstorm potential methods for oil spill clean-up, and then design, build, and re-design...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Engineering for the Earth
Young students are introduced to the complex systems of the Earth through numerous lessons on its natural resources, processes, weather, climate and landforms. Key earth science topics include rocks, soils and minerals, water and natural...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Simple Machines From Pyramids to Skyscrapers
Simple machines are devices with few or no moving parts that make work easier, and which people have used to provide mechanical advantage for thousands of years. Students learn about the wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane,...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: A Place in the Shade an Engineering Challenge
Kindergarteners can participate in the engineering and design process in this challenge in which they try to keep an ice cube from melting. Included in this lesson are samples of student's structures, a video of a kindergarten class...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Power Your House With Water
Students learn how engineers design devices that use water to generate electricity by building model water turbines and measuring the resulting current produced in a motor. Students work through the engineering design process to build...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Introduction to Evolutionary Computation
Young scholars are introduced to the concepts of evolution by natural selection and digital evolution software. They learn about the field of evolutionary computation, which applies the principles of natural selection to solve...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Power Your House With Wind
Students learn how engineers harness the energy of the wind to produce power by following the engineering design process as they prototype two types of wind turbines and test to see which works best. Students also learn how engineers...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Accept a Design Trade Off Challenge Science Projects
Build a device to accomplish a fun task. Accept a design trade-off challenge of using only a set amount of simple materials, as if you were stuck on a desert island, to make your device work.
TryEngineering
Try Engineering: Engineered Music
Object of this lesson is to learn about the engineering design of musical instruments. Students work in teams to design and build their own "tunable" and unique instrument using everyday materials.
Other
Joining Dots: Why Design Means Compromise
In this blog article, the author talks about some of the trade-offs that must occur during the software design process with reference to an interview with Bill Buxton who was Principle Researcher at Microsoft Research at the time....
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Technological Design Constraints
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] The technological design process is a step-by-step approach to finding a solution to a problem. Often, the main challenge in technological design is finding a...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Gravity Fed Water System for Developing Communities
Students learn about water poverty and how water engineers can develop appropriate solutions to a problem that is plaguing nearly a sixth of the world's population. Students follow the engineering design process to design a gravity-fed...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: News Flash!
This activity illustrates the interrelationship between science and engineering in the context of extinction prevention. There are two parts to the activity. The first part challenges students to think like scientists as they generate...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Boom Construction
Student teams design their own booms (bridges) and engage in a friendly competition with other teams to test their designs. Each team strives to design a boom that is light, can hold a certain amount of weight, and is affordable to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Life Science
This unit covers the processes of photosynthesis, extinction, biomimicry and bioremediation. In the first lesson on photosynthesis, students learn how engineers use the natural process of photosynthesis as an exemplary model of a complex...