Teach Engineering
A Shot Under Pressure
You've got to pump it up! Using the equations for projectile motion and Bernoulli's Principle, class members calculate the water pressure in a water gun. The pupils collect data on the number of pumps and distance traveled in order...
Teach Engineering
Energy Storage Derby and Proposal
Small groups use the engineering design process to build and test a vehicle capable of carrying 250 grams a distance of five meters. The design must allow for the storage of potential energy and turn it into motion,...
Teach Engineering
Searching for Bigfoot and Others Like Him
Individuals create a GIS data layer in Google Earth that displays information about where one might find seven different cryptids. The class members research to find data on cryptid sightings they can include in their data...
Teach Engineering
Go Public: Osteoporosis Brochure
Osteoporosis and family — notice the connection between the two. Pairs develop a brochure to educate the public about osteoporosis in the last portion of the six-part series. The teams draw on the information learned throughout the...
Teach Engineering
Pill Dissolving Demo
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh that one is the fastest. The teacher demonstration is the second part of a four-part series. The class observes how different pill types dissolve in simulated stomach acid. They determine which one dissolves...
Teach Engineering
Linear Regression of BMD Scanners
Objects may be more linear than they appear. Scholars investigate the relationship between the number of bone mineral density scanners in the US and time. Once they take the natural logarithm of the number of scanners, a linear...
NASA
Discovering Some of Your “Yardsticks” Are Actually “Meter-sticks”
The Milky Way gets great reviews on Trip Advisor — 100 million stars. The activity allows scholars to rethink their assumptions and prior knowledge. Pupils observe a set of two lights at equal distance and brightness, but they believe...
Teach Engineering
What Floats Your Boat?
Clay's as good a material as any to build a boat, right? An introductory lesson plan sets the stage for two activities associated with buoyancy. The first involves building boats out of clay, while the second uses these boats to measure...
Teach Engineering
The Amazing Red Planet
Introduce your class to Mars with a resource that provides information about its size, location, length of day, length of year, number of moons, and average temperature. Also includes is information about the lans for past...
Curated OER
Break the Tension
Students experiment with the concepts of surface tension. They participate in a number of different experiments that introduce them to surface tension. They work in a small group in order to conduct these experiments.
Teach Engineering
Determining Densities
Don't be dense—use a robust resource. The second installment of a five-part Floaters and Sinkers unit has learners determine the densities of several objects. As part of the activity, they learn the displacement method for finding...
Curated OER
Map-A-Buddy
Young scholars investigate the concept of tracking and spatial movements of animals in relation to the environment in which they live. They participate in an interactive activity by tracking one another over a pre-defined region, record...
Teach Engineering
Equal and Opposite Thrust in Aircraft: You're a Pushover!
It's the law—every action requires a reaction, no matter how small. Pupils experience two demonstrations of Newton's third law of motion as it relates to thrust in the 10th segment of a 22-part unit on flight. Using their mathematical...
Teach Engineering
Just Plane Simple
It is plane to see that simple machines help reduce the force needed to perform a task. This resource introduces three of the simple machines--the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw, and the formulas in order to be able...
Teach Engineering
Insulation Materials Investigation
Don't melt away! Pairs investigate different insulation materials to determine which one is better than the others. Using a low-temp heat plate, the teams insulate an ice cube from the heat source with a variety of substances. They...
Curated OER
The Value of Education
The real value of education is highlighted in more than one way on a worksheet designed to not only add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to hundredths, but also to address the correlation between higher pay...
Illustrative Mathematics
Influenza epidemic
This activity presents a real-world problem about an epidemic of influenza spreading through a city. Learners refer to a graph that shows the number of individuals infected in relation to the number of weeks that have elapsed since...
Teach Engineering
Archimedes' Principle, Pascal's Law and Bernoulli's Principle
What do Pascal's law, Archimedes' Principle, and Bernoulli's Principle have to do with fluid mechanics? The included PowerPoint presentation provides the basic definitions and equations associated with the three. A set of homework...
Teach Engineering
Sliders (for High School)
Slip sliding away. Groups investigates the two types of friction by running an experiment that allows them to calculate the coefficient of static friction and the coefficient of kinetic friction. The experiment uses a box, a...
Teach Engineering
A Simple Solution for the Circus
Class members are challenged to design a device that will move a circus elephant into a train car. Groups brainstorm ideas that use simple machines to load the elephant. They then choose one of their ideas, sketch a plan, and present it...
Teach Engineering
A Good Foundation
It takes a strong foundation to build a house and a stronger one for a bridge. This resource presents the effects of geology and soil on bridge foundations. Working in groups, the class investigates the interaction of shallow and deep...
Teach Engineering
What's Wrong with the Coordinates at the North Pole?
Here is an activity that merges technology with life skills as individuals use Google Earth to explore the differences between coordinate systems and map projections. The self-guided worksheet is the fourth segment in a nine-part unit....
Teach Engineering
Circuits and Magnetic Fields
Have your class use compasses to try to find the magnetic field around an electric current. Groups use the same technique to visualize magnetic fields as they did in the second activity in the series, but this time, the field is...
Teach Engineering
How Antibiotics Work
Take two pills and call me in the morning. The first lesson in a short unit of four introduces class members to delivery methods of medicines. The instruction introduces the question of which delivery method is best to get you feeling...