Teach Engineering
Design Step 1: Identify the Need
What exactly does an engineer do? Learners find out through a lesson that asks them to solve a problem that affects a target population. Aspiring engineers learn the steps of the engineering design process as they apply it to a challenge...
Teach Engineering
Concentrating on the Sun with PVs
Concentrate to determine the best reflector design. Pairs use the engineering design process to build a reflector to increase the current output of a photovotaic panel. Teams arrive at a final design and present it to the class along...
Teach Engineering
Engineering Brainstorming
Here is a lesson that offers a great hybrid of forming new skills and using current knowledge to come up with a plan. The class brainstorms information they would need to know or already know about hybrid vehicles. They then group the...
Curated OER
Animals and Engineering
Students study animal classification and their interactions. In this animals and engineering lesson students study animal communities and how engineers use this knowledge to create new technologies.
Curated OER
Bone Fractures and Engineering
Students examine bone fractures and the role that engineers play in repairing them. In this biomedical engineering lesson students describe the factors that engineers consider when designing devices.
Curated OER
Engineering Bones
Students identify the features of a prosthetic limb and explain how engineers are involved in the prosthetic design. In this bone engineering lesson plan students describe the design criteria that goes into choosing the materials that...
Teach Engineering
Design Step 6: Evaluate/Manufacture a Final Product
This is what all of the excitement has been building up to! Young engineers create engineering drawings, use machines to manufacture their products, test, and evaluate their designs in the last step in the engineering design process.
Agriculture in the Classroom
"Steer" Toward STEM: Careers in Animal Agriculture
Think like an engineer and an agricultural scientist over the course of 12 lessons in a STEM based unit. Young scientists take on the roles of animal physiologists, animal geneticists, agricultural engineers, animal nutritionists, and...
NASA
Touchdown
Just how do astronauts stay safe during moon landings? Here's an activity that allows investigators to use the engineering process to explore how shock absorbers protect astronauts during landing. Applying knowledge of gravity, force,...
NASA
Water Filtration Challenge
Can the class think like the scientists on the International Space Station? Engineers design, test, collect data, and improve a water filtration device similar to a system found on the ISS. Participants use pH strips, optional...
Curated OER
Transportation and Environment
Learners make an eco-friendly vehicle to help make transportation better for the environment. In this transportation instructional activity, students learn how transportation inventions are bad for the environment. They then see how...
Curated OER
Get Charged!
Students explore the concept of electricity in this activity based unit. In this physical science lesson, students focus on electricity and electrical engineering. The teaching unit includes 5 activities to develop students conceptual...
Curated OER
I Don't Believe My Eyes!
Students develop their understanding of the effects of invisible air pollutants. In this invisible air lesson plan, students complete experiments with a rubber band air test, a bean plant experiment and by exploring engineering roles...
Teach Engineering
Introduction to Water Chemistry
What are the issues surrounding water quality? Viewers of this short presentation gain information about the importance of clean water, the lack of fresh water, water contamination, and ways that engineers treat water.
Teach Engineering
Design Step 5: Construct a Prototype
Enough with the talking, let's build something! In the fifth step in the engineering design process, young engineers build a prototype to test their ideas. The lesson plan walks them through the process of evaluating it step-by-step....
Curated OER
TE Activity: Environmental Interactions
Learners design a web that shows the interactions between the living and non-living parts of the environment. They determine what an environment is and how engineers work together to solve problems. They complete a tally chart that they...
Curated OER
Medical Instrumentation
Middle schoolers analyze how medical devices that help the human body function. They work in pairs or groups to draw multiple views of the medical device and describe how engineering is used by biomedial engineers.
Curated OER
Carve That Mountain
Young scholars investigate major landforms (e.g., mountains, rivers, plains, hills, oceans and plateaus). They build a three-dimensional model of a landscape depicting several of these landforms. Once they have built their model, they...
Curated OER
Engineering in Sports
Students explore physical education by completing a quiz in class. In this engineering lesson, students identify different ways engineering has made sports safer such as stronger padding and helmets, stronger equipment and smarter...
Teach Engineering
Fun with Air-Powered Pneumatics
How high did the ball go? Engineering teams build a working pneumatic system that launches a ball into the air. The teams vary the amount of pressure and determine the accompanying height of the ball. An extension of building a device to...
Teach Engineering
Portable Wheelchair Ramp Challenge
Ramp up the engineering design process in your classroom with an activity that challenges teams to design, build, and test a small-scale portable wheelchair ramp. The class develops design requirements, and teams test their designs using...
Teach Engineering
Off-Road Wheelchair Challenge
Challenge your class to use their understanding of the engineering design process to design and build a small-scale, off-road prototype for an assistive technology device. Teams select materials to build their scale models, and, using...
Curated OER
TE Activity: Broken Bones
Young scholars examine the discipline of biomedical engineering or bioengineering. They complete worksheets by participating in reading background information and completing a hands on activity. They design a prototype of a cast to set a...
Teach Engineering
Design Inspired by Nature
Let nature guide your engineering designs. By taking apart a flower, pupils learn about reverse engineering. They use the results to brainstorm designs for new products or ideas. This is the seventh installment of a nine-part Life...