Students learn about contact stress and its applications in engineering. They are introduced to the concept of heavy loads, such as buildings, elephants, people and traffic, and learn how those heavy loads apply contact stress. Through...

Students learn about traffic lights and their importance in maintaining public safety and order. Using a Parallax Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller, students work in teams on the engineering challenge to build a traffic light with a specific...

Students work as engineers to design and test trebuchets (in this case LEGO MINDSTORMS robots) that can launch objects. During the testing stage, they change one variable at a time to study its effect on the outcome of their designs....

Students learn about trigonometry, geometry and measurements while participating in a hands-on interaction with LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT technology. First they review fundamental geometrical and trigonometric concepts. Then, they estimate the...

Students use three tracks marked on the floor, one in yards, one in feet and one in inches. As they start and stop a robot specific distances on a "runway," they can easily determine the equivalent measurements in other units by looking...

Working as teams, students learn the basics of fluid power design using the PFPD as their investigative platform. Students will investigate the similarities and differences between using pneumatic and hydraulic power in the PFPD. While...

Student teams design insulated beverage bottles in this challenge, and test them to determine which materials work best at insulating hot water to keep it warm for as long as possible.

Students conduct an experiment to determine the relationship between the speed of a wooden toy car at the bottom of an incline and the height at which it is released. They observe how the photogate-based speedometer instrument "clocks"...

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...

Working as if they are engineers who work for (the hypothetical) Build-a-Toy Workshop company, students apply their imaginations and the engineering design process to design and build prototype toys with moving parts. They set up...

Students learn about the process of reverse engineering and how this technique is used to improve upon technology. Students analyze push-toys and draw diagrams of the predicted mechanisms inside the toys. Then, they disassemble the toys...

Students learn how engineers harness the energy of the wind to produce power by following the engineering design process as they prototype two types of wind turbines and test to see which works best. Students also learn how engineers...

By taking a look at the energy of motion all around us, students learn about the types of energy and their characteristics. They first learn about the two simplest forms of mechanical energy: kinetic and potential energy, as illustrated...

This unit covers introductory concepts of mixtures and solutions. Students think about how mixtures and solutions, and atoms and molecules can influence new technologies developed by engineers. The first lesson explores the fundamentals...

The National Academy of Engineering promotes engineering as a career, especially to women and girls. Answer questions you have about becoming an engineer and about being an engineer.

Are you curious about mind, body, and world? Read the latest science news in this up-to-date science, health and technology portal.

Make connections between science, enterprise, and society here in this collection of articles and current science topics in the news. Find out how science makes connections with the daily life of human beings.

[Free Registration/Login Required] During this MEA simulation, kindergarten students will be deciding which type of bike will be best for a company to sell in their community. Students must work in cooperative groups as they determine...

An activity where students simulate the process of extracting coal from the ground using chocolate chip cookies. They then calculate the costs involved to determine whether coal mining is profitable.

Become an engineer, and design a submarine that moves in the water like a real submarine. Try making it sink, float, and hover in the water.

After discussing important flying inventions, students explore technological design by making paper airplanes.

Learn the structure and function of the central nervous system.

In this lesson, students use hands-on activities and journaling to learn about the process of mitosis, meiosis and cell differentiation. Hands-on activities include modeling of the mitosis and meiosis processes with model building and...

Students research and explore the importance of two inventions that people use every day: sticky notes and Velcro.