Middle school students design a robotic “bee” that would have the potential to pollinate crops in place of a native bee and then evaluate their model against real pollinators.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Engineer a Bee

Tags: Agricultural Engineering, bee, Class Activities, design challenge, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plan, Mechanical engineering, plant, pollinator, robo-bees, Robotics

The Lemelson-MIT Program, located within the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is hosting three hands-on professional development workshops this summer aimed at helping middle and high school teachers nurture their students’ creativity and inventive mindsets.
Midwest | July 11-13, 2018 at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisc.
West Coast | July 25-27, 2018 at California Polytechnic State University in Pomona, Calif.
East Coast | August 1-3, 2018 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

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Filed under: For Teachers, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features | Comments Off on Lemelson-MIT Workshops for Teachers

Tags: creativity, Engineering Design, invention, Lemelson-MIT, professional development for teachers, Programs for Teachers, Resources for Teachers, STEM education, Summer Programs (Teachers)

Students in grades 7 to 9 build model roller coasters using pipe insulation and marbles, then analyze them using physics principles, including conversions between kinetic and potential energy and frictional effects. A class competition using various marbles to represent different passenger loads determines the most innovative and successful designs.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Building Roller Coasters

Tags: Class Activities, forces and motion, friction, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Gravity, Lesson Plan, NASA education, Physics, rides, roller coasters, theme park

In this activity, small groups of students in grades 3 to 8 learn about forces, energy, and efficiency by measuring a bicycle’s gear ratios, calculating tire revolutions, and testing who can ride a course the swiftest based on that information.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Pedal Power

Tags: bicycle, biking, Class Activities, Energy, Engineering, forces, gear, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans, motion, pedaling, Physics, SciGirls, simple machines, Videos, Web Resources

Want to get youngsters excited about computers and engineering? The Secret Code Menace, an adventure story for preteens by electrical and computer engineering professor Pamela Cosman, got 4.99 out of 5 stars from eGFI’s fourth-grade reviewer. Your STEM students will love it, too! (The author’s instructional guide includes problems and answers.)

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, K-12 Education News, K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features | Comments Off on Kid Picks: The Secret Code Menace

Tags: book review, coding, Computer Engineering, Curriculum, Electrical Engineering, forensic, Pam Cosman, Resources for Teachers, software engineering, STEM books, STEM education, The Secret Code Menace, Women in Engineering

Students in grades 6 to 8 explore food production problems related to population growth and then engineer a model vertical farm as a potential solution in a fictional community, Greentown, culminating with a presentation to the imaginary city’s “legislators.”

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans, Web Resources | Comments Off on Engineer a Vertical Farm

Tags: agriculture, Class Activities, crops, EiE, Engineering Design Process, engineering grand challenges, Engineering is Elementary, Engineering is Everywhere, Environmental Engineering, Environmental science, food supply, Grades 6-8, greenhouse, plant science, school gardens, STEM education, vertical farming, Web Resources

Sensors are in everything from smart phones to corn fields. They also can be a powerful and engaging tool to teach STEM. SENSE IT, a free, research-based curriculum, involves students in hands-on learning about their local environment by constructing, deploying, and interpreting data from a network of water-quality sensors.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans, Web Resources | Comments Off on Sense It!

Tags: circuits, Curriculum, data analysis, Environmental Engineering, Environmental science, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, integrated STEM, Internet Resources, iSTEM, Lesson Plan, Liesl Hotaling, SENSE IT, sensors, Teacher Resources, water quality, Web Resources

Students learn about the Great Pacific garbage patch, research the extent and impact of plastics pollution on oceans, and present that information as a short, eye-catching newsletter suitable to hand out to fast-food restaurant customers. 

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Ahoy! Plastic in the Ocean

Tags: Class Activities, Common Core State Standards, data analysis, ecosystem, Environmental Engineering, environmental stewardship, GIS, Grades 6-8, graphic design, great ocean garbage dump, Lesson Plan, literacy, Mapping, Marine Science, Pollution, Research, STEAM, Videos, water cycle, writing

Working in pairs, students in grades 6 to 8 follow the engineering design process to create the strongest truss bridge using a fixed amount of plastic drinking straws and tape. Let the competition begin!

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Straw Bridges

Tags: bridge, Bridge Design, Class Activities, Engineering Design Process, forces, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plan, truss