Teach Engineering
Exploring Energy: What Is Energy?
...Then the water heater exploded like a bomb. Using a video of an exploding water heater, the resource presents the definitions of energy, potential energy, and kinetic energy to be used in later lessons of the unit.
Teach Engineering
Dirty Decomposers
Do not let the class just sit and rot. Pupils learn how decomposition and nutrient recycling is important to an ecosystem. Groups design an experiment to determine how environmental conditions affect decomposition. They develop a poster...
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Wizardry and Chemistry
No need to go to Ollivanders to buy a magic wand. In the chemistry lab activity, young magicians mix chemicals to create combustible compounds. By applying these compounds to an iron wire, they create magic wands.
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Communicating Your Results
Groups analyze and interpret their data from previous research in order to develop individualized findings. The teams then use guidelines to help determine what aspects of their research to include on a poster. Class members then compare...
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Introduction to Environmental Engineering
AÂ series on environmental engineering introduces the class to issues that environmental engineers work to solve. This first lesson focuses on air and land issues, and looks at ways to reduce pollution.
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Introduction to Water Chemistry
What are the issues surrounding water quality? Viewers of this short presentation gain information about the importance of clean water, the lack of fresh water, water contamination, and ways that engineers treat water.Â
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Design Step 6: Evaluate/Manufacture a Final Product
This is what all of the excitement has been building up to! Young engineers create engineering drawings, use machines to manufacture their products, test, and evaluate their designs in the last step in the engineering design process.
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Design Step 5: Construct a Prototype
Enough with the talking, let's build something! In the fifth step in the engineering design process, young engineers build a prototype to test their ideas. The instructional activity walks them through the process of evaluating it...
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Solar Water: Heat it Up!
Young engineers are instructed to design and build their own solar water heaters. Then, they calculate the efficiency and cost and compare them to commercially available models. This is a full unit for pupils to apply their knowledge.
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Capturing the Sun's Warmth
Passive solar heating is a technology that's been in use for thousands of years. Here, elementary schoolers are exposed to this type of heating, the materials that are used in passive solar heating, and they study how engineers design...
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Solar Power
Elementary schoolers discover how engineers use solar energy to heat buildings. They take a close look at some of the materials used: sand, salt, water, and shredded paper and evaluate the efficiency of each material. An incredible...
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The Grid
Upper graders form a "Presidential Task Force," and attempt to make recommendations concerning the future of the national power grid. After a teacher-led discussion which proves that our nation's energy consumption will soon outpace our...
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You've Got to See it to Believe It!
Youngsters develop an understanding of how smog is produced, and how exhaust from automobiles is one of the major sources of smog. They explore the roles that engineers play in developing technologies that reduce smog, then work in teams...
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Racing With the Sun - Creating a Solar Car
Here's an exciting and innovative lesson that's sure to get your charges fired up! In it, they use engineering design principles to construct and test a fully solar powered car. One caveat: the kits that each group needs to make their...
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Cosmic Rhythm
Young engineers turn poets with a hands-on activity that challenges them to apply the concept of rhythm to crafting a poem.
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Java Programming: Testing the Edges
Tests are no fun, but test cases are extremely helpful. Pupils work in groups to write a Java program that completes a given task. They come up with test cases to give to another group, then trade test cases to determine if their program...
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Java Code: Does It Work? Test and Test Again
Testing software code can sure test one's patience. Future programmers learn about the importance of testing when writing code for computer software. They access the CodingBat website to test programs written in Java using three test...
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Balancing Liquid on a Coin: How Intermolecular Forces Work
Let knowledge of chemistry flow like water. Future scientists conduct two different experiments to investigate the properties of water. They learn about surface tension and cohesion as they see how many drops of water they can place on a...
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Paper Towers and Pool Balls Design Challenge
Those who build together learn together. Scholars work in groups on two teamwork-building activities that involve engineering design. They first construct the tallest tower they can using five sheets of paper and masking tape. Next, they...
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Viscoelasticity
Stretch one's mind about viscoelastic materials. Future engineers learn about viscoelastic materials and how they differ from solids and fluids. They discover how the molecular structures of the materials relate to their properties,...
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Consult for the Conductive Circuit Card Company
Light up someone's day with conductive greeting cards. Scholars design and create greeting cards that include LED lights. Rather than use copper tape, they apply conductive paint or copper paint to create the necessary electric circuits.
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Investigating the Properties of Plastic and its Effects on the Environment
Pore over the properties of plastic. Working through four different stations, pupils investigate some properties of plastic, including chemical decomposition, mechanical breakdown, density, and the ability to infiltrate the food chain....
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Powering a Device Using Food
Eat up a resource on using food to power electrical devices. Future engineers first experiment with different fruits and vegetables to determine the amount of electrical energy they provide. Based on the data, they design and create an...
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Computer Simulation of an Artificial Neural Network
Ready to learn about machine learning? Pupils explore neutral networks and machine learning by analyzing the logic used in a single perceptron model. They consider its weaknesses and then use a multi-layer perceptron model to run...