Mars Rover Races
Posted on April 3rd, 2011 by Mary Lord
In this activity, students will learn the challenges of operating a robotic rover on the distant Red Planet and solve problems through a hands-on simulation. After trying to navigate an obstacle course blindfolded and guided only by verbal commands, students will discover that tooling around Mars is no simple joy-stick ride.
Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Mars Rover Races
Tags: Class Activities, Lesson Plan, Lesson Plans, NASA, Robotics
In this lesson, you’ll introduce your students to the four forces of flight–drag, lift, thrust, and weight–through a variety of fun-filled flight experiments. Students will “fly” for short periods and then evaluate factors that might either increase or decrease their “flight” duration.
It’s easy to find your way to school. Now imagine trying to navigate the skies, with no signs to point you in the right direction. How do pilots find their way? These “pilot training lessons” developed by the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology will teach your young aviators the principles of navigation in a fun series of real-time activities.
In this lesson, you’ll introduce your students to the four forces of flight — drag, lift, thrust, and weight — through a variety of fun flight experiments. Students will “fly” for short periods and then evaluate factors that might either increase or decrease their “flight” duration. They also will discover how air moving at different speeds over a wing keeps planes aloft.
Basketball not only is fun to play or watch–it packs a lot of math and science in each move. In this lesson, developed by NPR’s Talking Science with John Fontanella, a physicist at the U.S. Naval Academy and author of The Physics of Basketball, students will learn how physics affects the game. What forces are acting on the ball? What must players do to offset these forces? 
From the “miracle fiber” Kevlar invented by Dupont chemist Stephanie Kwolek to Silly Putty, our world abounds with materials discovered by accident. In this activity from the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), students will learn some serious materials science–and hit several national science and tehcnology standards–by using everyday items to create and investigate the properties of Funny Putty.
In this quick, hands-on lesson, students in grades K-12 compare sunblock containing nanoparticles to those that do not and learn how nanoparticles are used to help block harmful rays from the sun.
In this lesson, students in grades 6-12 use simple materials to design, build, and test a model of a free-standing structure used to support overhead road signs. They begin by learning about the engineering design process and researching about support structures. They then work in groups to design and build their own sign supports. The final designs are tested to see how they stand up to two different types of loads.
