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.

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Music - Thingamajig by Audionautix

Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a lighter fluid. In both cases, they see and record beautiful fluid motion. Activities are also suitable as class demonstrations. The natural beauty of fluid flow opens the door to seeing the beauty of physics in general.

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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: Cycles

Students find the volume and surface area of a rectangular cardboard box (such as a cereal box), and then figure out how to convert that box into a new, cubical box having the same volume as the original. As students construct new, cube-shaped boxes from the original box material, they discover that the cubical box has less surface area than the original, and thus, a cube is a more efficient way to package things.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/d

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Music: Educated Man - Max McFerren

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.
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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/makerchallenges/v

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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 combine art, gaming culture and engineering by fabricating light-up patches to increase youngsters’ visibility at night. The open-ended project is presented as a hypothetical design challenge: Students are engineers who have been asked by a group of parents whose children go out Pokémon hunting at night to create glowing patches that they adhere to clothing or backpacks to help vehicle drivers see the kids in the dark. Student pairs create Pokémon character stencil designs cut from iron-on fabric patches, adding transparent layers for color. Placed over an EL (electroluminescent) panel that is connected to a battery pack, the stencils create glowing designs. Each team creates a circuit, which includes lengthening the EL panel wiring to make it easier to wear. Then they sew/adhere the patches onto hoodies, messenger bags, hats, pockets or other applications they dream up. The project concludes with team presentations as if to an audience of project clients. Keep the project simple by hand cutting and ironing/sewing, or use cutting machines, laser cutters and sewing machines, if available.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/s

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

Music: Fig Leaf Rag - Kevin MacLeod

Fig Leaf Rag by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/r....oyalty-free/index.ht
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Students are given a difficult challenge that requires they integrate what they have learned so far in the unit about wait blocks, loops and switches. They incorporate these tools into their programming of the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robots to perform different tasks depending on input from two touch sensors. This activity helps students understand how similar logic is implemented for other every day device operations via computer programs. A PowerPoint® presentation, pre/post quizzes and worksheet are provided.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/u

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Music: Hot Mess - Audionautix

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

Students plant sunflower seeds in plastic cups, and once germinated, expose them to varying light or soil moisture conditions. They measure the seedlings' growth every few days using non-standard measurement (inch cubes). After a few weeks, they compare the growth of plants exposed to the different conditions and make comparative bar graphs that they analyze to draw conclusions about plant needs.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/d

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Cold Funk - Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod

Electricity allows engineers to create systems and devices to benefit all areas of society including entertainment, healthcare, transportation, space travel and more! The phenomenon of electricity inspires innovation in engineering.

This video will touch on:
What electricity is,
The two types of electricity: static and current,
And how engineers can make the world a better place using electricity!

Find lessons and activities around the phenomenon of electricity here: https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/populartopics/ele

Music: Orange Octopus

In this activity, students discover that the concept of mechanical advantage describes reality fairly well. They act as engineers creating a design for a ramp at a construction site by measuring multiple different inclined planes and calculating the theoretical mechanical advantage versus the actual mechanical advantage of each.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c

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Music - Daily Beetle By Kevin MacLeod

Students explore the concepts of center of mass and static equilibrium by seeing how non-symmetrical objects balance. Using a paper cut-out shape of a parrot sitting on a wire coat hanger, they learn that their parrot exists in stable equilibrium — it returns to its balancing point after being disturbed. The weight of its tail makes the parrot balance upright. Give the parrot a push, and she knocks off balance, but swings back and forth until coming to rest in balance again.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c

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Music: Daily Beetle - Kevin MacLeod

Students collect, categorize, weigh, and analyze classroom solid waste. The class collects waste for a week and then student groups spend a day sorting and analyzing the garbage with respect to recyclable and non-recyclable items. They discuss ways that engineers have helped to reduce the accumulation of solid waste.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c

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Music: Feel_Good_Rock 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.

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Music: Payday by Jason Farnham

Students learn about stress and strain by designing and building beams using polymer clay. They compete to find the best beam strength to beam weight ratio, and learn about the trade-offs engineers make when designing a 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 http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!

Music: Brazil Samba - Bensound.com

Building upon their understanding of forces and Newton's laws of motion, students learn about the force of friction, specifically with respect to cars. They explore the friction between tires and the road to learn how it affects the movement of cars while driving. In an associated literacy activity, students explore the theme of conflict in literature, and the difference between internal and external conflict, and various types of conflicts. Stories are used to discuss methods of managing and resolving conflict and interpersonal friction.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/lessons/view/cub_

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

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

What are waves? How do engineers engage with the different types of waves to design and build new products? TeachEngineering delves into the real world phenomena of waves and how they show up in our world today!

Music: Cycles

In the continuing (hypothetical) storyline of the Lost in the Amazon unit, students apply the concepts they learned regarding mass, volume and density in the previous activities to design boats to get them out of the jungle.

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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: EDM Detection Mode - Kevin MacLeod

Students work as materials and chemical engineers to develop a bouncy ball using a select number of materials. They move through the engineering design process. They first develop a plan of what materials they might need to design their product. Then, the students create and test their bouncy ball. Based on their tests, students then determine how to re-design and retest their creations to create the bounciest ball possible!

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: Milos

Students apply several methods developed to identify and interpret patterns to the identification of fingerprints. They look at their classmates' fingerprints, snowflakes, and "spectral fingerprints" of elements. They learn to identify each image as unique, yet part of a group containing recognizable similarities.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/c

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Audio: campfire_song

Students are introduced to the structure, function and purpose of locks and dams, which involves an introduction to Pascal's law, water pressure and gravity.

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https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/lessons/view/cub_

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