Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make an Alarm!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students read the story, Dear Mr. Henshaw. They build an alarm system for something in the classroom, as the main character Leigh does to protect his lunchbox from thieves. Students explore alarms and use their creativity to create an...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stack It Up!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students analyze and begin to design a pyramid. Working in engineering teams, they perform calculations to determine the area of the pyramid base, stone block volumes, and the number of blocks required for their pyramid base. They make a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Taking the Boat to Manaus

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders apply the concepts they know regarding mass, volume and density in the previous activities to design a boat. Student teams must make a boat which can travel the waters of the Amazon Rainforest. Each group makes a...
Lesson Plan
Teach Engineering

All About Linear Programming

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
Class members connect engineering with an understanding of linear programming using a technical resource. Scholars learn about linear programming (linear optimization) and how it applies to engineering design in the first of two modules....
Activity
3
3
Teach Engineering

Earthquakes Living Lab: The Theory of Plate Tectonics

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Find out if your class agrees with Ice Age: Continental Drift ... or if it's just a fun family movie! Class members research the theory of continental drift, examine evidence of plate tectonics, connect...
Lesson Plan
NASA

Rover Races

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Operating a vehicle remotely can be difficult, especially when the vehicle is on another planet. Young engineers get a feel for some of the real-world challenges as they work to program their rovers (blindfolded group members)...
Activity
1
1
Teach Engineering

Building an Electromagnet

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Your pupils can build their own electromagnet — awesome! The culminating activity in an eight-part series challenges groups to design and build their own electromagnet. The goal of the activity is to build a magnet capable of picking up...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Blow-and-Go Parachute

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students design a skydiver and parachute constraption to demonstrate how drag caused by air resistance slows the descent of skydivers as they travel back to Earth. They experience how gravity pulls the skydiver toward the earth and how...
Activity
1
1
Teach Engineering

Basically Acidic Ink

For Teachers 9th - 11th
If you don't want to drink red cabbage juice, here's another use for it—a decoder! Using vinegar and ammonia-based window cleaning liquids as invisible inks, scholars create designs in the second lesson of the series. Red cabbage juice...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Many Paths

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore the composition and practical application of parallel circuitry, compared to series circuitry. They design and build parallel circuits and investigate their characteristics, and apply Ohm's law. They recognize that...
Activity
Discovery Education

Wind Power

For Teachers 9th - 12th
How do engineers turn something that is readily available, like wind, into energy? Scholars create a prototype of a wind turbine and attach it to a motor. They test out their prototypes and decide on their effectiveness. They also...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mini-Landslide

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore how different materials (sand, gravel, lava rock) with different water contents on different slopes result in landslides of different severity. They measure the severity by how far the landslide debris extends into model...
Activity
1
1
Teach Engineering

Magnetic Fluids

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Teams work as material engineers to create ferrofluids, whose shape is influenced by magnetic fields. The activity, which is the fourth in the six-part series, has the teams create magnetic ink and use it to write, testing it with a...
Activity
Smithsonian Institution

What's the Code? Coding Robot Movements Using Sound

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Tap into the desire to learn about computer codes. Pupils apply the Tap Code and the Polybius Square to send secret codes using sound. They design a code that tells a robot what movements to make and then test out their code using one of...
Lesson Plan
1
1
Teach Engineering

Photosynthesis—Life's Primary Energy Source

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Wouldn't it be great if you could produce your own food? Scholars learn about the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in plants. They consider how to use photosynthesis as a model of an efficient system and how to apply...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Population Growth in Yeasts

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students design an investigation using yeast. For this environmental engineering lesson, students design an investigation to determine how environmental factors affect the growth of yeast. They will collect quantitative data and discuss...
Lesson Plan
Teach Engineering

Water Power

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young hydrologists observe a waterwheel which helps them investigate the transformations of energy that occur when the blades of a hydro-turbine are turning. They work together in pairs and pretend to be engineers who are building a new...
Activity
Teach Engineering

Tippy Tap Plus Piping

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Getting water to a tap requires an understanding the fundamentals of fluid flow. Groups design, build, and test a piping system to get water from the source — a five gallon bucket — to a tippy tap. The objective is to be able to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Earth: Our Big Blue Marble

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students investigate Earth and its resources. In this Earth, space, and nature lesson plan, students collaborate to design presentations on the Earth, its cycles, and how humans have impacted the planet. Images, diagrams, and background...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Attack of the Raging River

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Learners explore mass and volume. In this mass and volume lesson, students pretend to be on a hike and have lost their way. Learners must cross a river get back on track. Students must use mass, volume, surface area, density, property...
Lesson Plan
Teach Engineering

Flow Rates of Faucets and Rivers

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Go with the flow and use a helpful resource. A set of two activities has learners investigate flow rates. They first determine the flow rate of a faucet by measuring how long it takes to fill a bucket. Using the results, they make a...
Worksheet
K12 Reader

African American Inventors: Granville T. Woods

For Students 3rd - 5th Standards
Get to know inventor, Granville T. Woods. Who is he? From what state did Woods come? What did he design? All questions your scholars will find the answers to with this response-to-reading worksheet. 
Lesson Plan
1
1
NASA

Touchdown

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Individuals design and build a set of shock absorbers to protect their astronauts when they land. Using a limited amount of supplies, pupils build a system that will keep two large marshmallows from flying out of a cup when it lands...
Activity
Perkins School for the Blind

Safety Crash Testing

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Everyone knows that cars have safety features, but wouldn't it be fun to design your own? Learners with visual impairments build a ramp and then attempt to use the material provided to design a safety system to protect a raw egg from a...

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