Unit Plan
REMC Association of Michigan

Remc Association of Michigan: 21 Things4 Students: 15. Design Thinking

For Students 3rd - 8th
Design Thinking is a process for designing something to solve a problem. It shares a lot of similarities to the Engineering Design Process you might learn in a STEM class and the Scientific Method you learn in science. However, it tends...
Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Toy Vehicle Design

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
In this lesson, students prepare their design plans for building their own toy vehicle from local manufacturers' discards. They start to conceptualize what may help the vehicle roll straight and far as they discuss ideas with classmates...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design Steps 5 and 6: Create and Test a Prototype

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students learn about the importance of creating and testing prototypes during the engineering design process. They start by building prototypes, which is a special type of model used to test new design ideas. Students gain experience...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Chair Design

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students become familiar with the Engineering Design Process as they design and build prototypes for a chair. The miniature chair must be sturdy and functional enough to hold a wooden, hinged artist model or floppy stuffed animal.
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Creative Engineering Design

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students are introduced to the world of creative engineering product design. Through six activities, teams work through the steps of the engineering design process (or loop) by completing an actual design challenge presented in six...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design Step 1: Identify the Need

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students practice the initial steps involved in an engineering design challenge. They begin by reviewing the steps of the engineering design loop and discussing the client need for the project. Next, they identify a relevant context,...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Hybrid Vehicle Design Challenge

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This module is written for a first-year algebra-based physics class, though it could easily be modified for conceptual physics. It is intended to provide hands-on activities to teach the overarching concept of energy, as it relates to...
Unit Plan
Technology Student

Technology Student: Product Design

For Students 9th - 10th
This site describes the process of taking a product idea from design to production.
Lesson Plan
University of Hawai'i

University of Hawai'i: Exploring Our Fluid Earth: Activity: Design a Ship

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this activity, students apply their knowledge of buoyancy and ship stability to design a model ship. They test, evaluate, and refine the design of the model to optimize performance. Background information and other activities are...
Activity
Thinkport Education

Thinkport: Designing a Healthier, Happier Meal: Make a Prototype/test the Design

For Students 9th - 10th
Mke and test a prototype of your healthy fast food meal.
Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Try Engineering: Ets1 1 :Toxic Popcorn Design Challenge

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Learners learn about the engineering design process as they work in teams to design a process and a product to solve the Toxic Popcorn Challenge and save the city.
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: The Design Process: Creating a Stronger Truss

For Students 9th - 10th
This is an interesting project that explores which geometrical shapes make the strongest bridge truss structures. It is a good introduction to the engineering design process. You'll design three different trusses, and use online...
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...
Lesson Plan
Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, Stevens Institute of Technology

Ciese: The Stowaway Adventure: Engineering Lesson: Designing Your Own Travel Bag

For Teachers 5th - 8th
After listening to the presented scenario, students are asked to design, create, and test a prototype of a bag that can carry their belongings and meet certain criteria.
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Convertible Shoes: Function, Fashion and Design

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students teams design and build shoe prototypes that convert between high heels and athletic shoes. They apply their knowledge about the mechanics of walking and running as well as shoe design (as learned in the associated lesson) to...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Design a Carrying Device for People Using Crutches

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students are given a biomedical engineering challenge, which they solve while following the steps of the engineering design process. In a design lab environment, student groups design, create, and test prototype devices that help people...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Designing Medical Devices for the Ear

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students are introduced to biomedical engineering and the engineering design process through a short lecture and an activity in which they design their own medical devices for retrieving foreign bodies from the ear canal. They learn...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Designing a Robotic Surgical Device

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Student teams create laparoscopic surgical robots designed to reduce the invasiveness of diagnosing endometriosis and investigate how the disease forms and spreads. Using a synthetic abdominal cavity simulator, students test and iterate...
Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Review: Object Oriented Design

For Students 9th - 10th
A review of object-oriented design. Object prototype and object inheritance is also examined.
Handout
PBS

Pbs Kids: Design Squad Challenge: Rubber Band Car [Pdf]

For Students 3rd - 8th
Hands-on challenge to build a car using a rubber band and only two wheels that can go really fast and far. Provides full list of materials with ideas on how to design, build, and test and redesign. Activity focuses on the engineering...
Handout
Other

Coalition of Oregon School Administrators (Cosa): Design Process [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource outlines the steps in the design process. It describes problem identification, research, deciding on a solution, making and testing a prototype, communicating the results, and evaluation and redesign.
Website
Science Museum of Minnesota

Science Museum of Minnesota: Students as Designers

For Students 3rd - 5th
This site provides eight projects to use in an elementary classroom to encourage students to become inventors/designers. Invention, prototyping, materials exploration, creative writing, problem-solving, and group presentations are...
Article
PBS

Pbs Kids Design Squad: Supporting Steady Hands

For Students 3rd - 8th
Have you heard of a disease called Parkinson's? When people have this disease they often show signs or symptoms, like shaking uncontrollably. This shaking can make doing simple things harder. Emma Lawton is a person with Parkinson's, and...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Watch Out for the Blind Spots

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this service-learning engineering project, students follow the steps of the engineering design process to design a hearing testing device. More specifically, they design a prototype machine that can be used to test the peripheral...