Engineering Design

Ocean Engineering and Designing for the Deep Sea by Rebecca Sjonger, is a non-fiction text that shares real-life examples of how ocean engineers design equipment to study the deep sea. A design challenge is embedded to help students understand key co ...

In this lesson, students will learn that waterwheels are machines that convert the energy of falling water into power that can grind wheat into flour, saw timber, and make work easier. After investigating what this technology can do, students create ...

Through this educational guide and the nonfiction picture book Beauty and Beak by Deborah Lee Rose,  students learn how science, technology, and a 3D-printed beak rescued a bald eagle. Beauty and the Beak tells the story of a bald eagle whose be ...

This is a two part review of a 10-day module in which students work on several mini-design challenges that culminate in a multi-day engineering design challenge. In the first 6 modules, students focus on Structure and Properties of Matter t ...

This 28 minute movie from PBS depicts middle school aged students working in unison with the U.S. Naval Academy investigating oyster reefs in the Chesapeake Bay.  Oysters are known to help filter water, but due to a declining population of oyste ...

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused severe damage and suffering to the people who lived in New Orleans. The levees that surrounded the city did not hold the immense amount of ocean water that rose from the storm.  In this activity, students wi ...

With approximately 1% of water on the planet Earth available for human consumption students will investigate various ways that engineers are working to maintain and conserve water sources. Students will research, design, and build ...

This resource is part of a two unit curriculum designed for fourth-graders using the 5E Instructional Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) to support students as they investigate the effect that height and other variables hav ...

This unit activity combines learning about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment along with the engineering design process to create a water filtration system.  Constraints a ...

Students work in teams to design their own seismographs using everyday materials, (string, wire, paper, pencil, marker, pen, paper clips, glue, cardboard, poster board, foil, rubber bands, tape, pan or tray, clay) then test their design to recor ...

Students plan and carry out investigations before developing and using models to describe patterns of waves in terms of amplitude and wavelength, and to demonstrate that waves can cause objects to move. Connections are made to real world example ...

In this activity, students use the SCAMPER brainstorming tool to design a car that can overcome air resistance. The SCAMPER strategy encourages students through a series of questions, to brainstorm things they could change or modify to make a di ...

In this engineering activity, students are challenged to design and construct a roof that will protect a cardboard house from getting wet.   The criteria and constraints for the design is that students need to develop a roofing system ...

This activity is one in a series of Mission: Solar System design challenges developed by PBS’s Design Squad, NASA and the National Science Foundation.  Students design, build, and improve a model that mimics gravity-assisted spac ...

Through experimentation and active investigation of motion and forces, students are challenged to design, build, and test a simple gravity-powered car that is at least 8 cm wide and less than 30 cm long.  The completed Gravity Rac ...

To Get to the Other Side: Designing Bridges is an engineering unit from EIE and The Museum of Science in Boston geared towards Grades 1-5.  Students will be building upon their knowledge of pushes and pulls as they explore how for ...

This engineering lesson is part of An Educators Guide to the Engineering Design Process Grades 3-5 created by NASA to guide students in understanding how humans can be protected from the temperature variations found on the Moon. To understand the cha ...

This activity is a culmination of a 16 day unit of study where students explore the biosphere's environments and ecosystems. In this final activity, students apply what they learned about plants, animals, and decomposers to design and create ...

Students are given a scenario/problem that needs to be solved:  Their school is on a field trip to the city to listen to a rock band concert. After arriving at the concert, the students find out that the band’s instruments were d ...

This fun activity is one of five in a series of space based engineering challenges developed by NASA and Design Squad where students are engaged in implementing the Engineering Design process to build a robotic arm that can lift a cup off a table usi ...

Students will examine the growth, composition, history, and uses of corn through a close reading activity, discussion of renewable and non-renewable resources, and hands-on exploration of bioplastics made from corn.

From TeachEngineering - Students learn about providing healthcare in a global setting and the importance of wearing protective equipment when treating patients with infectious diseases like Ebola. They learn about biohazard suits, heat transfer throu...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn about oil spills and their environmental and economic effects. They experience the steps of the engineering design process as they brainstorm potential methods for oil spill clean-up, and then design, build and ...

