Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: I Feel Renewed!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this activity, students will simulate the equal and unequal distribution of our renewable resources. Also, they will consider the impact of our increasing population upon these resources and how engineers develop technologies to...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Olympic Engineering

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
The lesson begins by introducing Olympics as the unit theme. The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the techniques of engineering problem solving. Specific techniques covered in the lesson include brainstorming and the...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Fundamental Building Blocks of Matter

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
This lesson plan explores the fundamentals of atoms and their structure. The building blocks of matter (protons, electrons, neutrons) are covered in detail. Students think about how atoms and molecules can influence new technologies...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Engineering in Sports

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Imagining themselves arriving at the Olympic gold medal soccer game in Beijing, students begin to think about how engineering is involved in sports. After a discussion of kinetic and potential energy, an associated hands-on activity...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Search for Secret Agents

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students embark on a scavenger hunt around the school looking for indoor air pollution and mapping source locations.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Does Contact Area Matter?

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Using the same method for measuring friction that was used in the previous lesson (Discovering Friction), students design and conduct an experiment to determine if the amount of area over which an object contacts a surface it is moving...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: A Tornado in My State?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students will analyze data of tornadoes throughout the United States. They will create a bar graph of the number of tornadoes for the top ten states in the country and then calculate the median and the mode of the data.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Benefits of Biodiversity

For Teachers 9th - 10th
First, students toss coins to determine what traits a set of mouse parents possess, such as fur color, body size, heat tolerance, and running speed. Next they use coin tossing to determine the traits a mouse pup born to these parents...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How Predictable!

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students follow weather forecasts to gauge their accuracy and produce a weather report for the class. They develop skills of observation, recording and reporting.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: It's Really Heating Up in Here!

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students create and observe a greenhouse effect model and discuss the implications of global warming theory for engineers, themselves and the Earth.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Better by Design

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
The purpose of this activity is to use a scientific method to determine the effect of control surfaces on a paper glider. The students will construct a paper airplane/glider and test its performance to determine the base characteristics...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Balsa Glider Competition

For Teachers 5th - 7th
The purpose of this activity is to bring together the students' knowledge of engineering and airplanes and the creation of a glider model to determine how each modification affects the flight. The students will use a design procedure...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: A Closer Look at Oil and Energy Consumption

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students analyze international oil consumption and production data. They make several graphs to organize the data and draw conclusions about the overall use of oil in the world.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Bulbs & Batteries in a Row

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Everyday we are surrounded by circuits that use "in parallel" and "in series" circuitry. Complicated circuits designed by engineers are composed of many simpler parallel and series circuits. During this activity, students build a simple...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Swinging Pendulum

For Teachers 7th - 9th
This activity demonstrates how potential energy (PE) can be converted to kinetic energy (KE) and back again. Given a pendulum height, students calculate and predict how fast the pendulum will swing by understanding conservation of energy...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Swinging Pendulum

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This activity shows students the engineering importance of understanding the laws of mechanical energy. More specifically, it demonstrates how potential energy can be converted to kinetic energy and back again. Given a pendulum height,...