The fourth installment of a five-part unit has young engineers designing and testing hoop gliders. They adjust the ratio of the front loop and back loop of the glider to determine the best design for the longest flight.

Groups explore concepts of flight by creating paper airplanes from different types of paper and testing their flight. They use the results to identify the optimal material.

Engineering challenges are not just man-made ... nature has its own set of them. A hands-on STEM activity has groups designing a seed dispersal system. Each group can only use one sheet of paper — a tough task!

Uncover the renewable energy potential in your region. The activity outlines an approach to research current practices and trends. Learners conduct surveys to assess the attitudes of the local population and prepare a paper summarizing...

Compare and contrast the characteristics of fresh and salt water marshes. After exploring the typical plants and animals found in each marsh type, participants use a set of flash cards to sort into fresh and salt water marsh life. Their...

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...

Class members engage in a STEM experiment and investigate how materials affect heating in a house by creating models of houses and using different top surface materials. They record the temperature inside the models and consider what the...

Explore and brainstorm innovations for cars with a STEM lesson plan that asks scholars to weigh different options when considering when buying a car. They research the fuel efficiency and carbon emissions for various options, and...

Sugar cubes, collide! Groups design protection systems using bubble wrap to protect sugar cubes from being destroyed by falling batteries in the STEM instructional activity. They consider how the experiment relates to collisions in...

Discover how innovations can help your school and community. In the three-part STEM lesson, scholars learn the meaning of innovation and brainstorm innovations in their schools. They identify issues in their communities and think of...

Explore greenhouse effect and climate change through a 15-day unit. Scholars learn about these STEM concepts by researching, conducting surveys, experimenting, and collaborating with experts in the field. They frequently communicate...

Solve a maze ... from a robot's point of view. In the lesson, your scholars build a small, simple maze from cardboard and then find a route from the start point to the finish point. They write an algorithmic process that a robot could...

Who knew turning a light on and off could be so complicated? In the lesson, pupils use Arduino boards to learn about computer codes and programs. They program an Arduino to make a light turn on and off at certain time intervals.

See how Boolean algebra relates to video games with a lesson that teaches young scholars how to use Boolean algebra to create rules for a virtual world. They test the rule base for consistency in groups.

What can a mural teach pupils about computer science? The lesson has scholars create a mural on a wall to learn about bitmap and vector graphics. Along the way, they learn about the graphics coordinate system.

Ever wonder how the Internet works? The lesson plan teaches scholars the basics of graph theory and how it applies to the Internet. They perform simulations to see how information is sent on the Internet.

Get siblings to do your work. Scholars learn how to perform summations of arithmetic sequences in an innovative lesson. They use iterations, smaller siblings (tail-end recursion), and the divide-and-conquer approach.

Be sure to use this sweet resource. Scholars perform an experiment using sugar to investigate how surface area relates to the coarseness of sugar. They consider how this concept connects to nanotechnology.

To an engineer, the glass is never half full; it's just double the necessary size. The fifth installment of a nine-part technology and engineering series teaches pupils about the idea of ergonomic design. Measurements of popliteal height...

Does your shirt hate water? In the activity, future engineers observe the hydrophobic effect in fabrics. They brainstorm and test some ideas for waterproofing fabrics.

Discover a world too small to see. In the lesson, young scientists learn about nanotechnology and brainstorm ideas for new applications of it. They perform an activity to determine how surface area changes when objects are made smaller...

Sometimes simple is just better. A set of activities teaches young mathematicians about using plausible estimation to solve problems. They break problems down to simpler problems, use rounding and estimation strategies, and consider...

Have you been to Torbury Fair? In the set of four lessons, learners solve a myriad of problems related to a music festival, including situations involving floods, market stalls, cows, and emergency plans. 

Just how scarce is water in different parts of the world? Through these water lessons, young data analysts use provided data to investigate the scarcity of water in countries of the Middle East and Africa. They use ratios and rates to...