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Where is Here?
Students are shown the very basics of navigation. The concepts of relative and absolute location, latitude, longitude and cardinal directions are discussed, as well as the use and principles of a map and compass.
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TE Lesson: Renewable Energy
Students examine renewable energy sources such as solar, water, and wind. They experiment to determine how renewable energy is transformed into electricity. They investigate the role of engineers who work in the field of renewable energy.
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Bombs Away!
Students design and build a device to protect and accurately deliver a dropped egg. They review and study a number of vocabulary words that are associated with this lesson. They work in a small group in order to develop a successful...
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Bulbs & Batteries in a Row
Learners investigate simple series circuits and their properties. In small groups they draw a circuit diagram on their Series Circuit Building worksheet, follow step-by-step directions to construct a simple series circuit, and solve...
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Close Enough?
Students examine how navigation is based on mathematics and how making a mistake in measuring an angle could have an impact on a target. They observe a teacher-led lecture, use a calculator to complete two worksheets, and participate in...
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Carve That Mountain
Students investigate major landforms (e.g., mountains, rivers, plains, hills, oceans and plateaus). They build a three-dimensional model of a landscape depicting several of these landforms. Once they have built their model, they act as...
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Compare Human-made Objects with Natural Objects
Learners examine and observe how many human-made objects get their basic design from things in nature. They listen to the book "Nature Got There First," compare/contrast hollow bones with drinking straws, bird beaks and tool pliers, and...
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Capturing the Sun's Warmth
Students explore the variety of ways to use solar energy. They investigate the thermal energy storage capacities of different test materials to determine which to use in passive solar building design. They explain how passive solar...
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Construction Technologies: Construct the Strongest Bridge
Students investigate how engineers use different types of bridges for different places. In small groups they design and construct bridges for three different scenarios, and answer a series of investigating questions applied to the...
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Design a Bicycle Helmet
Students are introduced to the biomechanical characteristics of helmets. They incorporate these characteristics into designs for helmets for various applications. They understand that using a bicycle helmet helps to protect the brain and...
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Do As the Romans: Construct an Aqueduct!
Learners explore how the Romans engineered and built aqueducts. They read a manual, explore the Construct a Roman Aqueduct online activity, and construct an aqueduct that will transport two liters of water across a short distance in the...
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Do You Have the Strength?
Students examine the strength and resilience of the human heart. They squeeze a tennis ball to demonstrate the strength of the human heart, record and analyze the results on a worksheet, and create a poster of a design of a device to...
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Energy Detectives at Work
Learners are "Energy Detectives" working for an engineering firm that does energy evaluations at schools. In teams, they locate energy sources around the school, and record their findings on an Energy Detective Worksheet.
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Greenewables
Students form expert engineering teams working for the (fictional) alternative energy consulting firm, Greenewables, Inc. Each team specializes in a form of renewable energy used to generate electrical power: passive solar, solar...
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TE Activity: Hot Cans and Cold Cans
Students work on problems in which they investigate conduction, convection, and radiation. They attempt to maintain the warmth in one can of soda while cooling the other as much as possible in a thirty minute period. They examine how...
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How To Make Yeast Cells Thrive
Students set up and run the experiments they designed in the lesson, 'Population Growth in Yeasts,' using simple yeast-molasses cultures in test tubes. They demonstrate understanding that several environmental factors can contribute to...
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I Feel Renewed!
Young scholars participate in a simulation of the equal and unequal distribution of the earth's renewable resources. They discuss renewable resources and how food resources can increase and decrease, participate in the simulation, and...
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Is That Natural?
Learners examine how they use and waste natural resources. They participate in a class discussion about natural resources, in small groups complete a worksheet identifying ways students misuse natural resources, and create an...
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It's all In the Package
Students examine the concept of reducing solid waste and how it relates to product packaging. They read about and evaluate the packaging decisions of two major U.S. corporations, develop a t-chart comparing the pros and cons of various...
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Leaning Tower of Pasta
Students experiment with different structures to determine which ones are able to handle the greatest amount of load using spaghetti and marshmallows. They discuss how engineers design buildings, construct their buildings and complete a...
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TE Activity: Oil Spill Cleanup
Students experiment by creating an oil spill and trying a number of clean up methods. They determine which methods are the least costly and most effective. They role play as an environmental engineer and as an oil company owner who must...
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Smart Move!
Students visualize a communication system. They encode, decode, transmit, receive and store messages. Students use a code sheet and flashlight for this process. They will also maintain a storage sheet from which they can retrieve...
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Stations of Light
Student groups rotate through four stations to examine light energy behavior: refraction, magnification, prisms and polarization. They see how a beam of light is refracted (bent) through various transparent mediums. Young scholars...
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The Path of Electrons
Students engage in an interactive "hot potato" demonstration to gain an appreciation for the flow of electrons through a circuit. They role play the different parts of a simple circuit and send small items representing electrons (paper...