Students examine the city of Duluth, Minnesota. In groups, they use the internet to discover its current state of urban geography. After their research, they create and plan their own redeveloping of the city. They share their results...

Students investigate the force of compression and how it acts on structural components through a hands-on group project. They use everyday products such as paper, toothpicks, and tape to construct a structure that will support the...

Students work together to build tetrahedral kites. They must follow directions and the provided materials. They discover the engineering concepts needed to make the kite.

Students experiment with a vibrating ruler and a kazoo to study the different pitches and frequencies they produce. They create both high and low pitch sound waves. They examine how engineers use sound energy when designing electronic...

Students explore how sound waves move through liquids, solids and gases in a series of simple sound energy experiments. They describe how sound needs molecules to move and that changing the medium that it travels through changes the...

Students analyze the basic concept of Global Positioning Systems using triangulation and measurement on a small scale in the classroom. They describe a satellite and how it helps in locating a person on Earth. They explain how...

Students describe how temperature and surface area exposure affect the rate at which fuel is consumed. They explain why engineers want to know about the properties of a fuel when designing rockets. They create a bar graph of result data.

Students embark on a scavenger hunt around the school looking for indoor air pollution and mapping source locations. They predict and observe sources of indoor air pollution, understand and give examples of technologies we use related to...

Students identify the Earth's natural resources and classify them as renewable or non-renewable. They simulate the distribution of resources and discuss the fairness and effectiveness of the distribution. They identify ways that they use...

Middle schoolers explore different levels of permeability and compare the permeabilities of several different materials. They are introduced to the basic concepts of building design, landscape architecture, and environmental pollutant...

Twelfth graders research about the different careers in bioengineering. For this biology lesson, 12th graders identify the different stages in the cell cycle. They discuss the pros and cons of using radiation.

Young scholars design and conduct experiment to determine if weight added incrementally to an object affects amount of friction encountered when it slides across a flat surface. They graph data from their experiments, and calculate...

Young scholars create a small web to communicate a message to someone. They examine the types of spiders and how they make their webs. They design and create their own web with their message inside.

Students investigate the concept of a comet. They construct a model of a comet. The design is done using the same thoughts of an engineer. Students work together to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the comet models. If the model...

Students experiment with the five fundamental load types that can act on structures. They use foam insulation blocks to which they apply the forces and draw the fracture patterns. They determine the telltale marks of failure that is...

Fifth graders use an analogy to the mail delivery system to study the workings of the human endocrine system. They discover the interrelationships between the human body systems while comparing them to engineering communicating with...

Pupils work together on computers to practice measuring for navigation. They discover that errors in their calculations can lead them in the wrong direction. They examine the need of computers by engineers.

Students work together to perform simple experiments discovering the properties of air. They share their results with their classmates. They examine how engineers use the properties of air to clean the air of pollutants.

Students work together to test how the color of a material affects how much heat it absorbs. They make predictions and take notes on their observations. They discover how engineers use this type of information.

Students identify the parts of an engine using a graph. In this statistics lesson, students make a graph from their collected data. They calculate the volume of a cylinder using a line of regression and a scatter plot.

Students design magnetic bookmarks with healthy living messages. They decide on the shape, length, color, and type of material to use for creating their bookmark. Students write in an "inventor's journal" about their design and...

Students research how roller coasters work. In this physics lesson plan, learners research the history of roller coasters and the safety factors in the design of a roller coaster on the website www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics. They...

Learners discover ways to conserve energy in their homes.  In this energy efficiency lesson students analyze a set of data and design a solution that results in higher energy efficiency.

Young scholars design and build a vehicle using Lego. In this earth science instructional activity, students analyze the factors they need to consider when building their vehicles. They present their finished project in class.