Curated OER
Race the Track! Design Challenge
Students focus on a force and motion problem, explore it, reflect on it and apply it while completing experiments. In this motion lesson, students experiment with force and motion by creating a track for testing cars.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Wind Tunnel Testing
One of the factors that automotive engineers must consider is wind drag. The less wind drag, the more efficient the car will be. They perform many tests in wind tunnels, then refine their designs and test again. Using simple materials,...
Columbus City Schools
May the Force Be with You
You won't have to force your classes to complete these engaging activities! Through exploration, young scientists learn that force has both magnitude and direction. They draw force diagrams, investigate force models, and complete a...
American Chemical Society
Molecules in Motion
I heard that oxygen and magnesium were going out and I was like "O Mg." Pupils experiment with adding food coloring to water of various temperatures in order to determine how temperature impacts molecular movement. This is the...
Rainforest Alliance
Sounds of the Rainforest
Do you hear what I hear? Encourage scholars to use their listening skills and participate in a series of activities that demonstrate how the sense of hearing is crucial to the human and animal world. Activities guide learners...
Curated OER
Rocket Car
Students construct a balloon-powered rocket car from a Styrofoam tray, pins, tape, and a flexible straw, and test it along a measured track on the floor. They experiment with ways of increasing the distance the rocket car travels.
Curated OER
Go Car, Go!
Young scholars design and build their own car. In this physics lesson plan, students collect data to determine the speed of the car. They plot the data on the graph analyze the relationship between variables.
Curated OER
Newton Rocket Car
Students observe a demonstration of Newton's third law of motion using a small wooden car. They discuss Newton's third law of motion and what happens to motion if the mass or acceleration is increased, construct their car, and record...
Curated OER
Building a Car: Mechanical Engineering
Students use common materials to build a car. For this car building mechanical engineering lesson, students build a car using a milk cartoon and plastic wheels. They discuss what mechanical engineers do and what makes a car run.
Curated OER
My Car Has Potential
Seventh graders investigate how changes in the mass or height of a ramp can affect the change in potential energy. They discuss the concepts of work and energy, then using the four question strategy, they design an experiment that...
Curated OER
Recycled Vegetable Oil Powers Vans, Cars
Students share their knowledge about fuel sources, then read a news article about vegetable oil as a cleaner alternative to gasoline. For this current events and environmental science lesson, the teacher introduces the article with a...
Curated OER
Magnetic Car
In this magnetic car worksheet, students learn how to use simple household items to create a magnetic car. Students learn that magnets have two poles and when the same poles face each other it causes a force of repulsion which moves the...
DiscoverE
Rubber Band Rovers
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...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Lab 2: Nanocatalysts Clean Your Car Emissions
Surface area certainly surfaces as a variable for chemical reaction rates. Scholars perform an experiment to discover how the size of catalysts affect the rate of a chemical reaction. They record their results in tables and graphs to...
NASA
Rocket Wind Tunnel
Using a teacher-built wind tunnel constructed from a paper concrete tube form, a fan, and a balance, individuals determine the amount of drag their rocket design will experience in flight. Pupils make modifications to increase the...
Purdue University
Bottle Racers
Bottle up pupils' energy to complete a great resource. Scholars design toy cars out of plastic water bottles. They consider different sources of energy to power the cars, such as rubber bands, balloons, and chemical reactions.
Curated OER
Vehicle Graphic Organizer
A two-slide presentation shows learners how to design a car. The first slide has them list the color, number of wheels, and a drawing of the vehicle. The second slide has them list all of the materials they will need to build it.
Desert Discoveries
Conservation Cartoons
Third graders read and create cartoons about endangered and threatened species of plants. Pupils are split up into groups. They each consider a conservation cartoon and attempt to decipher its meaning. They must decide if they agree or...
Curated OER
Streetfilms' Moving Beyond the Automobile
This is an exceptional series that you can use in an environmental or engineering unit. There are four lessons: "Sustainable Transportation," "Designing for Safety," "Changing the Landscape," and "Engaging in Policy." Each lesson...
Captain Planet Foundation
Fall into Healthy Shapes
Kindergartners identify geometric shapes by planting a fall garden. They start their seeds in containers that have different shapes, and keep track of their plants based on those shapes. This brilliantly designed and incredibly thorough...
Curated OER
So You Want To Be A Mythbuster?
Students recognize the parts used to construct a car. In this mythbuster lesson, students will use the scientific method to complete an experiment with student constructed cars to bust a myth. Students will reflect on what they...
Curated OER
The Dymaxion Car
In this motion worksheet, students read about the invention of the Dymaxion car that was designed to achieve high speeds. Students complete 2 short answer questions based on the reading.
Anchorage School District
Roller Coaster Project
Emerging engineers work in teams to design pipe insulation roller coasters for marbles that meet specific parameters. They are required to label along the track the areas where kinetic and potential energy are highest and lowest, where...
Pacific Science Center
Worlds in Comparison
Young astronomers follow a step-by-step procedure for dividing a lump of dough into parts, resulting in a scaled volume set of puny planets. Along with the printable directions is a template chart of planet names on which learners can...