Students build electromagnets and use them to pick up objects.
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Students build their own small-scale model roller coasters using pipe insulation and marbles, and then analyze them using physics principles learned in the associated lesson. They examine conversions between kinetic and potential energy and frictional effects to design roller coasters that are completely driven by gravity. A class competition using different marbles types to represent different passenger loads determines the most innovative and successful roller coasters.
- Author:
- Engineering K-PhD Program,
- Scott Liddle
Students investigate the weather from a systems approach, learning how individual parts of a system work together to create a final product. Students 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 actual weather changes.
- Author:
- Janet Yowell
- Malinda Schaefer Zarske
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
- Glen Sirakavit
- Megan Podlogar
Students create and decorate their own spectrographs using simple materials and holographic diffraction gratings. A holographic diffraction grating acts like a prism, showing the visual components of light. After building the spectrographs, students observe the spectra of different light sources as homework.
- Author:
- Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder
- Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP),
Students learn how to build simple piezoelectric generators to power LEDs. To do this, they incorporate into a circuit a piezoelectric element that converts movements they make (mechanical energy) into electrical energy, which is stored in a capacitor (short-term battery). Once enough energy is stored, they flip a switch to light up an LED. Students also learn how much (surprisingly little) energy can be converted using the current state of technology for piezoelectric materials.
- Author:
- National Science Foundation GK-12 and Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Programs, University of Houston,
- Matthew Zelisko, Kimberly Anderson
Students create and analyze composite materials with the intent of using the materials to construct a structure with optimal strength and minimal density. The composite materials are made of puffed rice cereal, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Student teams vary the concentrations of the three components to create their composite materials. They determine the material density and test its compressive strength by placing weights on it and measuring how much the material compresses. Students graph stress vs. strain and determine Young's modulus to analyze the strength of their materials.
- Author:
- SMARTER RET Program,
- Charisse Nelson, Sarah Wigodsky
Students design and construct electromagnets that must pick up 10 staples. They begin with only minimal guidance, and after the basic concept is understood, are informed of the properties that affect the strength of that magnet. They conclude by designing their own electromagnets to complete the challenge of separating scrap steel from scrap aluminum for recycling, and share it with the class.
- Author:
- VU Bioengineering RET Program,
- Justin Montenegro, Glencliff High School, Nashville
Students use their knowledge of tornadoes and damage. The students will work in groups to design a structure that will withstand and protect people from tornadoes. Each group will create a poster with the name of their engineering firm and a picture of their structure. Finally, each group will present their posters to the class.
- Author:
- Janet Yowell
- Malinda Schaefer Zarske
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
- Melissa Straten
- Jessica Todd
We are surrounded everyday by circuits that utilize "in parallel" and "in series" circuitry. Complicated circuits designed by engineers are made of many simpler parallel and series circuits. In this hands-on activity, students build parallel circuits, exploring how they function and their unique features.
- Author:
- Malinda Schaefer Zarske
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
- Xochitl Zamora Thompson
- Denise W. Carlson
- Sabre Duren
- Daria Kotys-Schwartz
- Joe Friedrichsen
Everyday we are surrounded by circuits that use "in parallel" and "in series" circuitry. Complicated circuits designed by engineers are composed of many simpler parallel and series circuits. During this activity, students build a simple series circuit and discover the properties associated with series circuits.
- Author:
- Malinda Schaefer Zarske
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
- Xochitl Zamora Thompson
- Sabre Duren
- Denise Carlson
- Daria Kotys-Schwartz
- Joe Friedrichsen
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 the design considerations surrounding egg drops are similar to sports equipment design. Watching the transformation of energy from potential to kinetic, observing the impact and working under material constraints introduces students to "sports engineering" and gives them a chance to experience some of the challenges engineers face in designing equipment to protect athletes.
- Author:
- Janet Yowell
- Connor Lowrey
- Abigail Watrous
- Melissa Straten
- Katherine Beggs
- Denali Lander
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program and Laboratory,
Students conduct a simple experiment to see how the water level changes in a beaker when a lump of clay sinks in the water and when the same lump of clay is shaped into a bowl that floats in the water. They notice that the floating clay displaces more water than the sinking clay does, perhaps a surprising result. Then they determine the mass of water that is displaced when the clay floats in the water. A comparison of this mass to the mass of the clay itself reveals that they are approximately the same.
