Middle school students act as Mars exploratory rover engineers. They evaluate equipment options, determine what parts fit in a NASA-provided budget, and, given a parts list, use these constraints to design, build, and display their edible rover at a concluding design review. Includes link to high-school version of this activity.

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

Tags: Aerospace Engineering, Class Activities, Engineering Design, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, InSight lander, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lesson Plan, Mars rover, NASA, Space

Have a poster contest, host a science cafe, or stage a 100 billion nanometer race… Check out these eGFI activities and other ideas for celebrating National Nanotechnology Day on October 9. (The date refers to the nanometer scale of 10 to the –9, or one billionth of a meter.)

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Filed under: K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features, Web Resources | Comments Off on National Nanotechnology Day

Tags: Class Activities, Events, gecko, McREL, nanoengineering, National Nanotechnology Day, Resources for Teachers, Teacher Resources, TryNano, Videos, Web Resources

Middle school students learn about mineral properties and calculate the costs, benefits, and densities in this engineering-driven earth science unit based on the real-world design challenge of salvaging cargo following a train derailment. Students also will strengthen communication skills by creating a presentation to explain their process and justify their decisions to a “client.”

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Lesson: Mineral Mayhem

Tags: Class Activities, Common Core mathematics, Earth Science, Engineering Design, entrepreneurship, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Industrial engineering, Lesson Plan, Mathematics, mineral, NGSS, Purdue University engineering education outreach, scatterplot, STEM integration

A farm, community art show, dinner party, or classroom? The possibilities are endless when transforming a parking space into a roadside showcase for the design side of STEM this PARK(ing) Day, Friday, September 21.

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Filed under: Class Activities, K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features, Web Resources | Comments Off on Pop-up STEAM PARK(ing) Lots

Tags: ASLA, Class Activities, Design, installations, landscape architecture, PARKIing) Day, Public Policy, public space, Resources for Teachers, STEAM, traffic, urban infrastructure, urban planning, Web Resources

Students in grades 9 to 12 analyze real-world traffic data to evaluate the efficiency of a section of a public transit system and suggest design improvements. They then evaluate whether the changes make positive impacts on the system’s performance. Includes link to a California Academy of Sciences challenge on designing more energy-efficient, greener buses.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Mass Transit Living Lab

Tags: Class Activities, data, FasTracks, Grades 9-12, graphs, Lesson Plan, mass transit, NGSS, route, Systems Engineering, traffic engineering, transportation engineering, urban planning

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

Students in grades 3 to 5 learn about the engineering design process by making a 2-dimensional model (graphic illustration) of an apparatus that will pollinate a field.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Honeybee Human Design Challenge

Tags: Agricultural Engineering, Class Activities, crops, design challenge, Grades K-5, honey bee, Lesson Plan, Mechanical engineering, pollinator

High school students design a permanent guest village within the Saguaro National Park in Arizona after studying the desert ecology. Their designs must provide a true desert experience for visitors while emphasizing sustainable design, protecting the natural environment, and conserving energy and resources.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Designing Desert Digs

Tags: bio-inspired design, Biomimicry, Class Activities, cooling, desert, eco-village, ecology, Energy, Engineering Design Process, environment, Environmental Engineering, Grades 9-12, habitat, heat, Lesson Plan, Saguaro National Park, shelter, solar power, Sustainability, tourist village

Teams of high school students learn about energy and energy transformation, then use their knowledge to design and build a paper model of the most fun and exciting roller coaster they can imagine.

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

Tags: CCSS, Class Activities, forces, Grades 9-12, Gravity, kinetic energy, Lesson Plan, Mathematics, motion, Newton's Laws, NGSS, Physical Science, potential energy, roller coaster, vectors, velocity