Lesson Plan
Other

Fuel Our Future Now: Grade K 2 Module: Vroom! Vroom! What Makes Cars Go? [Pdf]

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
In this K-2 teaching module, students explore motion, gravity, friction, and energy using objects and model cars. They investigate using hands-on activities with vehicles, as well as online interactives and videos. The culminating event...
Activity
Other

Lincoln Public Schools: Applied Technology & Engineering: Mousetrap Car It's a Snap! [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
This is an engineering activity that requires students to build a mousetrap car based on certain constraints. Constraints include students having a virtual budget that they use to buy approved parts for their car, the car having...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Exploring Solar Power

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This unit provides students the opportunity to explore methods engineers have devised for harnessing sunlight to generate power. Students will initially explore heat transfer and heat storage through the construction, testing, and...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Universal Language of Engineering Drawings

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students practice the ability to produce clear, complete, accurate and detailed design drawings through an engineering design challenge. Using only the specified materials, teams are challenged to draw a design for a wind-powered car....
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Mint Mobiles

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students design, build and test model race cars made from simple materials (lifesaver-shaped candies, plastic drinking straws, Popsicle sticks, index cards, tape) as a way to explore independent, dependent and control variables. They...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Mouse Trap Racing in the Computer Age!

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students design, build and evaluate a spring-powered mouse trap racer. For evaluation, teams equip their racers with an intelligent brick from a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Education Base Set and a HiTechnic acceleration sensor. They use...
Activity
NASA

Nasa: Rockets Educator Guide: Newton Car

For Students 3rd - 8th
This lesson gives students direction on how to experiment using gravity and force. Students will make a wooden car and use different forces to make the car propel.
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy of Motion

For Teachers 6th - 8th
By taking a look at the energy of motion all around us, students learn about the types of energy and their characteristics. They first learn about the two simplest forms of mechanical energy: kinetic and potential energy, as illustrated...
Activity
Colorado State University

Colorado State Univ.: Heat Transfer Resistance Modeling

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the Colorado State University discusses the tranfer of heat by conduction and convection. Discussion centers around the application of these two heat transfer mechanisms to engines. The variables that effect the resistance...
Lesson Plan
Other

National Renewable Energy Laboratory: Junior Solar Car Competition

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A design challenge through which students design and construct a solar-powered model car to compete in a road race. Students work in teams using the engineering design process to select the optimal gear ratio and components.
Activity
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Scientific American: Future Car: Model Car Design 5 8

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Explore the fields of engineering and automobile design. Construct from a variety of materials a model of a vehicle that travels the greatest distance on balloon power.
Lesson Plan
Other

Mattel: Hot Wheels: Speedometry

For Teachers 4th - 5th
This resource is part of a two unit curriculum designed for fourth-graders using the 5E Instructional Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) to support students as they investigate the effect that height and other...
Graphic
Curated OER

Csu: Model of Basic Otto Cycle

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the Colorado State University discusses the Otto cycle of a car engine. Includes a highly mathematical treatment of the efficiency of such engines. Includes a link to a java applet investigating the efficiency of such...
Activity
Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments: The Science of Racing: Newton Knew

For Teachers 9th - 10th
For race car engineers, F = m a, is the backbone of the vast majority of calculations. The selection of gear ratios is one example. Investigate and create a mathematical model for the relationship between force, speed, mass, distance and...
Activity
Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments: The Science of Racing: Time Laps

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this activity, you will create a picture of time and speed as they relate to changes in the weight of a radio controlled race car. This picture will be a graph - a mathematical model- that allows to you predict the speed of your radio...
Website
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: Biographies: Henry Ford Biografia (Espanol)

For Students 9th - 10th
A brief biography of Henry Ford. Ford's great ideas were to improve the inventions around him and to produce them very efficiently. Good links to pictures and other information.