From TeachEngineering - Students act as structural engineers and learn about forces and load distributions as they follow the steps of the engineering design process to design and build small-scale bridges using wooden tongue depressors and glue. Tea...

From TeachEngineering - Students revisit the Pop Rockets activity from Lesson 3, in which mini paper rockets are powered by the chemical reaction of antacid-tablets and water in plastic film canisters. This time, however, the design of their pop rock...

From TeachEngineering - Students act as engineers contracted by NASA to create water filtration devices that clean visible particulates from teacher-prepared "dirty water." They learn about the worldwide need for potable water and gain appreciation f...

From TeachEngineering - Students design, build and test model race cars made from simple materials (lifesaver-shaped candies, plastic drinking straws, Popsicle sticks, index cards, tape) as a way to explore independent, dependent and control variable...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn about material reuse by designing and building the strongest and tallest towers they can, using only recycled materials. They follow design constraints and build their towers to withstand earthquake and high win...

From TeachEngineering - Students build small-sized prototypes of mountain rescue litters—rescue baskets for use in hard-to-get-to places, such as mountainous terrain—to evacuate an injured person (modeled by a potato) from the backcountry. Groups des...

From TeachEngineering - Students are asked to design methods to filter water using ordinary materials, while also considering their designs' material and cost efficiencies. They learn about the importance of water and its role in our everyday lives. ...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn how engineers design and construct buildings to withstand earthquake damage by building their own model structures using toothpicks and marshmallows. They experiment to see how earthquake-proof their buildings a...

From TeachEngineering - Students explore the inhalation/exhalation process that occurs in the lungs during respiration. Using everyday materials, each student team creates a model pair of lungs.

From TeachEngineering - Students are introduced to brainstorming and the design process in problem solving as it relates to engineering. They perform an activity to develop and understand problem solving with an emphasis on learning from history. Usi...

From TeachEngineering - Student teams investigate the properties of electromagnets. They create their own small electromagnets and experiment with ways to change their strength to pick up more paperclips. Students learn about ways that engineers use ...

From TeachEngineering - Students design and build a model city powered by the sun! They learn about the benefits of solar power, and how architectural and building engineers integrate photovoltaic panels into the design of buildings.

From TeachEngineering - Students filter different substances through a plastic window screen, different sized hardware cloth and poultry netting. Their models show how the thickness of a filter in the kidney is imperative in determining what is filte...

From TeachEngineering - Students experience the engineering design process as they design and build accurate and precise catapults using common materials. They use their catapults to participate in a game in which they launch Ping-Pong balls to attem...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn about civil engineers and work through each step of the engineering design process in two mini-activities that prepare them for a culminating challenge to design and build the tallest straw tower possible, given...

From TeachEngineering - Students design and build paper rockets around film canisters, which serve as engines. An antacid tablet and water are put into each canister, reacting to form carbon dioxide gas, and acting as the pop rocket's propellant. Wit...

From TeachEngineering - Students observe a model waterwheel to investigate the transformations of energy involved in turning the blades of a hydro-turbine. They work as engineers to create model waterwheels while considering resources such as time an...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn about using renewable energy from the sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. They explore the concepts of insulation, reflection, absorption, conducti...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn how the aerodynamics and rolling resistance of a car affect its energy efficiency through designing and constructing model cars out of simple materials. As the little cars are raced down a tilted track (powered ...

From TeachEngineering - Students create their own anemometers—instruments for measuring wind speed. They see how an anemometer measures wind speed by taking measurements at various school locations. They also learn about different types of anemometer...

From TeachEngineering - Students explore the use of wind power in the design, construction and testing of "sail cars," which, in this case, are little wheeled carts with masts and sails that are powered by the moving air generated from a box fan. The...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn how engineers transform wind energy into electrical energy by building their own miniature wind turbines and measuring the electrical current they produce. They explore how design and position affect the electri...

