Teach Engineering
See the Genes
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein. The sixth installment of a seven-part series teaches young scientists about the importance of being able to communicate scientific research and...
Teach Engineering
Quantifying Refraction
Class members discover how mathematics can quantify the behavior of light waves with the fourth installment of a seven-part series that teaches future engineers about equations related to refraction, including the equation to...
Teach Engineering
Wimpy Radar Antenna
The Diary of a Wimpy Antenna? In the last installment of a six-part series, your class constructs a model of a radio antenna and tests its torque. Pupils use the results to design a better model that resists bending and twisting forces.
Teach Engineering
Investigating Torque
Torque--a teachable moment? Here's a lesson on torque (or moment) and variables that include size, reinforcement, structural bracing, and material that affect torque.
Teach Engineering
Exploring the Forces of Tension
Let the resource stretch the minds of your young scientists with a lesson about tensile strength and stiffness of materials. Groups consider how easily materials stretch and relate this property to engineering design.
Teach Engineering
Fairly Fundamental Facts About Forces and Structures
Don't twist and turn looking for a resource. The first installment of a six-part series teaches young engineers about the five fundamental forces of compression, tension, shear, bending, and torsion. These forces help explain different...
Teach Engineering
How a Hybrid Works
Work with your class to connect series and parallel circuits to hybrid cars. The lesson introduces basic circuit diagrams before having scholars apply the understanding of the difference between parallel and series circuits to...
Teach Engineering
Complex Networks and Graphs
Show your class how engineers use graphs to understand large and complex systems. The resource provides the beginnings of graph theory by introducing the class to set theory, graphs, and degree distributions of a graph.
Teach Engineering
Electromagnets
Show your class what goes on with a magnet that can be turned on and off with a resource that provides the information needed to build an electromagnet. The information allows the class to understand that creating loops with the current...
Teach Engineering
Magnetic Fields
Introduce your class to magnetic fields with an activity that demonstrates that a compass is affected by the magnetic field of the earth, unless a closer, stronger magnetic field is present. Pupils can use this fact in the...
Teach Engineering
Magnetic Materials
The design challenge: develop a method to separate steel from aluminum. The first lesson plan in an eight-part series introduces the class to the grand challenge of ciming up with a method to streamline a sorting process at a...
Teach Engineering
Rube Goldberg and the Meaning of Machines
A Rube Goldberg machine does not really look like it would make work easier. Introduce your class to Rube Goldberg with a resource that shows how his inventions make simple tasks harder to complete.
Teach Engineering
Not So Simple
Compound machines, nothing more than a combination of simple machines working together, are the focus of an activity that asks class members to use the provided information to take a look at the way innovators combine simple machines to...
Teach Engineering
Levers that Lift
Introduce your class to to the remaining three simple machines-- the lever, pulley, and the wheel-and-axle with a plan that includes the three different types of levers in the discussion of levers. The lesson continues with the...
Teach Engineering
Get Me Off This Planet
What do Newton's Laws have to do with getting from Earth to Mars?The activities in this resource show how Newton's Laws work with rockets to get them into space. Background information includes facts about orbits and how orbits...
Teach Engineering
Magnetic Fields Matter
Help your young scientists learn which materials are affected by magnetic fields with an activity that presents the information about different types of materials — diamagnetic, paramagnetic, and ferromagnetic — and their interaction...
Teach Engineering
Ampere's Law
Help your class find the the magnetic field of a toroid, a solenoid bent into a circle with an activity that allows the class to see how a loop of wire carrying an electrical charge behaves much like a magnet. The resource provides...
Teach Engineering
Thrown for a Loop
Round and round it goes. Class members observe a current carrying loop in a magnetic field and calculate its associated torque. They then apply what they have learned to example problems to solve for the torque and to calculate the...
Teach Engineering
The Advantage of Machines
Show your students how to make their work easier. The first lesson in a series of 10 introduces the class to work and the way simple machines can be make work easier. The simple machines scholars can find in everyday items are...
Teach Engineering
Weather Basics
Weather — there's more to it than meets the eye of the storm. With this resource young meteorologists learn about the basics of weather, including information about the factors that influence the weather, common weather vocabulary,...
Teach Engineering
Changing Fields
Eddy currents, Faraday's Law and Lenz's Law provide the connection between train brakes and and MRI machines in a instructional activity that asks teachers to provided the material needed so the pupils can understand the properties of...
Teach Engineering
Solenoids
Metal slinkies, coils of wire, magnetic fields, and MRIs. To determine the safety hazards of MRI machines, class members use the provided formula to calculate the magnetic field along the axis of the solenoid.
Computer Science Unplugged
Harold the Robot — Thinking About Programming Languages
Get young programmers thinking about programming languages with an activity that asks class members to craft directions for one person (teacher, another adult, or a class mate) acting as a robot. Participants direct the robot to...
Computer Science Unplugged
Drawing Lines with Pixels
How do the computers keep it straight? Using the provided algorithms, class members draw a line and a circle using pixels. They then check the drawings using a straight edge and compass to determine the accuracy of their...