Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make a Pine Cone

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Using cardboard, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and strings create a pine cone that opens and closes. This site contains lesson plans, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make a Mechanical Leg

For Students Pre-K - 1st
This website challenges students to make a ball and socket joint that mimics the movement of a human hip or shoulder. Using only a tennis ball, rubber bands, cardboard, and tape, students will construct this mechanical device. The site...
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Camouflage an Animal

For Students Pre-K - 1st
You are challenged to camouflage an animal in any environment so that you can not see it. This site contains a lesson plan, animal printouts, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build an Edible Skyscraper

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Can you create a bioglue that allows you to build the tallest skyscraper out of graham crackers? This website contains tips, lesson plan, a place for you to document your engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make a Stable Boat

For Students Pre-K - 1st
This website challenges students to build a boat that holds as many as pennies as possible. Site also includes a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Submarine

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Students are challenged to create a submarine that will dive down through the water and come back to the surface. This site includes the challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Robotic Face

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Build a robotic face that can make facial expressions using simple machines on this website. This website includes the challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make a Mechanical Theater

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Make a simple machine that creates characters for a theater show on this site. This site contains a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Neural Network

For Students Pre-K - 1st
This site has students creating a network that classifies information using cups, index cards, and strings. Site also contains a place for students to document their engineering design process, a lesson plan, and tips.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Self Driving Car Game

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Do you think you could build a game board that acts as a system of circuits to alert and navigate around obstacles? This site contains this challenge as well as a place for students to document their engineering design process, tips, and...
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Light Dispersal System

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Use this website challenges to create a way to spread light inside a house to illuminate a picture. The website also includes tips, a lesson plan, a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make Drawings of Three Dimensional Objects

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Using the Glass Box Theory, students will make scaled technical drawings of 3D objects. This site includes the challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make a Flat Ball

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Using simple geometric shapes cut out of paper and taped together to create a ball that is as round as possible with this challenge. This page also includes a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering...
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Talking Truck

For Students Pre-K - 1st
On this site, you will find a challenge, a lesson plan, tips, and a place for you to document your engineering design process. Here you are challenged to build a truck that "talks" to alert when there is a problem.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Mighty Machine

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Using just popsicle sticks, paper clips, straws, pencil, binder clips, and rubber bands, students are challenged to build a structure that jumps into the air. This mighty machine will jump up, sideways, or flips over. This website...
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Planting Machine

For Students Pre-K - 1st
A challenge that asks students to build a machine that distributes seeds precisely. This site includes a lesson plan, tips, and a place to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Self Powered Rocket

For Students Pre-K - 1st
A challenge where students will launch a small object using a chemical reaction. The site contains tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Water Filter

For Students Pre-K - 1st
A challenge for students to build a water filter that can clean dirty water. Site includes challenge, a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Invent a Biobot

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Make a robot that moves like a living creature using a microcontroller, motors, and mechanisms with this challenge. Also, on this challenge find a lesson plan, tips, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Construct a Crane

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Can you build a crane that uses simple machines and mechanical advantage to move heavy objects? This website contains a challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Balance a Dinosaur

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Using common household items, students are challenged to build a dinosaur at least 6" tall that can balance on two legs using counterbalances. This website contains the challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document...
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Long Spanning Wing

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Students are challenged to build a wing that can support its own weight over a span of at least two feet on this website. The website also contains a place for students to document their engineering design process, tips, and a lesson plan.
Lesson Plan
Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, Stevens Institute of Technology

Ciese: Square of Life: Mini Squares of Life

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Students use the engineering design process to plan and construct a device for marking out the area for a small square outdoors, so that they can study what is contained inside it.
Unit Plan
Practical Action

Practical Action: Squashed Tomato Challenge

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Challenge students to take on a real-life problem affecting people in Nepal. Many farmers living on the mountainside there grow fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes. To earn a living, they need to sell these at the local market. The...