Students take on the role of engineers who need to design a roller coaster. They will explore the history of roller coasters, the different types, and the many things that can affect the success or failure of a roller coaster. Finally,...

A textbook activity where students work in teams to design a device or technique that will prevent plastic microbeads from entering local lakes and streams. They will use the engineering process to design a solution and then present...

In this activity, students work in teams with a range of materials to choose from to design and build a mobile that warns birds away from a window or a building.

The lessons included on this site are for the Home Lighting in Developing Countries Project. For each lesson plan, there is a link to the lesson plan itself and another link to the lesson plan for that particular lesson plan.

In this activity, students will create a pendulum that creates beautiful designs with its repetitive patterns. Study the movement of pendulums with these designs.

Students will observe the physical properties of items through an activity where they sort objects for recycling. This lesson plan also includes a recycle papermaking process.

In this lesson, inspired by the book Childhood and Nature: Design Principals for Educators by David Sobel, students design a playscape area on school grounds. After designing the playscape and creating a list of materials, the students...

In this unit, students will learn about the difficulty that farmers in Bangladesh and the UK experience trying to grow crops on land that is regularly flooded. Then they will be challenged to make a model of a structure that can float to...

In this unit, students explore how life for people in the rural mountainous regions of Peru is different as they live without access to electricity. They learn how small-scale wind turbines have changed people's lives, as with a supply...

In this activity, students work in small groups to construct a tower that will support a book using everyday materials. The goal is to develop persistence in continuing with a task even when experiencing some failures. This is modeled...

Work samples, phenomena, assessment templates, and videos that directly address standard 4-PS3-4: energy conversion device.

Lesson investigates the modification of a material at the nanoscale to enhance it with properties such as water and stain resistance.

Students are challenged to use the technical problem solving to dump radioactive material (eggs) into water without touching them. Lesson plan includes timeline, student handout and discussion questions.

Students learn about traffic lights and their importance in maintaining public safety and order. Using a Parallax Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller, students work in teams on the engineering challenge to build a traffic light with a specific...

Through 10 lessons and more than 20 hands-on activities, students are introduced to the concept of an environment and the many interactions within it. As they learn about natural and human-made environments, as well as renewable and...

Young scholars learn about water erosion through an experimental process in which small-scale buildings are placed along a simulated riverbank to experience a range of flooding conditions. They make model buildings either with a 3D...

In this activity, students act as environmental engineers involved with the clean up of a toxic spill. Using bioremediation as the process, students select which bacteria they will use to eat up the pollutant spilled. Students learn how...

Students design, build and evaluate a spring-powered mouse trap racer. For evaluation, teams equip their racers with an intelligent brick from a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Education Base Set and a HiTechnic acceleration sensor. They use...

Students continue their exploration of the human senses and their engineering counterparts, focusing on the auditory sense. Working in small groups, students design, create and run programs to control the motion of LEGO TaskBots. By...

This lesson is an exciting conclusion to the airplanes unit that encourages students to think creatively. After a review of the concepts learned, students will design their own flying machine based on their knowledge of the forces...

Students learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the greenhouse effect. They construct their own miniature greenhouses and explore how their designs take advantage of heat transfer processes to create controlled environments....

PBS site provides videos and activities are hands-on challenges that focus on the engineering design process. They use simple materials, allow for multiple solutions, and are ideal for ages 9-12.

This project resulted from the collaboration of a computer aided drafting teacher (pre-engineering), Chris Bond, and a math teacher, Lee Cable, (Hewitt-Trussville High School) to provide higher math expectations in CT and real life...

A slideshow carbo-loaded with information on how the pneumatic potato cannon works. [3:00]