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Intro to Engineering through the Olympics

Posted on June 14th, 2021 by Mary Lord


This curricular unit from TeachEngineering introduces basic engineering principles through a series of hands-on activities and lessons related to the Olympics and sports, including designing venues and protective gear.

Click HERE for a sneak peek at Tokyo’s new National Stadium before the Olympics opening ceremony on July 23, 2021. 

Grade level: 3-5

Time: 15 class periods (six lessons and six activities ranging from 15 to 90 minutes)

Summary

Students are introduced to the basic principles behind engineering and the types of engineering while learning about an always-popular topic—the Olympics.

The involvement of engineering in modern sports is amazing and pervasive. Students learn about the techniques of engineering problem solving, including brainstorming and the engineering design process. The importance of thinking out of the box is stressed through a discussion of the engineering required to build grand, often complex, Olympic event centers. Students review what they know about kinetic and potential energy as they investigate the design of energy-absorbing materials, relating this to the design of lighter, faster and stronger sports equipment to improve athletic performance and protect athletes. Students consider states of matter and material properties as they see the role of chemical engineering in the Olympics. Students also learn about transportation and the environment, and the relationship between architecture and engineering.

Engineering Connection

Working in teams, engineers approach creative problem solving by using the techniques of brainstorming and following the cyclical steps of engineering design process. Engineers are challenged to think “outside of the box” as they envision, design, and create complex projects, structures, products, materials, and processes. Engineers are intimately involved in transportation, the environment, architecture, sports—and really everything in our human-made world.

Educational Standards 

See individual lessons and activities for standards alignment.

Unit Schedule

Worksheets and Attachments

Additional resources (supplied by eGFI Teachers)

Engineering a Fast Olympic Pool. Twenty-five years after the Atlantic Games, Georgia Tech’s swimming pool remains among the fastest in the world.
Five New Stadiums Built for the Tokyo Olympics. The 68,000-seat National Stadium, site of the opening and closing ceremonies, is not the only tech-enhanced venue where engineers are helping athletes perform at their peak.

Copyright © 2006 by the Regents of the University of Colorado

Supporting Program

Integrated Teaching and Learning Program and Laboratory, College of Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

Acknowledgements

This digital library content was developed under grants from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education, and the National Science Foundation (GK-12 grant no 0338326). However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education or National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans

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