Top videos
What is climate change? Why do engineers care about climate change? TeachEngineering explores this defining issue of our time, how engineers can make a difference, and why we need to act fast!
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org for more!
Music: Lunar Levitation - Aakash Gandhi
Testing a model parachute can tell us many things and help us learn about a variety of concepts, such as proportionate size and scale, gravity, air resistance, weight relationships. In this freeform activity about preventing free-falling, students design their own model parachutes while considering factors in their test drops such as distance, weight, and time.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/u
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more!
Music: Hyperfun - Kevin MacLeod
Student teams act as engineers and brainstorm, design, create and test their ideas for packaging to protect a raw egg shipped in a 9 x 12-in envelope. They follow the steps of the engineering design process and aim for a successful solution with no breakage, low weight, minimal materials and recycled/reused materials. Students come to understand the multi-faceted engineering considerations associated with the packaging of items to preserve, market and safely transport goods.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/d
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music: Santo Rico
Students learn about one-axis rotations, and specifically how to rotate objects both physically and mentally to understand the concept. They practice drawing one-axis rotations through a group exercise using cube blocks to create shapes and then drawing those shapes from various x-, y- and z-axis rotation perspectives on triangle-dot paper (isometric paper). They learn the right-hand rule to explore rotations of objects. A worksheet is provided. This activity is part of a multi-activity series towards improving spatial visualization skills.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music: Sky Scraper - Geographer
Students develop their understanding of air convection currents and temperature inversions by constructing and observing simple models. Engineers study temperature inversions and convection currents to understand why pollution levels may be higher in some areas than in others. They use this information to reduce pollution levels and determine new pollution prevention programs. They also study convection currents inside buildings to help improve indoor air quality that may be poor due to smoking or fumes from cleaning supplies. Convection currents help to circulate these pollutants, sending them outside of the building.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!
Music: Daily Beetle- Kevin MacLeod
Students engage in an interactive "hot potato" demonstration to gain an appreciation for the flow of electrons through a circuit. Students role play the different parts of a simple circuit and send small items representing electrons (paper or candy pieces) through the circuit.
View the full activity at TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!
Music: Stuck In The Air - The Tower of Light
Students explore the many different ways that engineers provide natural lighting to interior spaces. They analyze various methods of daylighting by constructing model houses from foam core board and simulating the sun with a desk lamp. Teams design a daylighting system for their model houses based on their observations and calculations of the optimal use of available sunlight to their structure.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more!
Music: Fortunate Son - Silent Partner
Who can engineer the best slime? Beginning with a preset recipe, students make slime, observe it, and then decide on what and how they want to improve it, such as making it stickier or less sticky. Students then make their updated slime by implementing the changes they want to make. They are introduced to product optimization, material science and polymer engineering.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/u
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music: Comparsa_Latinesque by Kevin MacLeod
Students download the software needed to create Arduino programs and make sure their Arduino microcontrollers work correctly. Then, they connect an LED to the Arduino and type up and upload programs to the Arduino board to 1) make the LED blink on and off and 2) make the LED fade (brighten and then dim). Throughout, students reflect on what they've accomplished by answering questions and modifying the original programs and circuits in order to achieve new outcomes. A design challenge gives students a chance to demonstrate their understanding of actuators and Arduinos; they design a functioning system using an Arduino, at least three actuators and either a buzzer or toy motor. For their designs, students sketch, create and turn in a user's manual for the system (text description, commented program, detailed hardware diagram). Numerous worksheets and handouts are provided.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/n
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music: Bella Bella Beat - Nana Kwabena
Students learn about and experiment with the concept of surface tension. How can a paper clip "float" on top of water? How can a paper boat be powered by soap in water? How do water striders "walk" on top of water? Why do engineers care about surface tension? Students answer these questions as they investigate surface tension and surfactants.
View the full activity at TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!
Music: Redwood_Highway-Audionautix
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process while learning more about assistive devices and biomedical engineering applied to basic structural engineering concepts. Their engineering challenge is to design, build and test small-scale portable wheelchair ramp prototypes for fictional clients. They identify suitable materials and demonstrate two methods of representing design solutions (scale drawings and simple models or classroom prototypes). Students test the ramp prototypes using a weighted bucket; successful prototypes meet all the student-generated design requirements, including support of a predetermined weight.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/w
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music: Sophomore Makeout - Silent Partner
What do plants need? Students examine the effects of light and air on green plants, learning the processes of photosynthesis and transpiration. Student teams plant seeds, placing some in sunlight and others in darkness. They make predictions about the outcomes and record ongoing observations of the condition of the stems, leaves and roots. Then, several healthy plants are placed in glass jars with lids overnight. Condensation forms, illustrating the process of transpiration, or the release of moisture to the atmosphere by plants.
