Middle schoolers are broken up into four groups. Each group will use their knowledge about Egypt to originate a playground for Egyptian children. This will involve brainstorming ideas on paper, building a prototype with Legos or other...

Building on the previous activity in this series of lesson seeds, this plan focuses on the use of dialect in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay. Class members examine specific lines of text, use their reading journals to respond to the...

Get started with The Cay. First, provide some background information and images that relate to the novel. Then pupils can create double-entry journals. Once that is complete, read the first two chapters, encouraging individuals to record...

Focus on plot and the impact-specific events in The Cay. Class members use their double-entry journals, created in a previous lesson in this series, to record their thinking about the guiding question as they read chapters 15 through 17....

Learners construct model landfill liners out of two-inch strips of garbage bags within resource constraints. The challenge is to construct a bag that will hold one cup of water without leaking. This represents similar challenges that...

Students design and build a balance using LEGO, string, and a set of standard metric weights.

Students design and create a chair. Students look at current stool design and come up with a prototype from donated materials. Students then test their chair in various settings.

Students work together to design and build a paper rocket. They place a propellant in the contraption to make it fly. They discover Newton's third law of motion.

Students solve design problems. In this art and design instructional activity, students create a picture by analyzing two others, and make a prototype of a building. The small group activities call for creativity and ingenuity as well as...

Students research the demands or limitations on Earth scientists. In groups, they design and build a model that would be useful to them in the lab or field. They share their model and their ideas behind it to the class and answer any...

In this physics worksheet, students design and build a power inverter given a schematic diagram. They answer 3 short answer questions about the circuit they created.

Students watch a video that helps shows them how a diagram, flow chart, or blueprint can help them create a 3-d fish with the correct anatomy to live in a realistic environment.

Students work to create a design that will protect an egg from being dropped from a one story floor. They test their prototype after it is completed. They write clear instructions and link aspects of the design process to the scientific...

Go fly a kite, then fly a plane! The 19th part of a 22-part unit on aviation looks at the way kites and gliders help aid in the understanding of flight. Pupils discuss how engineers used kites to influence airplane designs.

Get your learners interested in space exploration. Groups design space rovers using design software and then build prototypes of their designs. The farther the rovers can travel, the better. The catch? The rovers must be powered by...

Clowns are a big hit with kids! Explore a few circus related websites to get an idea of how clowns look and what they do. They then build sculpting skills by creating expressive clown faces out of clay. Web links, materials list, and...

Class members connect engineering with an understanding of linear programming using a technical resource. Scholars learn about linear programming (linear optimization) and how it applies to engineering design in the first of two modules....

Characters often change over the course of a story or novel. Use the sample graphic organizer provided here to track how the narrator has responded to the sequence of events in chapter four through six of The Cay. In addition to this...

Make a study of Timothy and his development as a character over the course of the first half or so of The Cay. This idea focuses in particular on chapters 10 through 12. Learners start out by working on double-entry journals created in...

Here is a lesson in collaboration cleverly disguised as an engineering design activity. There is no background material for you to teach here,  just instructions about materials and rules for participating groups. Use this as...

Students research information about a Native American tribe and document their knowledge by creating a block (cube) containing pictures about the homes, tools, food, clothing, and transportation for this tribe.

Students visualize and manipulate sentences as building blocks, and, given a key, use Legos™ to demonstrate how to construct sentences of variety (simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex).

Students design an underwater vehicle. In this engineering lesson, students will design an underwater robot that includes specific systems for it to function properly. Each group will present their prototype to the class.

Students design a simple machine for a simple machine contest. In this simple machine lesson, students design a simple machine that will solve a problem. They draw a diagram, label it, and test the machine before they present it in a...