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Break It Down: Reverse Engineering

In this lesson for grades 5-8, students learn how the process of reverse engineering helps improve technology. Students analyze the mechanisms of a push-toy then disassemble it and draw its inner mechanisms. They then make suggestions for improvements: effectiveness, improved functionality, ecological friendliness, and any additional functionality. Time required: 90 minutes.

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Lesson: Paper Structures

Practicing elementary civil engineering, students in grades 1 through 8 build a portable paper structure able to support the weight of a book. They learn that material strength varies with shape and arrangement.

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Lesson: Edible Rocks, Munchy Meteorites

The edible “rocks” lesson helps students grades K-8 learn the importance of observation, teamwork, and communication skills. Students draw and describe the food/meteors, then pair their observations with short descriptions in a geologic “Field Note” style.

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Lesson: The Great Wave

In this lesson, students in grades 6-8 learn what causes a tsunami, the physics behind its movement, and how scientists know when one is forming. They study its impact on a model town and learn about a 10-year-old girl credited with saving dozens of lives when a tsunami struck Samoa.

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Lesson: Tsunami Survival

TsunamiStudents in grades 3 to 8 use a table-top tsunami generator to observe the devastation of these huge waves. They make villages of model buildings to test how different material types are impacted, and they learn how engineers design buildings to survive tsunamis.

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Lesson: Engineered Music

In this lesson series for ages 8-18, teams of students explore the engineering behind recorder manufacturing, and then design, construct, test, and evaluate a working musical instrument using easily found materials. Time required: Two to three 45-minute sessions.

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Lesson: Weather Forecasting

Hurricane season is here, reminding us that accurate weather forecasts can be a matter of life and death in vulnerable coastal areas of the country. Even inland, severe thunderstorms play havoc with late-summer travel, and tornadoes threaten lives and property. In this lesson for grades 6 to 8, students begin by considering how weather forecasting plays an important part in their daily lives. They learn about the history of weather forecasting — from old weather proverbs to modern forecasting equipment — and how improvements in weather technology have saved lives by providing advance warning of natural disasters.

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Lesson: Bridge Building. Tension and Compression

LightningVolt_Mackinac_BridgeIn this lesson for grades 6-12, students experience the forces of tension and compression by manipulating objects that are strong in each but not in both. Students then take what they have learned and apply it to the construction of a simple model of a beam bridge and the more complex suspension bridge and inverted triangle support structure. During the lesson, students watch video segments that illustrate the design and construction process in the real world.

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Lesson: Solar Cooking

In this series of lessons for grades 6-8, students first experiment with a virtual solar cooker to discover the mathematical relationship among reflection, transmission and absorption. Then they apply their knowledge to building and testing a solar cooker of their own invention. In an extension, students investigate how these principles can be used as sustainable energy sources for homes through passive solar heating.

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