TeachEngineering describes how water is essential to all living organisms, and goes into detail how engineers study, innovate and create new ways to provide clean water, preserve our ecosystem and keep our crops nourished around the world.

Music: 8 Bit Dreamscape

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 further their understanding of the engineering design process (EDP) while being introduced to assistive technology devices and biomedical engineering. They are given a fictional client statement and are tasked to follow the steps of the EDP to design and build small-scale, off-road wheelchair prototypes. As part of the EDP, students identify appropriate materials and demonstrate two methods of representing solutions to their design problem (scale drawings and simple scale models). They test the scale model off-road wheelchairs using spring scales to pull the prototypes across three different simulated off-road surfaces.

View the full activity at TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/w

TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!

Music: Sky_Scraper

Access to clean water is a major problem we face in the world today, especially in developing countries and during, and in the aftermath of, natural disasters. Currently, there is a portable water purification device called the LifeSaver bottle that can bring clean water to people; however, it is too expensive for most individuals. In this maker challenge, students work through the engineering design process. They create a water bottle from commonly available materials used in purification tools, that can assist in cleaning dirty water as an inexpensive alternative to the LifeSaver Bottle.

View the full activity on TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/makerchallenges/v

TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit https://www.teachengineering.org/ for more

Music: Aimlesss Amos

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

In an activity that integrates science and art, students see, experience and harness the phenomenon of surface tension as they create beautiful works of art. Students conduct two experiments related to surface tension—floating objects on the surface of water and creating original artwork using floating inks. They also learn historical and cultural information through an introduction to the ancient Japanese art form of suminagashi. They take the topic a step further by discussing how an understanding of surface tension can be applied to solve real-world engineering problems and create useful inventions.

View the full activity on TeachEngineering: https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/g

TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!

Music: About That Oldie - Vibe Tracks

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 learn about ocean currents and the difference between salt and fresh water. Using colored ice cubes, they see how cold and warm water mix and how this mixing causes currents. Students also learn how surface currents occur due to wind streams, how fresh water floats on top of salt water, the difference between water in the ocean and fresh water throughout the planet, and how engineers are involved in the design of ocean water systems for human use.

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: Cycles-Audionautix

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 learn about coordinate systems in general by considering questions concerning what it is that the systems are expected do, and who decided how they look. They attempt to make their own coordinate systems using a common area across all groups and compete to see who can make the best one. Then they analyze why it is that some systems work better than others and consider what those observations mean for evaluating and choosing geographic coordinate systems commonly available today.

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: Cats and Gats - Dyalla

Microcontrollers are the brains of the electronic world, but in order to play with one, you must first get it connected! For this maker challenge, students learn how to connect their Arduino microcontroller circuit boards to computers. First, students are walked through the connection process, helped to troubleshoot common pitfalls, and write their first Arduino programs (setup and loop functions, semicolons, camel case, pin 13 LED). Then they are given the open-ended challenge to create their own blinking LED code—such as writing Morse code messages and mimicking the rhythm of a heartbeat. This practice helps students become comfortable with the fundamental commands before progressing to more difficult programs.
View the full activity at TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/makerchallenges/v

TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities. Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!

Music: Whatdafunk - Audionautix

Whatdafunk by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/

Students investigate the weather from a systems approach, learning how individual parts of a system work together to create a final product. They learn how a barometer works to measure the Earth's air pressure by building a model using simple materials. Students analyze the changes in barometer measurements over time and compare those to actual weather conditions. They learn how to use a barometer to understand air pressure and predict real-world weather changes.

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: Payday - Jason Farnham

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