Posted on December 24th, 2015 by Mary Lord
In this collaborative math and art lesson, students in grades 4 through high school explore central ideas in industrial engineering – including productivity, efficiency, and quality – by designing their own assembly line and working together to mass produce greeting cards.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Greeting Card Assembly Line
Tags: Art, assembly line, Class Activities, Common Core State Mathematics Standards, girls in STEM, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, greeting card, Industrial engineering, Lesson Plans, Math, STEAM
Posted on December 24th, 2015 by Mary Lord
In this activity, students in grades 2 to 8 learn about applied forces and elements of the engineering design process by creating a pop-up card or book.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Build a Pop-Up Card or Book
Tags: book making, Class Activities, diagram, engineering design proces, folding, forces, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plan, NGSS, paper, paper engineering, pop-up card
Posted on December 18th, 2015 by Mary Lord
In this activity, upper elementary students working alone or in pairs learn about electrical circuits and the design process by dismantling a “singing” greeting card and using the parts to build an alarm system.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Hack a Greeting Card
Tags: circuits, Class Activities, Design, electricity, electronics, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, greeting card, hack-a-thon, maker
Posted on November 18th, 2015 by Mary Lord
Student teams in grades 3 to 7 learn the key role that smell plays in being able to recognize foods by conducting taste tests while holding and not holding their noses. They then create bar graphs comparing the number of correct identifications.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on A Tasty Experiment
Tags: bar chart, CCSS, Chemical Engineering, Class Activities, flavor engineering, food, food engineering, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, NGSS, senses, smell, taste
Posted on November 16th, 2015 by Mary Lord
Think computer science is only for an elite group of professionals? An Hour of Code could change your mind – and inspire your students! More than 41,000 U.S. schools, libraries, and other organizations are celebrating Computer Science Education Week this year by hosting hour-of-code events from December 7 to 13, 2015. Will you class be one of them?
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Filed under: Class Activities, K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features, Web Resources | Comments Off on Hour of Code 2015
Tags: Class Activities, computer science education week, hour of code, programming, Resources for Teachers, STEM education, Web Resources
Posted on October 28th, 2015 by Mary Lord
In this activity, students in grades 3 to 12 learn how design differences can affect the success of a final product by working in pairs to evaluate, design, and build a better candy bag. They must predict the volume and strength of their designs, test and redesign the bag based on its ability to hold weight, discuss findings, and share results.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Build a Better Candy Bag
Tags: build, candy bag, Class Activities, container, Design, Engineering Design Process, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Materials Engineering
Posted on September 23rd, 2015 by Mary Lord
In this NASA activity, students in grades 1-8 learn about the challenges of space nutrition and designing food packaging by observing, measuring, comparing, and contrasting the ripening of fruits and vegetables when exposed to air and the effect of chemical treatments to inhibit ripening.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Ripening Fruit in Space
Tags: Aerospace, agriculture, astronauts, Class Activities, fruit, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Mathematics, measurement, NASA, nutrition, observation, ripening, space food, surface area, vegetables
Posted on September 23rd, 2015 by Mary Lord
The year is 2032 and your middle-school explorers have successfully achieved a manned mission to Mars! After establishing criteria to help look for signs of life, they conduct a scientific experiment in which they evaluate three “Martian” soil samples and determine if any contains life.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Are We Alone?
Tags: Aerospace, astronaut, Bioscience, Chemistry, Class Activities, exploration, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plan, life, manned mission to Mars, Mars, NASA, Space
Posted on September 13th, 2015 by Mary Lord
In this lesson to teach middle school students how a spacecraft gets from the surface of the Earth to Mars, students first investigate rockets and how they are able to get us into space, then discuss the nature of an orbit as well as how orbits enable us to get from planet to planet.
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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Get Me Off This Planet!
Tags: Aerospace, astronauts, calculations, Class Activities, forces, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Humans in Space, Lesson Plans, Mars, motions, NASA, Physics, trajectory