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Teach Engineering

Keepers of the Gate Journal and Brainstorm

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The second segment of a seven-part series reviews the challenge of determining whether gargling with salt water helps a sore throat. Individuals journal what they know about the challenge and what they are trying to figure out to...
Unit Plan
Virginia Middle School Engineering Education Initiative

Save the Penguins: An Introduction to Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Heat things up in your physical science class with this interactive lesson series on thermodynamics. Through a series of class demonstrations and experiments, young scientists learn how heat is transferred through conduction,...
Activity
Teach Engineering

When Silicon Talks

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Explore Snell's Law using thin films. In the fifth installment of a seven-part series, pupils solve a set of problems relating to Snell's Law and use this skill during an experiment requiring the collection of reflective measurements...
Activity
DiscoverE

Working with Watermills

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Water is a powerful force; harness it through watermills. The task at hand is to create a simple watermill that functions in flowing water for at least three minutes. Scholars work together in teams to design and construct such a...
Activity
DiscoverE

Keep-a-Cube

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Waxed paper, newspaper, or aluminum foil? Keeping an ice cube from melting may require one or more of these materials. Learners design a box that will provide insulation so an ice cube stays intact for at least 90 minutes.
Lesson Plan
DiscoverE

Slime!!

For Teachers K - 8th
Who's going to get slimed? Your entire class! Scholars create slime using Borax, water, and white glue. Some food coloring can give the slime a bit of color.
Unit Plan
Tech Museum of Innovation

Analogous Models

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
What goes into a museum display? A secondary-level STEM project prompts groups to design a museum display for the Tech Museum of Innovation. They create an analogous, interactive model illustrating a science concept to complete the...
Activity
DiscoverE

Design a Folding Solar Panel

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Solar energy is an amazing alternative ... but, not always particularly portable! Challenge young scientists to a folding solar panel build-off with an easy-to-execute activity. Scholars brainstorm around specific design needs, construct...
Lesson Plan
DiscoverE

Tunnel Meetup

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Meet me in the tunnels. Scholars choose a tunnel entrance and mark it on their side of the cardboard. They describe the location to their partners and see if they can guess each other's locations. Punching a hole through the cardboard...
Lesson Plan
DiscoverE

Kinetic Sculpture

For Teachers 6th - 8th
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...
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PBS

Pop Fly

For Students 5th - 8th
A lever comes in handy when scholars build a launcher for a ping-pong ball. They test the launcher and redesign it to send the ball higher or to accommodate a tennis ball. This is the third lesson in a five-part unit.
Lesson Plan
Rochester Institute of Technology

Skateboard Assembly - Cycle Time

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Assemble a great lesson on assembly lines. In the first installment of a nine-part technology/engineering series, future entrepreneurs learn about the manufacturing process, specifically about the assembly line and cycle time. The lesson...
Activity
DiscoverE

Build a Better Candy Bag

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Every child's dream: stuffing as much candy into a bag as possible. Doing this, though, requires a nice sturdy bag. Scholars design the sturdiest bag they can and test the limits of those bag using a sweet treat!
Activity
DiscoverE

Helping Hand

For Students 6th - 12th
Sometimes we all need a helping hand. Scholars get together to lend a hand in creating an assistive device that must be able to grab a hard-to-reach object. Now that's some help we could all use!
Activity
DiscoverE

Rocket-Powered Ski Lift

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
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.
Activity
DiscoverE

An Egg-Citing Ride

For Teachers K - 8th
Wheeeee! Young thrill seekers build a bungee jump—not for themselves, though, but for an egg. The egg must fall from a height of five feet and rebound within two inches of the ground or floor.
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PBS

Hidden Alarm

For Students 5th - 8th
It's time! The fourth lesson in a five-part series has teams of scholars build a circuit for an alarm. A switch lets them turn the alarm on and off and allows them to hide the alarm—just as long as they don't hide it in the classroom!
Lesson Plan
Kenan Fellows

Assembly Required and the Design Process Too!

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Do your part to make manufacturing more manageable. A capstone project challenges each group to identify and research a manufacturing process for a product. To complete the activity, they create a presentation for business and community...
Interactive
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Genes Can Be Moved Between Species

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Biotechnology changes lives every day, but how did it all start? Learn about Cohen and Boyer's technique for recombinant DNA and the founding of this new scientific study. Then, scholars use the online interactive to discover how Hanahan...
Activity
DiscoverE

Design a Wind Turbine

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Discover the power of wind energy. Learners design, build, and test wind blades in a hands-on experiment. They analyze the results to determine if they can make any improvements before gathering as a class to discuss their designs.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Copper Sheet Boxes: Artistic Engineering

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Secondary artists create a metal box made from copper tooling foil and solid oil paint sticks (Shiva Paintstiks). The exacting design develops organizational principles and the painted finish allows for individual expression of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cover Up: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Blend art, adolescent snacking habits, and math to create new cereal boxes. Secondary learners review scale drawings. They use this information to construct cereal boxes to scale and will compare their creation to the original product to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tell Us All: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering

For Teachers 7th - 12th
What a scam! Middle and high schoolers pose as journalists exposing consumer fraud. For this lesson, they write an article for a magazine using data collected during previous investigations (prior lessons) to defend their findings that a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Hurricanes As Heat Engines

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine sea surface temperatures to see how hurricanes get heat from the oceans surface.  In this hurricanes instructional activity students use the Internet to find data and make line plots. 

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