This engineering curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music: Believer
Many of today's popular sports, like soccer, basketball, and tennis, involve using balls, but each ball is unique in its own way. These balls are carefully created with special features to make playing each sport a fun and exciting experience. Students explore the concept of reverse engineering to understand how and why engineers use it. Then, students investigate how different balls bounce by dropping them from various heights and create graphs to show their findings. Through their investigation and analysis, they are able to reverse-engineer different characteristics of several types of balls.
View the full lesson on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/b
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music - EDM Detection Mode By Kevin MacLeod
Students identify different bridge designs and construction materials used in modern day engineering. They work in construction teams to create paper bridges and spaghetti bridges based on existing bridge designs. Students progressively realize the importance of the structural elements in each bridge. They also measure vertical displacements under the center of the spaghetti bridge span when a load is applied. Vertical deflection is measured using a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 intelligent brick and ultrasonic sensor. As they work, students experience tension and compression forces acting on structural elements of the two bridge prototypes. In conclusion, students discuss the material properties of paper and spaghetti and compare bridge designs with performance outcomes.
View the full activity at TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/n
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!
Music: Venice Beach - Topher Mohr & Alex Elena
Students are introduced to the concepts of graywater and water reuse within households. They calculate the amount of used water a family generates in one day and use a model of home plumbing to find out how much graywater is produced in homes every day. They graph their results and discuss energy efficiency implications. Students are then challenged to find ways to reduce water use within the home.
This engineering curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music: Toe Jam
Students use scaling from real-world data to obtain an idea of the immense size of Mars in relation to the Earth and the Moon, as well as the distances between them. Students calculate dimensions of the scaled versions of the planets, and then use balloons to represent their relative sizes and locations.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music - Ruination_2
Students come to understand the basics of engineering associated with the use, selection, and properties of fabrics. A wide variety of natural and synthetic fibers are used in our clothing, home furnishings and in our travel and sports equipment. The specific material chosen for each application depends on how closely the properties of the material match the design needs. This activity focuses on the different characteristics of fabrics and shows students how natural and synthetic fabrics differ from one another. Students weigh the advantages and disadvantages of fabrics when considering the appropriate fabric to be used.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/f
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music - Thingamajig by Audionautix
Students are presented with the following challenge: their new school is under construction and the architect accidentally put the music room next to the library. Students need to design a room that will absorb the most amount of sound so that the music does not disturb the library. Students use a box as a proxy for the room need to create a design that will decrease the sound that is coming from the outside of the box. To evaluate this challenge, students use a speaker within the box and a decibel meter outside the box to measure the effectiveness of their design.
View the full lesson on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/u
TeachEngineering has over 1,900 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!
Music: Payday by Jason Farnham
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 through conduction and convection and the engineering design cycle. Student teams design, create and test (and improve) their own Ebola biohazard suit prototypes that cover one arm and hand, including a ventilation system to cool the inside of the suit.
View the full activity at TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/e
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more!
Music: Trancer - Gunnar Olsen
To better understand electricity, students investigate the properties of materials based on their ability to dispel static electricity. They complete a lab worksheet, collect experimental data, and draw conclusions based on their observations and understanding of electricity. The activity provides hands-on learning experience to safely explore the concept of static electricity, learning what static electricity is and which materials best hold static charge. Students learn to identify materials that hold static charge as insulators and materials that dispel charge as conductors. The class applies the results from their material tests to real-world engineering by identifying the best of the given materials for moving current in a solar panel.
View the full activity at TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/u
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!
Music: Dragonfly - Quincas Moreira
Students see how potential energy (stored energy) can be converted into kinetic energy (motion). Acting as if they were engineers designing vehicles, they use rubber bands, pencils and spools to explore how elastic potential energy from twisted rubber bands can roll the spools. They brainstorm, prototype, modify, test and redesign variations to the basic spool racer design in order to meet different design criteria, ultimately facing off in a race competition. These simple-to-make devices store potential energy in twisted rubber bands and then convert the potential energy to kinetic energy upon release.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/u
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more!
Music: Double Agent - Everet Almond
Students use simple household materials, such as PVC piping and compact mirrors, to construct models of laser-based security systems. The protected object (a "mummified troll" or another treasure of your choosing) is placed "on display" in the center of the modeled room and protected by a laser system that utilizes a laser beam reflected off mirrors to trigger a light trip sensor with alarm.
View the full activity on TeachEngineering: https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/v
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!
Music: Double Agent - Everet Almond
On your mark… get set… design! Students discover how sports arenas, rules, and equipment would change if the Olympic Games were conducted on the Moon. During the process, they learn about the engineering design process and physics concepts such as gravity, velocity, acceleration, and friction. They use free online design and programming tools which help them to improve their conceptions and design skills. This activity was developed to be implemented fully online; however, it could easily be adapted for in-class or hybrid classroom use.
This engineering curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/p
TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more
Music: Believer
