In this lesson for ages 8 to 18, students work in teams to design and build a working robotic arm from a set of everyday items. Each arm should be able to pick up a Styrofoam cup.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | 4 Comments »

Tags: Building robots, Class Activities, Lesson Plan, Robotics

In this activity for grades 1 to 6, students create a paper flyer that moves like the blades of a helicopter. They learn how changing the helicopter’s shape or weight affects its flight and explore how air resistance changes the way an object falls.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5 | 5 Comments »

Tags: Aerodynamics, Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5

Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network (WEPAN) offers a variety of class activities for all grade levels that span a number of engineering disciplines.

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Filed under: Web Resources | Comments Off on Website: Activities From WEPAN

Tags: Class Activities, Women in Engineering

Disappearing milk, a floating dollar? The Engineering Magic Website, sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, helps you put a little magic into the lesson, with videos and slide shows that explain the science behind magic tricks.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Web Resources | Comments Off on Website: Engineering Magic

Tags: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Magic

In this activity, late-elementary school students work in small groups to build a roller coaster with at least one loop and one jump, demonstrating how potential energy transforms into kinetic energy. Students observe the relationship of height to potential energy and the resulting kinetic energy.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Class Activity: Build a Roller Coaster

Tags: Class Activities, forces and motion, friction, Grades 3-6, Grades K-5, kinetic energy, Mechanical engineering, roller coaster

Students analyze international oil consumption and production data. They make several graphs to organize the data and draw conclusions about the overall use of oil in the world.

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Filed under: Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Lesson: Oil and Energy Consumption

Tags: Class Activities, communications, Earth Science, Energy, Grades K-5, Lesson Plan, mining engineering, oil, petroleum engineering

Students use modeling clay to make a boat that will float in a tub of water. The object is to build a boat that will hold as much weight as possible without sinking. In the process of designing and testing their boats, students discover some of the basic principles of boat design and gain first-hand experience with concepts such as buoyancy and density.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12 | Comments Off on Activity: Float a Clay Boat

Tags: Class Activities, Design, Engineering Design, Engineering Design Process, Water