Read Works
Read Works: Looking for Ancient Treasure
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about ancient Assyrian city of Assur. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
University of Michigan
University of Michigan: The Building of the First Aswan Dam
After reading a brief history on the construction of the first Aswan Dam, you can view historical photos of its development.
PBS
Pbs Kids:activities and Videos: Structures
PBS site provides videos and activities are hands-on challenges that focus on the engineering design process. They use simple materials, allow for multiple solutions, and are ideal for ages 9-12.
Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Evolution: Natural Selection
The concept of interdependence in an ecosystem and its effect on the evolution of populations is further explored through a model of a dam. Students build a dam in the middle of the field, dividing the ecosystem in half to illustrate the...
Science Buddies
Science Buddies: Career Profile: Civil Engineering Technician
Civil engineering technicians help civil engineers in planning big projects such as building roads, dams, and waste treatment plants. This Science Buddies site lays out the requirements needed to become a civil engineering technician, as...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Power Your House With Water
Students learn how engineers design devices that use water to generate electricity by building model water turbines and measuring the resulting current produced in a motor. Students work through the engineering design process to build...
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: Panama Canal
Regarded as one of the seven wonders of the modern world, the Panama Canal opened for business on August 15, 1914. America's ingenuity and innovation had triumphed over insurmountable odds. PBS brings us this incredible story via online...
PBS
Pbs: The Bridge Challenge
This site from PBS is for any user wanting test their engineering skills. Take a trip to Craggy Rock and help their growing community decide on four new bridges.
Read Works
Read Works: Bring in the Beavers!
[Free Registration/Login Required] A literary text about a town that wanted to solve a problem with flooding. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Read Works
Read Works: Earth Science Floods
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about floods. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Spaghetti Bridge
Civil engineers design and construct structures such as buildings, dams, and bridges. We can explore the field of engineering by making a bridge using spaghetti. This bridge is then tested based on the weight it can carry without breaking.
PBS
Pbs: The Dome Challenge
This site from PBS is a great web site for anyone interested in using some engineering skills. Travel to sizzling hot Char County and help the residents decide on three new domes.
Canadian Museum of Nature
Canadian Museum of Nature: North American Beaver
The North American beaver has survived despite centuries of trapping for their valued pelts. Beavers are marvelous engineers who, the author says, are 'second only to humans in the magnitude of change which they can effect on their...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: American Beaver
The largest North American rodent and the only one with a broad, flat, scaly tail, the Beaver is now common and widespread, even in areas it did not inhabit during pre-colonial times. The modifications it makes to the environment by...