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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Engineering Lessons Adapted for Special Education

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Modifying engineering lessons from NASA makes them accessible to a wider variety of learners.
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

'Hunger Games' Science: Investigating Genetically Engineered Organisms

For Teachers 7th - 12th
In The Hunger Games novel and movie, a futuristic, dystopian society is the setting. In it, a genetically engineered bird escapes control of the government. Using this as a starting point, teenagers examine the realistic possibility of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pooper Scooper

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Science Students build a pooper scooper tool that helps them clean up after a dog without getting their hands dirty or their noses too close. They research the diseases that can be transported through animal waste and work in teams to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rat Round Up

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students build a device that captures and carries a pet rat safely back to its cage with out "harming" the rat or themselves. They build and experiment with wind-up or battery operated rat cat toys after predicting the outcome of their...
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Activity
Curated OER

The BEAM Project: Building Efficient Architectural Models

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Technology or engineering teams are given a task to design, construct, and test the efficiency of a structure that will foster an even temperature throughout an entire sunny day. Intended as a long-term project, pupils research, plan,...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Spaghetti Bridges: Student Worksheet

For Students 4th - 6th
Here is a wonderful activity that allows young engineers to try their hand at designing a bridge out of spaghetti! The activity explains the activity and also provides a graph for keeping track of the results. Very good!
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Lesson Plan
eGFI

Marshmallow Design Challenge

For Teachers K - 12th
How tall is your marshmallow structure? With limited supplies (including uncooked spaghetti noodles, masking tape, and one marshmallow), teams endeavor to support the marshmallow atop the tallest spaghetti structure they can build....
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Spaghetti Bridges: Student Worksheet

For Students 3rd - 4th
Pairs of learners work together in order to simulate how engineers test materials for strength and safety in the real world. They use paper cups and pieces of spaghetti to run strength tests. This excellent worksheet should lead to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fortified Breakfast

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students reverse engineer a cereal. For this dietary lesson students identify the minerals that the human body needs to function. Students examine how foods are fortified by food engineers. Students find the amount of iron in a cereal by...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Class Activity: Satellite Tracker

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Demonstrate how the Skywatch website works, locating your city via The International Space Station. Have cooperative groups use string and a protractor to identify an azimuth. When each groups' height has been marked, you will have a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Data from Sensors

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Beginning with a discussion about using technology to collect data, this resource includes a video about the next Mars rover as an example. Young scientists are taught that filtering is necessary before collected data can be analyzed....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Ultimate Classroom: R & D

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Redecorate a classroom on a budget. Middle schoolers rebuild a classroom after a disaster. They conduct Internet research to determine construction supplies needed and the most cost effective way to reach the predetermined results. They...
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Lesson Plan
Teach Engineering

Flow Rates of Faucets and Rivers

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Go with the flow and use a helpful resource. A set of two activities has learners investigate flow rates. They first determine the flow rate of a faucet by measuring how long it takes to fill a bucket. Using the results, they make a...
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Lesson Plan
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Teach Engineering

Clean it Up!

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Harness the power of bacteria. Scholars see how using organisms that exist in nature can help solve human problems in the process known as bioremediation. They research and discuss several successful examples, such as using oil-eating...
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Lesson Plan
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University of Colorado

Patterns and Fingerprints

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Human fingerprint patterns are the result of layers of skin growing at different paces, thus causing the layers to pull on each other forming ridges. Here, groups of learners see how patterns and fingerprints assist scientists in a...
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Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Exploring at the Nanoscale

For Teachers 4th - 9th
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...
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

Recommendations and Presentations: Drum Roll Please

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Teams analyze the data they collected during the past six lessons and finalize where they will build a survival cavern. They then present their decisions to the rest of the class and justify their locations. 
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

Incoming Asteroid! What's the Problem?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Oh, no! An asteroid is on a collision course with Earth!. Class members must rise to the challenge of designing a shelter that will protect people from the impact and permit them to live in this shelter for one year. In this first lesson...
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

Ranking the Rocks for Desired Properties

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Math rocks! Cavern design teams determine the rankings of rock types based upon desirability points. The points are connected to the properties of the rocks and their usefulness in building a cavern. 
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

Rocks, Rocks, Rocks: Test, Identify Properties and Classify

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Time is growing short. Teams work together to identify physical properties of rocks in order to determine the properties that would best suit their cavern shelter design.
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Activity
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Teach Engineering

Identifying Possible Underground Cavern Locations

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Teams continue with the Asteroid Impact challenge and determine possible locations to construct their underground shelters. Participants cut scale area models of their shelters from paper and place them on the map to find locations to...
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Lesson Plan
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Failure: Seeds of Innovation

For Teachers 3rd - 12th Standards
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!" Through this assignment, emerging engineers examine how failed experiments are simply part of the process of an outstanding design. They begin with some reading about the microwave oven,...
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Lesson Plan
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Hand Biometrics Technology

For Teachers 3rd - 12th Standards
Electronic engineering hopefuls get hands-on with hand geometry and the technology of biometrics. After taking the appropriate measurement on their hands, they configure their personal hand geometry codes and compare them to classmates....
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Lesson Plan
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Trebuchet Toss

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young engineers work in teams to design and build their own trebuchets according to certain criteria; they must be able to launch a mini marshmallow accurately into a pie tin. Background reading material, a planning sheet for trebuchet...