Pasta is great for cooking—and for making Ferris wheels. Aspiring engineers use an assortment of pasta types to create a functioning Ferris wheel. They keep track of the design process to refine their designs, if necessary. Let's hope no...

Introduce cradle-to-cradle design thinking. Scholars first discuss the importance of natural laws and rights. They then use a variety of online and print resources to research eco-efficiency and cradle-to-cradle design.

Design protection from high-speed particles. The STEM lesson plan highlights why astronauts need protection from space debris. Pupils use the design process to design, build, and test a spacesuit that will protect a balloon from a...

Applying engineering concepts to the field of medicine, pupils design a device to help test peripheral sight. The class learns and follows a specific design process for engineers before separating into groups; each group builds...

Young scholars explore the concept of engineering design. In this engineering design process activity, students read The Saturday Morning Superhero and discuss the problem solving steps that the main character encounters as he...

What goes into a museum display? A secondary-level STEM project prompts groups to design a museum display for the Tech Museum of Innovation. They create an analogous, interactive model illustrating a science concept to complete the...

Clay itself sinks, but clay boats float. Why? Young engineers build clay boats to learn about buoyancy. They test the weight the boats can hold using washers and then tweak their designs to make improvements, following the engineering...

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...

Students examine the bridges of the United States. They discuss the concept of balance. They draw their own design of a suspension bridge.

After reading about how engineering has made adaptive devices possible for people with disabilities, pupils work in groups to discuss different devices to determine whether or not they are adaptive. They also disassemble a pair of...

Young engineers work in teams to design and build their own trebuchets according to certain criteria; they must be able to launch a mini marshmallow accurately into a pie tin. Background reading material, a planning sheet for trebuchet...

Brown rice contains vitamins B and E, while white rice lasts longer in storage. The availability of rice around the world makes it a great candidate for genetic engineering. Scholars apply their knowledge of genetic engineering to solve...

Young engineers are instructed to design and build their own solar water heaters. Then, they calculate the efficiency and cost and compare them to commercially available models. This is a full unit for pupils to apply their knowledge.

Students examine the discipline of biomedical engineering or bioengineering. They complete worksheets by participating in reading background information and completing a hands on activity. They design a prototype of a cast to set a...

Turn your pupils into engineers who are able to use scientific principals to design a ship. This long-term project expects pupils to understand concepts of density, buoyancy, displacement, and metacenter, and apply them to constructing a...

Introduce gas laws using the popular topic of SCUBA diving. This activity makes a connection between the gas laws and the effect of pressure and temperature changes during diving. Young engineers complete introductory experiments to...

Students apply their knowledge of friction, drag, mass and gravity as they design, build, and test mini-bobsleds.

Students investigate how to design and build items with a focus on structural strength as an engineer would. They complete a truss-building project as a final assessment.

Students design and create water rockets using recycled materials. In this technology activity, students measure and sketch their project design before drawing them using SolidWorks. They construct the bottle as accurately as possible.

Engineering challenges are not just man-made ... nature has its own set of them. A hands-on STEM activity has groups designing a seed dispersal system. Each group can only use one sheet of paper — a tough task!

Use simple machines to escape from a tree house. Pupils learn about simple machines and how they are useful in everyday life in a STEM lesson. Groups then design a device to rescue a friend stuck in a tree house.

Discover how copying nature can be beneficial to humans. Scholars read articles about examples of biomimicry and its potential applications. Along the way, they learn about Nature's Nine Laws and how they relate to biomimicry. This is...

Students design streamlined packaging designed to reduce waste production. In this waste reduction lesson, students view a diagram to introduce the concept of the engineering design process and discuss ways that packaging can be useful....

Students discover how the matierals in the earth can be used to make walls and buildings. They examine the Great Wall of China and its engineering. They complete the unit by creating their own wall from a design they drew.