Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Universal Language of Engineering Drawings

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students practice the ability to produce clear, complete, accurate and detailed design drawings through an engineering design challenge. Using only the specified materials, teams are challenged to draw a design for a wind-powered car....
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Pharmaceutical Research Design Problem

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Through this lesson and its associated activity, students explore the role of biomedical engineers working for pharmaceutical companies. First, students gain background knowledge about what biomedical engineers do, how to become a...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Drawing Designs in Detail

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students practice creating rudimentary detail drawings. They learn how engineers communicate the technical information about their designs using the basic components of detail drawings. They practice creating their own drawings of a...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Drawing Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students use a compass and a permanent magnet to trace the magnetic field lines produced by the magnet. By positioning the compass in enough spots around the magnet, the overall magnet field will be evident from the collection of arrows...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Working Together to Live Together

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students experience civil and environmental engineering by planning a housing development in an existing biome, while also protecting the native species that live there. They conduct research, draw plans, make brochures and give...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Engineering in Reverse!

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students learn about the process of reverse engineering and how this technique is used to improve upon technology. Students analyze push-toys and draw diagrams of the predicted mechanisms inside the toys. Then, they disassemble the toys...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Teaching the Engineering Design Process

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process (EDP) while learning about assistive devices and biomedical engineering. They first go through a design-build-test activity to learn the steps of the cyclical engineering design...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Off Road Wheelchair Challenge

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students further their understanding of the engineering design process (EDP) while being introduced to assistive technology devices and biomedical engineering. They are given a fictional client statement and are tasked to follow the...
Lesson Plan
Other

Ontario Council for Technology Education: Designing a Tool Storage Board [Pdf]

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students begin this project by taking an inventory of hand tools at home. They then categorize their tools and make a detailed list in a spreadsheet. After research on tool storage, they will choose materials and a tool board style, then...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Simple Machines

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Through a five-lesson series with five hands-on activities, students are introduced to six simple machines - inclined plane, wedge, screw, lever, pulley, wheel-and-axle - as well as compound machines, which are combinations of two or...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Libraries:industrial Drawings at the Smithsonian: Doodles & Drafts

For Students 9th - 10th
Drawing is a key element in an inventor's skill set. When it comes to the working out of new ideas, inventors turn to pencil and paper. Mixing art and science, this exhibition site showcases a collection of industrial drawings that...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Portable Wheelchair Ramp Challenge

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process while learning more about assistive devices and biomedical engineering applied to basic structural engineering concepts. Their engineering challenge is to design, build and test...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Detail Drawings: Communicating With Engineers

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students are introduced to detail drawings and the importance of clearly documenting and communicating their designs. They are introduced to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Y14.5 standard, which controls how engineers...
Lesson Plan
NASA

Nasa: An Educator's Guide to the Engineering Design Process: K 2 [Pdf]

For Teachers K - 1st
The NASA BEST Activities Guides were designed to teach young scholars the Engineering Design Process. This is one of three guides targeting different grade groups. All follow the same set of activities and teach students about humans'...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Designing a Winning Guest Village in the Saguaro National Park

For Teachers 9th - 10th
The Challenge Question of the Legacy Cycle draws the student into considering the engineering ingenuity of nature. It will force him to analyze, appreciate and understand the wisdom of these designs as the student team focuses on meeting...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Super Slinger Engineering Challenge

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students are challenged to design, build and test small-scale launchers while they learn and follow the steps of the engineering design process. For the challenge, the "slingers" must be able to aim and launch Ping-Pong balls 20 feet...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Natural Disasters

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students are introduced to our planet's structure and its dynamic system of natural forces through an examination of the natural hazards of earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, tsunamis, floods and tornados, as well as avalanches, fires,...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Balloons

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process as they design and construct balloons for aerial surveillance. After their first attempts to create balloons, they are given the associated Estimating Buoyancy lesson to learn...
Lesson Plan
Other

Ontario Council for Technology Education: Designing Chess Pieces [Pdf]

For Teachers 10th - 12th
In this project, students will design and create 3D CAD drawings of a set of chess pieces. They will work through the stages of the design process, assess and develop design criteria when creating concept and scaled sketches, and use...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Put a Spark in It! Electricity

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Uncountable times every day "with the merest flick of a finger"each one of us calls on electricity to do our bidding. What would your life be like without electricity? Students begin learning about electricity with an introduction to the...
Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Architects Design

For Teachers 1st
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about architects. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Lesson Plan
The Tech Interactive

The Tech Interactive: Lesson Plan: Catch It if You Can! [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Young scholars will learn about the ongoing issues associated with drought in California and how water conservation can be part of a solution. Students will design a rooftop water catchment system for drought-conscious Ms. Drizzle to...
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: The Clock Tower

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
Lesson Plan
Other

Discover E: Shoo Bird, Shoo! [Pdf]

For Teachers 1st - 5th
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.