Learners learn about energy and nutrient flow in various biosphere climates and environments. They learn about herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, food chains and food webs, seeing the interdependence between producers, consumers and...

An engineering adventure for registered schools that allows students to participate in the research, design, building and testing of a car. Registration for schools is free and gives teachers access to school resources and lesson plans.

Working in teams of "engineers", students explore how a periscope works and is used. They design, build, and test a working periscope made from everyday materials that has adjustable mirrors and be able to telescope as well.

Students work in teams to fill jars with a product that is uniform in weight or count. Lesson investigates how manufacturing engineers use weight scales and measurement to develop systems that can create consistent products.

Have you ever wanted to build your own skateboard? Well, now is your chance! Learn the process and materials used to build once, customize it yourself and send it to your friends.

Students learn about wildlife habitats, environmental engineering, and the complexities of nest construction by attempting to design and build a nest themselves. This activity can be done individually or with a partner.

Students investigate how a mouse works by dissembling and evaluating its design. They are also challenged to improve the design by eliminating or changing components of the mouse they dissembled.

This instructional activity looks at critical load, the amount of weight a structure can hold beyond which it would collapse. Student teams will design and test a structure using playing cards that has to meet specific criteria....

Lesson addresses how traffic is managed by the use of the traffic light. Student "engineers" work in teams to design a new traffic light system using new technology to meet the needs of society today.

Lesson explains the seven steps to the problem solving process. Students can practice the process using associated activities.

A lesson plan where learners use their innovative thinking skills to design biosensors for a future use. During the lesson, students will learn about nanotechnology and biosensors.

The core of this lesson is simple circuits and the differences between parallel and series circuit design. Students perform experiments to test the differences between the two circuit designs using low voltage light bulbs.

Lesson explores the history, design, and motion of spinning tops. Student teams design and build their own tops that can spin for at least 10 seconds within a circle 30 centimeters in diameter.

Activity investigates the concept of how bicycle brakes use force and friction to stop or slow mechanical motion. Students work in teams to devise a simple braking system while suggesting improvements to current bicycle brake design.

Lesson probes how biometrics technologies have been used worldwide to address security and identification systems. After exploring different biometric techniques, students work in teams to find their own hand geometry biometrics, then...

During this lesson, learners learn how seismographs work and how technology has impacted the world by helping save lives from earthquakes. They will work in teams to design, test, and evaluate the results of their own seismographs, then...

Learners work in teams to learn about solar panel design, simple circuits, and how solar energy is used to provide power to simple machines such as calculators.

Engineers use infrared technology to develop equipment and systems for a variety of industries. Teams of students are challenged to test the limitations of infrared in a basic television remote control to conceive a way to point infrared...

Working in teams of "engineers", students learn about filtration systems and how they can remove impurities from drinking water.

Students discover how gears work and how they can be used to adjust a vehicle's power. Specifically, they learn how to build the transmission part of a vehicle by designing gear trains with different gear ratios.

After completing an associated lesson, students test their understanding in two programming tasks that utilize LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robots and sound/touch sensors. Students gain practice in the iterative design-program-test-redesign process.

This resource page is the first of a series on relevant topics in building science. It is aimed at explaining the key concepts involved in building science, as well as the relationship of this discipline to the architecture / engineering...

In this lesson, students discover the entire process that goes into designing a rocket for any customer. In prior lessons, students learned how rockets work, but now they learn what real-world decisions engineers have to make when...

Looking at transportation and the environment, students learn that some human-made creations, such as vehicles, can harm the environment. They also learn about alternative fuels and vehicles designed by engineers to minimize pollution....