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Build It Better!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students work together to review what they know about damage during tornadoes. They design a structure that they hope protects people against tornadoes. They share their structure with the class.
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Spaces and Places

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students identify three-dimensional forms in various buildings and construct three-dimensional paper forms.
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Meteor Monitor

For Teachers 11th
Student's measure sporadic meteor activity.  In this physics and astronomy lesson, 11th graders construct a dipole antennae, and build, test and wire a full wave diode rectifier between the dipole antenna and the laptop. 
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Spongy Wetlands

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils sort things that absorb and things that do not absorb, They predict, orally or in writing, what happens to houses with or without wetlands. Students build a wetland area in a meat tray to show how wetlands absorb water, and they...
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The Delta Flier

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students make calculations in order to construct a kite in the shape of an isosceles right triangle. In this kite lesson students calculate altitude of their flying kites using a formula.
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Strong as Newspaper

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore architecture. In this science lesson, students build a structure from newspaper. Students place weight on the structure to measure how strong the structure is.
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The Island of The Blue Eagles

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders read the book CALL IT COURAGE by Armstrong Sperry. They use the Internet to research and work in groups to write ocean chants. They construct dioramas and build a sea turtle withK'NEX.
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Plant Systems

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students examine plant systems. In this life science lesson, students explore leaf and root systems on paper in a terrarium that they design and construct.
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The Squeeze is On

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers investigate the force of compression and how it acts on structural components through a hands-on group project. They use everyday products such as paper, toothpicks, and tape to construct a structure that will support...
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Levers: Catapults

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students construct a catapult that shoots a cotton ball at least two meters using Legos, rubber bands, and plastic spoons. They discuss how the catapult works, and identify any problems they had with their experiment.
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Propellers, Forces and Energy

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Young scholars construct a model airplane, measure distance, and calculate velocity.  In this creative lesson students work in groups to build a model and use it to calculate distances and velocity.
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Spaghetti Bridge

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers work together to build their own spaghetti bridge. They test the bridge to see how much weight it can hold before breaking. They discover how engineers use this type of information to design bridges.
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Eek, It leaks!

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers 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...
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Aerospace

For Teachers 7th - 11th
Learners experiment with weight and balance of a glider.  In this flight instructional activity students construct their own flying glider and record their experiment with it. 
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Up, Up, and Away

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students investigate the laws of physics that govern the flight of helicopters and airplanes. They build and launch a model rotor, simulating rotors used on helicopters to provide lift.
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Balsa Towers

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Pupils build their own tower using concepts from previous lessons. They are given a set of materials to use and general guidelines. They share what they have created with their classmates.
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The Little Blue Engine

For Teachers 2nd - 8th
Students listen to a read aloud of Shel Silverstein's, The Little Blue Engine. They design and build a Lego train that climbs a three foot incline, one foot at a time. They draw and write about their design.
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Tower Investigation and the Egg

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars build three types of towers, engineering them to hold an egg one foot high for 15 seconds. They discover that engineering designs are subject to constraints such as time, money and size specifications. In this activity...
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Giving Directions

For Teachers 1st
First graders view the object on their desk observing the colors, patterns, and the way the object is put together but not touching it. They then write on paper the directions they would give someone so that they would be able to build...
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How Far Will It Roll?

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Students construct a car with the longest roll using a ramp. They construct Lego cars, modify the wheel sizes and car configurations to evaluate which car design rolls the longest distance, develop a graph, and complete a worksheet.
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Cleaning the Air

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners investigate how engineers design methods of removing particulate matter from industrial sources to minimize negative effects of air pollution. In small groups they design and construct a filter with the goal of removing pepper...
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Rockets: Kinematics or Energy?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students construct model rockets, measure and record the height of the launch.  In this creative lesson students use different methods to calculate velocity and height data from their launched rockets.
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WATER GOES AROUND AND COMES AROUND

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students build a model of a water system from the source to users and read and interpret a water meter.
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Wind Tunnels

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Learners build a simple wind tunnel and test out 2 glider wing shapes at different angles of attack. They record results and their observations just as engineers do.