From TeachEngineering - Students practice the ability to produce clear, complete, accurate and detailed design drawings through an engineering design challenge. Using only the specified materials, teams are challenged to draw a design for a wind-powe...

From TeachEngineering - Students design and construct devices to trap insects that are present in the area around the school. The objective is to ask the right design questions and conduct the right tests to determine if the traps work.

From TeachEngineering - In this multi-day activity, students explore environments, ecosystems, energy flow and organism interactions by creating a scale model biodome, following the steps of the engineering design process. The Procedure section provi...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn about the difference between temperature and thermal energy. They create thermometers using simple materials and develop their own scales for measuring temperature. They compare their thermometers to a commercia...

From TeachEngineering - The difference between architects and engineers can be 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 constra...

From TeachEngineering - During a power failure, or when we go outside at night, we grab a flashlight so we can find our way. What happens inside a flashlight that makes the bulb light up? Why do we need a switch to turn on a flashlight? Have you ever...

From TeachEngineering - 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...

From TeachEngineering - Students construct small-sized model rocket-powered boats—"aqua-thrusters"—that are made from film canisters propelled by carbon dioxide gas produced from a chemical reaction between antacid tablets and water. They make predic...

From TeachEngineering - In this activity, students learn about their heart rate and different ways it can be measured. Students construct a simple measurement device using clay and a toothpick, and then use this device to measure their heart rate und...

From TeachEngineering - In this activity, students use a variety of materials to design and create headphones that absorb sound. Just like acoustical engineers, students design headphones using sound-absorbing materials.

From TeachEngineering - In this open-ended design activity, students use everyday materials—milk cartons, water bottles, pencils, straws, candy—to build small-scale transportation devices. They incorporate the use two simple machines—a wheel and axle...

From TeachEngineering - Students investigate motors and electromagnets as they construct their own simple electric motors using batteries, magnets, paperclips and wire. Like engineers, students must understand and apply the connection between elect...

From TeachEngineering - Students explore the concept of biodegradability by building and observing model landfills to test the decomposition of samples of everyday garbage items. They collect and record experiment observations over five days, seeing ...

From TeachEngineering - Athletes often wear protective gear to keep themselves safe in contact sports. In this spirit, students follow the steps of engineering design process as they design, build and test protective padding for an egg drop. Many of ...

From TeachEngineering - Students discover the relationship between an object's mass and the amount of space it takes up (its volume). As they create small boats using clay, they learn about the concept of displacement and how an object can float if i...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn about biomimicry and how engineers often imitate nature in the design of innovative new products. They demonstrate their knowledge of biomimicry by practicing brainstorming and designing a new product based on w...

From TeachEngineering - Students learn how to use wind energy to combat gravity and create lift by creating their own tetrahedral kites capable of flying. They explore different tetrahedron kite designs, learning that the geometry of the tetrahedron ...

From TeachEngineering - Students use a table-top-sized tsunami generator to observe the formation and devastation of a tsunami. They see how a tsunami moves across the ocean and what happens when it reaches the continental shelf. Students make villag...

From TeachEngineering - In this activity, students construct their own pinhole camera to observe the behavior of light.

Scientists and Engineers are Diligent

Scientists and Engineers are Inspired

Scientists and Engineers are Thinkers

Developing and Using Models

Scientists and Engineers are Imaginative

Scientists and Engineers are Patient

Scientists and Engineers are Visionary

Scientists and Engineers are Confident

Scientists and Engineers are Courageous

Scientists and Engineers are Innovative

Scientists and Engineers are Clever

Scientists and Engineers are Inventive

Scientists and Engineers are Persistent

Scientists and Engineers are Creative

Scientists and Engineers are Fearless

Scientists and Engineers are Risk Takers

Scientists and Engineers Use Design Process

Scientists and Engineers Use Idea Development

Scientists and Engineers Use Modification

Connecting literacy and science through an elementary biomimicry lesson. Upper elementary unit that combines literacy and science in an engaging manner where students solve a real-world problem by mimicking nature.