Lesson Plan
Curated OER

You Can't Sell This Thing

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students, in teams, design and create a logo/trademark, packaging box, and poster for advertising their new product/invention. They present their new product/invention, and information about the target audience, to the class.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Create a Wrapping Cloth Design

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students create wrapping clothes using paper or cloth scraps being sure to find or make geometric shapes. They create a visually balanced composition including symmetry,and repeated patterns.
Online Course
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mit: Open Course Ware: Music and Theater Arts: Principles of Design

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Course homepage for "The Principles of Design." In this course, students will learn about the principles of theater design, emphasizing script analysis. Links lead to the course syllabus, calendar, readings, assignments, study materials,...
Graphic
McGill University

Canadian Architecture 101

For Students 9th - 10th
Canada Council for the Arts supports Architecture in Canada; this website helps younger students explore uniquely Canadian architecture. There are direct links to famous buildings in all ten provinces and eight different types of...
Activity
University of Illinois

University of Illinois: Modern American Poetry: Robert Frost (1874 1963)

For Students 9th - 10th
Critical analysis of numerous Frost poems by foremost literary critics like William Pritchard. This is a great resource for students learning how to analyze Frost's poetry.
Handout
Kent State University

Rashid Bin Muhammad: Design and Analysis of Algorithms

For Students 9th - 10th
This site contains the lecture notes from Dr. Muhammad's course on algorithm design and analysis.
Lesson Plan
University of Texas

Inside Mathematics: Sorting Shapes [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
This task challenges a students knowledge of 2-dimensional geometrical shapes to sort shapes and to design a shape that has a given set of attributes.
Interactive
Other

Royal Armouries: Web Quest: Creative Textiles: Create a Wall Hanging

For Students 3rd - 8th
After virtually exploring galleries at the Royal Armouries Museum, students design and create a wall hanging for the museum entrance using textile techniques.
Website
Other

Fantasy Design

For Students 3rd - 8th
Fantasy Design is a European school project that introduces the concept of product design to participating schools. You can learn about the program, see the resulting student product ideas, and get useful teaching resources to try...
Activity
Rice University

Rice: Design Patterns for Parsing

For Students 9th - 10th
A description of the design patterns that are common in software engineering.
Activity
Other

National Engineers Week Foundation: Flinker

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students investigate with common objects to see if they can make something that neither floats nor sinks, but rather "flinks" in the middle.
Article
PBS

Pbs Online News Hour: The Stuff of Life: u.s. Design 1975 2000

For Students 9th - 10th
PBS profiles the exhibit at the Denver Art Museum about how design is relevant in our society. There are interviews, images, and video--enough for developing your own lesson plan.
Handout
Other

Kid Wind Project: Wind Turbine Blade Design

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn how blade design affects the power output of a wind turbine. This is a short description but links to extensive information, a PowerPoint, and a lesson on designing your own turbine blades.
Website
Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences

Powerhouse Museum: Australian Wetlands Designer

For Students 9th - 10th
The Powerhouse Museum of Sydney, Australia presents "Australian Wetlands Designer" from the exhibit "Australian Designers at Work". Meet wetlands designer Peter Adcock and learn about the relatively new field of environmental design,...
Website
Other

Introducing Plain Language

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This site by Plain Language Online states that plain language "begins with the needs of the reader," which will determine why and how the writer writes. It goes on to elaborate on audience and purpose, idea organization, use of...
Website
Princeton Review

The Princeton Review: Career Interior Designer

For Students 9th - 10th
A career profile from of an interior designer tells job requirements, typical job duties, job outlook for the future, and more..
Website
Other

Dexigner: Design Portal

For Students 9th - 10th
An online portal for designers, architects, illustrators, engineers, artists, and creatives of all kinds. Dexigner publishes the latest design news, events, competitions, books and resources. Covers almost any type of design one could...
Unit Plan
TES Global

Tes: Cultural Approaches

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] See how Shakespeare is brought to life on stage and on film. Explore his work through art, design, costumes, and historical objects using materials from some of the UK's major cultural institutions.
Unit Plan
TES Global

Tes: Using Museums to Inspire Design & Technology Projects

For Teachers 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Design Toolkit for Teachers from theVictoria and Albert Museum is a guide to using museums to inspire design and technology projects. It includes information on why to use a museum to support the design...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Protect Those Eyes

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students design and build prototypes for protective eyewear. They choose different activities or sports that require protective eyewear and design a device for that particular use. Students learn about the many ways in which the eyes can...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Zero Energy Housing

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students investigate passive solar building design with a focus solely on heating. They learn how insulation, window placement, thermal mass, surface colors, and site orientation play important roles in passive solar heating. They use...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Watch Out for the Blind Spots

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this service-learning engineering project, students follow the steps of the engineering design process to design a hearing testing device. More specifically, they design a prototype machine that can be used to test the peripheral...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Tippy Tap Plus Piping

For Teachers 10th - 12th
The Tippy Tap hand-washing station is an inexpensive and effective device used extensively in the developing world. One shortcoming of the homemade device is that it must be manually refilled with water and therefore is of limited use in...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Sum It Up: An Introduction to Static Equilibrium

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students are introduced to static equilibrium by learning how forces and torques are balanced in a well-designed engineering structure. A tower crane is presented as a simplified two-dimensional case. Using Popsicle sticks and hot glue,...