How well can you launch a ping-pong ball? Small groups design launchers that can launch a ping-pong ball 20 feet into a target. The teams follow the engineering design process as they develop a solution that meets the design...

Introduce search engines with an activity that models how search engines work and the different algorithms they employ. Working in groups, class members then build search queries to demonstrate the knowledge learned.

A series on environmental engineering introduces the class to issues that environmental engineers work to solve. This first lesson focuses on air and land issues, and looks at ways to reduce pollution.

The man who invented the earliest examples of chemical engineering was an American-born, French-educated, free man of color before the Civil War, and went on to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. There is something of...

An engineering design lesson plan contains connected activities as a capstone engineering project. The activities revolve around the principle of improving an existing object and designing the manufacturing process in order to do so. The...

Learn how to find things quickly and efficiently on the Internet. The lesson teaches how search engines work and how to efficiently use them. It includes an activity where groups develop search queries to find sites using given criteria.

Space, the Final Frontier. The nine NASA-created challenges in this unit are designed to teach class members the engineering design process. Each challenge comes with teacher and student pages that can be used individually or as a...

In this engineering worksheet, students speak with an engineer, surveyor, or architect in their area about the various occupations in engineering and create a list that explains each. They also draw a floor plan of their home and three...

Young computer scientists get to see what it's like to be a software engineer as they use free online software to design a computer game. They play and evaluate games groups created to round out the activity.

Scientists in California developed a bionic eye that allows blind people to see edges of objects in black and white and costs $145,000. In the activity, groups of scholars discuss bioengineering, focusing on the human eye. They then...

What do physicists and musicians have in common? A lot more than you might think. After first viewing a slide show presentation and completing a series of skills practice worksheets on the physics of light, sound, and...

How did changes of the agricultural revolution in eighteenth century Great Britain influence the Industrial Revolution that followed? How were inventions and processes of the Industrial Revolution interrelated? This resource includes a...

For this engineering worksheet, students research engineering and fill in blanks to complete sentences. A reference web site is given.

Ramp up the engineering design process in your classroom with an activity that challenges teams to design, build, and test a small-scale portable wheelchair ramp. The class develops design requirements, and teams test their designs...

Have your class use the engineering design process to program a vacuum robot. Using computer engineering concepts, teams program an automatic floor cleaner to traverse designated patterns. 

Challenge your class to use their understanding of the engineering design process to design and build a small-scale, off-road prototype for an assistive technology device. Teams select materials to build their scale models, and, using...

So is that what you meant by rubber legs? The activity has pairs subject a chicken bone to vinegar and observe what happens over a period of days. Individuals then write up a lab report and document their observations and findings. 

Building an accelerometer app for your Android device. Groups develop an app that uses the accelerometer on an Android device. The purpose of the activity is to reinforce the programming design. The post activity assessment challenges...

Every time a bell rings ... there is lightning in the area. The activity provides directions to build a model of a lightning detection system. Similar to a system designed by Benjamin Franklin, the system uses static...

The challenge: determine whether a tank will float. A design activity has groups work as engineering teams in order to determine the stability of given tanks and liquid contents. The teams need to determine the equations to...

She had a terribly busy day converting oxygen into carbon dioxide; now she just needs a moment to breathe. In the activity, scholars review the function of the respiratory system and discuss bioengineering's role in medicine/health and...

Three, two, one, blast off to a better understanding of force and motion with this exciting science activity! Beginning with a discussion about rockets and gravity, young scientists go on to complete a series of worksheets about net...

Here is a wonderful activity that allows young engineers to try their hand at designing a bridge out of spaghetti! The worksheet explains the activity and also provides a graph for keeping track of the results. Very good!

Pairs of learners work together in order to simulate how engineers test materials for strength and safety in the real world. They use paper cups and pieces of spaghetti to run strength tests. This excellent worksheet should lead to...