Teach Engineering
Racing With the Sun - Creating a Solar Car
Here's an exciting and innovative lesson that's sure to get your charges fired up! In it, they use engineering design principles to construct and test a fully solar powered car. One caveat: the kits that each group needs to make their...
Curated OER
Junkyard Wars: Mechanical Monsters
Students examine slope and build a Lego car that can take a steep slope. In this mechanics instructional activity students build a car and demonstrate them in class and describe what they did.
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Sweet Car Dreams
Students rebuild two different makes of cars. They calculate the cost of rebuilding the car. They create a spreadsheet to track their progress and costs.
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Popular Mechanics
Students explore the five essential parts of every robot and design their own robots to perform everyday tasks. They explore robots created for fighting competitions by reading and discussing "When Nerds Collide: Robots at War."
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Simple Machines IV - Wheels and Axles
Youngsters are introduced to the basic principles and uses of the wheel and the axle. They come up with every day examples of simple machines and look into why the wheel and the axle are best-used as a paired machine instead of used...
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On The Go! Forces and Motion
Students create a car using physics. In this forces and motion lesson, students create a car and test which changes in design change the performance of the car. Students complete a graphic organizer with the different changes they see.
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Race to the Eating Line
Seventh graders investigate the steps in writing a newspaper sports article and utilizd the information to report their class car race results. The racing cars are built out of vegetables and fruit and entered into the class competition,...
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Alternative Energy
Students discover types of energy. In this physics lesson, students discuss ways to power a car a design a model car kit with an alternative form of energy.
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Go with the Flow
Students demonstrate a sequence of events through the creation of an animated flowchart. Students research the internet and select parts involved in assembling a car. They animate the model and the parts. Students create a flow chart...
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Surface Friction and Wear Characteristics of Common Materials
Students identify the factors affecting friction. In this physics instructional activity, students construct their own rocket car and race them. They graph the average speeds and discuss how lubricants affect friction between rubbing...
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Break it Down: Reverse Engineering
Students disassemble a toy. In this science lesson, students compare and contrast the inner mechanisms of a toy car. Students predict and illustrate what the inner mechanism look like. Then, they disassemble the toy, and illustrate the...
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Janet Guthrie
Students explore the life of race car driver and physicist Janet Guthrie. In this social studies instructional activity, learners investigate how Janet Guthrie followed her dream of becoming a race car driver. Students complete 7...
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Transportation
Students explore basic transportation vehicles, specifically air, land, and water vehicles, name six different modes of transportation, identify four different kinds of train cars, and three differences between two different modes of...
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Rube Goldberg
Students study Rube Goldberg machines. In this architecture lesson, students build a Rube Goldberg machine.
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Work and Power: Waterwheel
Students investigate a waterwheel and the physical properties of energy. In this waterwheel lesson students create a model waterwheel and calculate the amount of power produced.
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Simple Machines I - Inclined Planes, Wedges, and Screws
The principles and uses of inclined planes, screws, and wedges are the focus of a science lesson. In it, youngsters come up with every day examples of simple machines, and build an example of one in class. That project is then used to...
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I'm Convinced!
Students examine persuasive techniques used to sell products, and create and write an advertisement for peanut butter.
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Conserving Energy Resources
Seventh graders research on energy conversion. After they have researched several types of energy resources, teams of two to four create posters which depict how these resources can be conserved.
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Energy Conversion
Students describe how energy can be transformed from one form to another. In this physics lesson, students calculate kinetic and potential energy using mathematical equations. They give real life applications of this lesson.