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Lesson Plan
NASA

Soda Straw Rockets

For Teachers K - 6th Standards
Three, two, one, blast off to a better understanding of force and motion with this exciting science lesson! Beginning with a discussion about rockets and gravity, young scientists go on to complete a series of worksheets about net...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Design and Build a Road Sign Support

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Emergent engineers plan, construct, and experiment with a spaghetti noodle structure that could be used to hold a load. Set them up for success by first showing them a four-minute video on engineering design and a slide show of different...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Marshmallow Design Challenge

For Teachers 5th - Higher Ed
How tall is your marshmallow structure? Using only limited supplies (including uncooked spaghetti noodles, masking tape, and one marshmallow), teams endeavor to support the marshmallow atop the tallest spaghetti structure they can build....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Design a Green Rooftop Garden

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Design and construct buildings with rooftop gardens. Junior engineers work in groups to build two buildings and then perform experiments to determine whether or not a garden affects the building temperatures. They graph and interpret...
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Activity
Discovery Education

Hurricane Force

For Teachers 9th - 12th
It's important to make sure houses can withstand winds. A hands-on activity has learners create a structure out of household materials. They use a fan to simulate hurricane-force winds to see if their structures can withstand the...
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Handout
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EEWeb

Geometry: Shapes and Solids

For Teachers 6th - 10th Standards
An excellent resource for a geometry class, as well as for an electrical engineering course. A thorough reference sheet covers geometric shapes such as triangles, parallelograms, and circles, as well as 3-D shapes and the Pythagorean...
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Lesson Plan
North Carolina State University

Construction

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Engineering design projects serve as great opportunities for collaborative problem solving. In this case, students work in small groups designing, building, and eventually testing a structure that meets a teacher-specified objective. It...
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Lesson Plan
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Skyscraper Museum

Building a Skyscraper

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
The construction of skyscrapers is no simple undertaking, involving the careful coordination and planning of many different people. The third lesson in this series explores this detailed process by first teaching children about the main...
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Lesson Plan
Skyscraper Museum

Building a Skyscraper

For Teachers 2nd - 4th Standards
Creating buildings that reach hundreds of feet into the sky is no easy task. The third instructional activity in this series begins with four activities that engage young architects in exploring the major challenges that are faced when...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Roller Coasters

For Teachers 3rd - 7th
Twisting and turning through the sky, roller coasters are popular attractions at amusement parks around the world, but how exactly do they work? Explore the physics behind these thrilling rides with an engineering design activity....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Engineering Design Process

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed
Design your own video game, engineer accident-proof highways, or even develop a new phone app! The Engineering Design Model can be used with all ages and in all subject areas to create a product, system or service. The resource explains...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Activity: Slinkies and Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Your advanced physics class will appreciate this lesson in which they use magnetic field sensors to determine the relationship between the number of turns per meter of a solenoid and the magnetic field produced. The materials for this...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Weighted Objectives Table and Optimum Mix Sheet

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students analyze data and determine an appropriate concrete mixture. In this technical solutions lesson, students discuss weighted objectives, review sample scenarios, and rate concrete recipes to identify how well water infiltrates....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Break it Down: Reverse Engineering

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students disassemble a toy. In this science instructional activity, students compare and contrast the inner mechanisms of a toy car. Students predict and illustrate what the inner mechanism look like. Then, they disassemble the toy, and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Medical Instrumentation

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students analyze how medical devices that help the human body function. They work in pairs or groups to draw multiple views of the medical device and describe how engineering is used by biomedial engineers.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Building a Bridge

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners design a bridge. In this science lesson, students research different types of bridges and create a bridge using marshmallows, toothpicks and construction paper.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Build a Robot Arm

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students work in teams to design and build a working robotic arm using everyday items. In this building robots lesson plan students develop an understanding of design processes and the impact that technology has in manufacturing. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Egg Drop

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Learners design and test packaging an egg. In this engineering design lesson, students design and test packaging that will keep an egg from cracking when dropped from a certain height.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Let's Build

For Teachers K - 1st
Students observe and discuss a picture of Curious George building a bridge and discuss what it means to build, plan and design a project. As a class, they list things they need to do in oder to build something and explore how a compass...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Secrets of Lost Empires I-Colosseum

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders identify how to use pulleys to change the direction of force. Students develop ways to evaluate designs, noting that no one best design exists and that different tasks require different designs. Students designs will vary.
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Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Intro to Engineering

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students are introduced to the basic principles behind engineering and the types of engineering while learning about a popular topic - the Olympics. The involvement of engineering in modern sports is amazing and pervasive. Students learn...
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Lesson Plan
Science Museum of Minnesota

Thinking Fountain: Noodle: Build a Spaghetti Structure

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Design and construct a structure out of spaghetti and marshmallows. Although spaghetti doesn't seem like a strong building material, you can build surprisingly elegant and sturdy structures using it.
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Engineer a Pneumatic Creature

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Create a creature that uses air to create motion with this challenge. Site includes tips, lesson plans, and a place for students to document their design process.
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Activity
Technovation

Curiosity Machine: Challenges: Build a Rube Goldberg Machine

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Build a machine that accomplishes a task in an inefficient way with this Rube Goldberg challenge. Find some tips and a place to document your engineering process on this site.