Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What Happened to the Water? Designing Ways to Get and Clean

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this scenario-based activity, students design ways to either clean a water source or find a new water source, depending on given hypothetical family scenarios. They act as engineers to draw and write about what they could do to...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design a Flying Machine

For Teachers 5th - 7th
The purpose of this activity is for the students to draw a design for their own flying machine. They will apply their knowledge of aircraft design and the forces acting on them. The students will start with a brainstorming activity where...
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 students 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' endeavor...
Lesson Plan
Other

American Society for Engineering Education: E Gfi: Lesson: Made to Sail

For Teachers 2nd - 7th
Students use simple materials to design and make model sailboats that must stay upright and sail straight in a testing tank.
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: Engineer a Coin Sorter

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students learn about the engineering design process and how it is used to engineer products for everyday use. Students individually brainstorm solutions for sorting coins and draw at least two design ideas. They work in small groups to...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Requirements & Constraints: Making Model Parking Garages

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
The difference between an architect and an engineer is sometimes confusing because their roles in building design can be similar. Students experience a bit of both professions by following a set of requirements and meeting given...
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...
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: Learn to Draw Proportions

For Students Pre-K - 1st
In this challenge, students will draw an animal with accurate proportions. The website includes tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their process.
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Plane Painting Machine

For Students Pre-K - 1st
A challenge where student create a plane painting machine which draws a design on your airplane. The site includes the challenge, tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.
Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs Nova: The Design Process: From Idea to Solution

For Teachers 9th - 10th
What does innovation look like, and how can one generate innovative ideas in the classroom? This collection is built around "design thinking" and is intended to help educators and learners explore the invention of real, practical...
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: Stack It Up!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students analyze and begin to design a pyramid. Working in engineering teams, they perform calculations to determine the area of the pyramid base, stone block volumes, and the number of blocks required for their pyramid base. They make a...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Build It Better!

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students learn about tornados and how engineers design structures to better withstand them. Students then design and draw a house that will better withstand a tornado. Students also learn about the Fujita Tornado Damage Score.
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...
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...
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...
Website
Other

Daniel Grossman: Airships: Lz 129 Hindenburg

For Students 9th - 10th
A comprehensive look at the design, history, and crash of the Hindenburg airship. Includes flight plans, engineers' drawings, and photos of the interior and exterior. Many first- and second-person accounts of seeing the Hindenburg can be...
Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Make a Nanostamp

For Students Pre-K - 1st
On this challenge, students will create a stamp to reproduce a drawing from a meter away quickly and accurately. This challenge includes tips, a lesson plan, and a place for students to document their engineering design process.