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Graduating Engineer and Computer Careers Magazine: Structural Engineering

For Students 9th - 10th
Structural engineering is a branch of civil engineering, and its applications are extremely diverse. A career as a structural engineer is profiled .. education, salary, job description .. are included.
Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Try Engineering: Working With Watermills

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Teams of students design, build, test, and evaluate a working watermill made from everyday materials. Lesson explores how watermills generate energy from water, while students gain an understanding of the structural engineering design...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Breaking Beams

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students learn about stress and strain by designing and building beams using polymer clay. They compete to find the best beam strength to beam weight ratio, and learn about the trade-offs engineers make when designing a structure.
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Earthquakes Rock!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn the two main methods to measure earthquakes, the Richter Scale and the Mercalli Scale. They make a model of a seismograph - a measuring device that records an earthquake on a seismogram. Students also investigate which...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this activity, students will review and evaluate the ways land is covered and used in their local community. They will also consider the environmental effects of the different types of land use. Students will act as community planning...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Tower O' Power

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this activity, students learn about creating a design directly from a CAD (computer-aided design) program. They will design a tower in CAD and manufacture the parts with a laser cutter. A competition determines the tower design with...
Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Building Structures: It's a Slippery Slope

For Students 6th - 8th
All structures require a foundation to keep them from falling down. This is especially important when a structure is built on a hill or on a slope. In this science project, you will build a tower of Lego Duplos on slopes with different...
Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Goody Goody Gumdrop! Building Structures Are Fun!

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
In this lesson, the children will be building a physical model to illustrate how the shape of an object, such as triangles, helps it function. At the end, the children will test their gumdrop structures and the class will collectively...
Handout
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12: Earth Science: Earthquake Safe Structures Study Guide

For Students 9th - 10th
Review the main concepts of earthquake-safe structures.
Lesson Plan
TryEngineering

Try Engineering: Tall Tower Challenge

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students learn about the engineering design process as they design, build, test, and evaluate the tallest tower they can build with just straws, pipe cleaners, and paperclips that can support the weight of a golf ball for two minutes....
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Next Dimension

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
The purpose of this lesson is to teach students about the three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. It is important for structural engineers to be confident graphing in 3D in order to be able to describe locations in space to fellow...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Squeeze Is On

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students will learn about the force of compression and how it acts on structural components through a hands-on group project. Using everyday products such as paper, toothpicks, and tape they will construct a structure that will support...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Strong as the Weakest Link

For Teachers 9th - 10th
To introduce the two types of stress that materials undergo - compression and tension - students examine compressive and tensile forces and learn about bridges and skyscrapers. They construct their own building structure using...
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.
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Simple Machines and Modern Day Engineering Analogies

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students apply the mechanical advantages and problem-solving capabilities of six types of simple machines (wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane, screw, pulley) as they discuss modern structures in the spirit of the engineers and...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Newspaper Tower

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students will be challenged to design and construct a tower out of newspaper. They will have limited supplies including newspaper, tape, and scissors since engineers are often restricted by economic reasons as to how much material they...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Muscles, Muscles Everywhere

For Teachers 4th - 7th
This activity helps students learn about the three different types of muscles and how outer space affects astronauts' muscles. They will discover how important it is for astronauts to get adequate exercise both on Earth and in outer...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Designing Bridges

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students learn about the types of possible loads, how to calculate ultimate load combinations, and investigate the different sizes for the beams (girders) and columns (piers) of simple bridge design. Students learn the steps that...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Tsunami Attack!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn about tsunamis, discovering what causes them and what makes them so dangerous. They learn that engineers design detection and warning equipment, as well as structures that that can survive the strong wave forces. In a...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Planting Thoughts

For Teachers 3rd - 7th
Students gain an understanding of the parts of a plant, plant types and how they produce their own food from sunlight through photosynthesis. They also learn about transpiration, the process by which plants release moisture to the...
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...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Breaking the Mold

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this math activity, students conduct a strength test using modeling clay, creating their own stress vs. strain graphs, which they compare to typical steel and concrete graphs. They learn the difference between brittle and ductile...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Can You Catch the Water?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students construct a three-dimensional model of a water catchment basin using everyday objects to create hills, mountains, valleys and water sources. They experiment to see where rain travels and collects, and survey water pathways to...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Modern Day Pyramids

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate the ways in which ancient technologies - six types of simple machines and combinations - are used to construct modern buildings. As they work together to solve a design problem (designing and building a modern...