- Author:
- Engineering K-PhD Program,
- Mary R. Hebrank (project writer and consultant)
Students bury various pieces of trash in a plotted area of land outside. After two to three months, they uncover the trash to investigate what types of materials biodegrade in soil.
- Author:
- Engineering K-PhD Program,
- Roarke Horstmeyer
After completing the associated lesson and its first associated activity, students are familiar with the 20 major bones in the human body knowing their locations and relative densities. When those bones break, lose their densities or are destroyed, we look to biomedical engineers to provide replacements. In this activity, student pairs are challenged to choose materials and create prototypes that could replace specific bones. They follow the steps of the engineering design process, researching, brainstorming, prototyping and testing to find bone replacement solutions. Specifically, they focus on identifying substances that when combined into a creative design might provide the same density (and thus strength and support) as their natural counterparts. After iterations to improve their designs, they present their bone alternative solutions to the rest of the class. They refer to the measured and calculated densities for fabricated human bones calculated in the previous activity, and conduct Internet research to learn the densities of given fabrication materials (or measure/calculate those densities if not found online).
- Author:
- Michelle Gallagher, Terri Camesano, Jeanne Hubelbank, Kristen Billiar
- Inquiry-Based Bioengineering Research and Design Experiences for Middle-School Teachers RET Program, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
Students construct three-dimensional models of water catchment basins using everyday objects to form hills, mountains, valleys and water sources. They experiment to see where rain travels and collects, and survey water pathways to see how they can be altered by natural and human activities. Students discuss how engineers design structures that impact water collection, as well as systems that clean and distribute water.
- Author:
- Janet Yowell
- Malinda Schaefer Zarske
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
- Denise W. Carlson
- Jay Shah
Students model a water catchment basin and survey water pathways to understand factors that affect water flow.
Students drop marbles into holes cut into shoebox lids and listen carefully to try to determine the materials inside the box that the marbles fall onto, illustrating the importance of surface composition on dolphins' abilities to sense materials, depth and texture using echolocation. This activity builds on what students learned in the associated lesson about bycatching by fisheries and how it affects marine habitats and species, especially dolphins. Students learn how echolocation works, why certain animals use it to determine the size, shape and distance of objects, and how people can take advantage of dolphins' echolocation ability when developing bycatch avoidance methods.
- Author:
- Matt Nusnbaum, Pratt School of Engineering
- Engineering K-PhD Program,
- Amy Whitt, Nicholas School of the Environment
- Vicki Thayer, Nicholas School of the Environment
- Angela Jiang, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University
- Aruna Venkatesan, Pratt School of Engineering
In the exploration of ways to use solar energy, students investigate the thermal energy storage capacities of different test materials to determine which to use in passive solar building design.
- Author:
- Malinda Schaefer Zarske
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
- Sabre Duren
- Jeff Lyng
- Denise Carlson
- Xochitl Zamora-Thompson
In some cities, especially large cities such as Los Angeles or Mexico City, visible air pollution is a major problem, both for human health and the environment. A variety of sources contribute to air pollution, but personal vehicles account for one of the main sources. Though each car has relatively low emissions when compared to vehicles of the 1970s, there are so many more cars on the road now that their emissions play a large role in overall pollution. In this activity, students think about alternate ways to power a vehicle to reduce emissions. Student teams design an eco-friendly car using the engineering design process, and make a presentation to showcase their product.
- Author:
- Janet Yowell
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
- Katherine Beggs
- Denali Lander
- Abigail Watrous
Students consider the Earth's major types of landforms such as mountains, rivers, plains, hills, canyons, oceans and plateaus. Student teams build three-dimensional models of landscapes, depicting several of these landforms. Once the models are built, they act as civil and transportation engineers to design and build roads through the landscapes they have created. The worksheet is provided in English and Spanish.
- Author:
- Janet Yowell
- Malinda Schaefer Zarske
- Integrated Teaching and Learning Program,
- Sara Born