They grasp fingers, curl up in your palm, and break wind when their heads are squeezed. Meet Fingerlings, the cute little robotic monkeys that rocketed to the top of the toy charts this holiday season – thanks to engineers.

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Tags: Engineering Design Process, Fingerlings, holiday gift, Mechanical engineering, toy engineering, Wowee Toys

Middle and high school students follow the engineering design process to create wearable devices to monitor the health of humans, animals, or both in this competition sponsored by North Carolina State University’s Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST). The program includes teacher training and lesson plans to help implement the design challenge. Register teams by Feb. 15, 2018.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs | Comments Off on Wearable Device Challenge

Tags: Biomedical Engineering, Competitions for Students, Contest, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Design Process, environment, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Health, Lesson Plans, sensors, Teacher Training, wearable technology

Students follow the engineering design process to design and build a usable device to propel school T-shirts up into the stands during home sporting events while keeping costs under budget.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Flying T-Shirt Challenge

Tags: catapult, cheerleaders, Class Activities, Engineering Design Process, forces, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plan, maker challenges, motion, Physics, Sports, T-shirt cannon, teachengineering, tools

Elementary students act as civil engineers to design and build a house that the big, bad wolf cannot blow down. If time allows, they can redesign and test their structures.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Three Little Pigs Design Challenge

Tags: Civil Engineering, Class Activities, Design, design challenge, ELA, Engineering Design Process, forces, Grades K-5, literacy, materials, NGSS, structures, three little pigs, wind

Students in grades 3 to 8 study coastal erosion and the apply the engineering design process to devise structures and policies to protect shorelines, taking public concerns into account.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Save Our Shore!

Tags: beach, Civil Engineering, Class Activities, coastal engineering, Earth Science, Engineering Design Process, Environmental Engineering, erosion, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plan, Marine Science, sand

NASA’s second annual OPSPARC Challenge asks students in grades 3 to 12 to identify everyday items that were first developed for a space mission and then imagine a new humanitarian purpose for that technology. Deadline for submission is February 10, 2017.

That question lies at the heart of NASA’s Optimus Prime Spinoff and Research Challenge, a contest that asks students in grades 3 to 12 to identify and dream up a new purpose for technology first developed for a space mission.

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Filed under: Competitions and Contests, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, K-12 Outreach Programs | Comments Off on NASA Space Spinoff Contest

Tags: Competitions for Students, Contest, Engineering Design Process, Innovation, NASA, National Institute of Aerospace, OPSPARC, Optimus Prime Spinoff and Research Challenge, Space, Technology

Paris of students in grades 3 to 6 experience the engineering design process by building and modifying devices to catch and protect a “naked” egg as it is dropped from increasing heights. The activity scales up to district or regional egg drop competitions.

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Tags: Class Activities, Egg drop, Engineering Design Process, forces, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, kinetic energy, Lesson Plans, materials, motion

In this activity, students in grades 3 to 12 learn how design differences can affect the success of a final product by working in pairs to evaluate, design, and build a better candy bag. They must predict the volume and strength of their designs, test and redesign the bag based on its ability to hold weight, discuss findings, and share results.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5 | Comments Off on Build a Better Candy Bag

Tags: build, candy bag, Class Activities, container, Design, Engineering Design Process, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Materials Engineering

In this activity for middle school science, high school physics, or engineering, groups of students explore the housing crisis caused by natural disasters by applying appropriate technology and fluid mechanics to design sustainable shelters that can withstand flooding and high winds.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, K-12 Outreach Programs, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Disaster-Proof Housing

Tags: Archimedes principle, Bernoulli, Class Activities, Design, disaster shelter, Engineering Design Process, fluid dynamics, Grades 6-8, load, Physics, statics