Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Environment

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Through 10 lessons and more than 20 hands-on activities, students are introduced to the concept of an environment and the many interactions within it. As they learn about natural and human-made environments, as well as renewable and...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Build a Toy Workshop

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Working as if they are engineers who work for (the hypothetical) Build-a-Toy Workshop company, students apply their imaginations and the engineering design process to design and build prototype toys with moving parts. They set up...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Project Ideas: Learn to Design an Ion Engine

For Students 9th - 10th
The goal of this electricity and electronics science fair project is to understand how ions are used to propel spacecraft in space, and to use a NASA online simulator to design your own ion engine. The Science Buddies project ideas are...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Beating the Motion Sensor

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Lighting is responsible for nearly one-third of the electricity use in buildings. One of the best ways to conserve energy is to make sure the lights are turned off when no one is in a room. This process can be automated using motion...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy Forms and States Demonstrations

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Demonstrations explain the concepts of energy forms (sound, chemical, radiant [light], electrical, atomic [nuclear], mechanical, thermal [heat]) and states (potential, kinetic).
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Both Fields at Once?!

For Teachers 11th - 12th
This lesson discusses the result of a charge being subject to both electric and magnetic fields at the same time. It covers the Hall effect, velocity selector, and the charge to mass ratio. Given several sample problems, students learn...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy in Our Lives Carousel

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This activity is a way for students to discover that they already know a lot about energy through their own life experiences. As active consumers of various forms of energy, they are aware of energy purchases for electricity, home...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Household Energy Audit

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students review the electrical appliances used at home and estimate the energy used for each. The results can help to show the energy hogs that could benefit from conservation or improved efficiency.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Hearing: How Do Our Ears Work?

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students learn about the anatomy of the ear and how the ears work as a sound sensor. Ear anatomy parts and structures are explained in detail, as well as how sound is transmitted mechanically and then electrically through them to the...
Handout
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Real Scientists: Electrical Engineer

For Students 3rd - 8th
Discover how an electrical engineer is using artificial intelligence to make robots "smarter." Consider how robots can be used to explore other planets.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Bulbs & Batteries in a Row

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Everyday we are surrounded by circuits that use "in parallel" and "in series" circuitry. Complicated circuits designed by engineers are composed of many simpler parallel and series circuits. During this activity, students build a simple...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Rolling Blackouts & Environmental Impact

For Teachers 11th - 12th
The goal is for the students to understand the environmental design considerations required when generating electricity. The electric power that we use every day at home and work is generated by a variety of power plants. Power plants...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Dams

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Through eight lessons, students are introduced to many facets of dams, including their basic components, the common types (all designed to resist strong forces), their primary benefits (electricity generation, water supply, flood...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Static Cling

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
This hands-on activity explores the concept of static electricity. Students attract an O-shaped piece of cereal to a charged comb and watch the cereal jump away when it touches the comb. Students also observe Styrofoam pellets pulling...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Charge It!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students use a balloon to perform several simple experiments to explore static electricity and charge polarization.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Build a Charge Detector

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this hands-on activity, students explore the electrical force that takes place between two objects. Each student builds an electroscope and uses the device to draw conclusions about objects' charge intensity. Students also determine...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Conductivity

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students make a simple conductivity tester using a battery and light bulb. They learn the difference between conductors and insulators of electrical energy as they test a variety of materials for their ability to conduct electricity.
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Through nine lessons, students are introduced to a range of energy types--electrical, light, sound and thermal-as well as the renewable energy sources of wind, hydro (water) and solar power. Subjects range from understanding that the...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Electric and Magnetic Personalities of Mr. Maxwell

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students are briefly introduced to Maxwell's equations and their significance to phenomena associated with electricity and magnetism. Basic concepts such as current, electricity and field lines are covered and reinforced. Through...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Strong Arm Tactics

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students generally do not know the complexity that goes into building and programming a robotic arm. In actuality, creating such an arm comes from a design that involves mechanical, electrical, and computer science engineers. This...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Why Do We Build Dams?

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Young scholars are introduced to the concept of a dam and its potential benefits, which include water supply, electricity generation, flood control, recreation and irrigation. This lesson begins an ongoing classroom scenario in which...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Electricity and Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 9th - 10th
The grand challenge for this legacy cycle unit is for young scholars to design a way to help a recycler separate aluminum from steel scrap metal. In previous lessons, they have looked at how magnetism might be utilized. In this lesson,...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: A Case of Innovation

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
A white paper is a focused analysis often used to describe how a technology solves a problem. In this literacy activity, students write a simplified version of a white paper on an alternative electrical power generation technology. In...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Electrocardiograph Building

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This activity will build upon the concepts taught in the lesson The Strongest Pump of All. The activity will pull together the concepts of bioelectricity, electrical circuits, and biology. It will allow the students the opportunity to...