Get Me Off This Planet!
Posted on September 13th, 2015 by Mary Lord
In this lesson to teach middle school students how a spacecraft gets from the surface of the Earth to Mars, students first investigate rockets and how they are able to get us into space, then discuss the nature of an orbit as well as how orbits enable us to get from planet to planet.
Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Get Me Off This Planet!
Tags: Aerospace, astronauts, calculations, Class Activities, forces, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Humans in Space, Lesson Plans, Mars, motions, NASA, Physics, trajectory
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.
In this activity, student teams in grades 8 and up learn about the engineering design process and physical forces by building a bridge from a single sheet of paper and up to five paper clips that will span 20 cm and support the weight of 100 pennies. Like real engineers, teams also have limited budgets and must make trade-offs in materials.
NASCAR, the National Association of Stock Car Automobile Racing, is speeding into STEM education. Acceleration Nation is a new learning program created in partnership with Scholastic to teach elementary and middle school students about math and science behind the Three D’s of Speed: Drag, Downforce, and Drafting.
In this fun activity developed by St. Thomas University engineering associate professor AnnMarie Thomas, students of all ages learn the basic principles of electricity by fashioning circuits from play dough, batteries, and LEDs. No soldering necessary!
What is a current or emerging problem that can be solved by connecting more devices and everyday objects to the Internet or other networks? Young woman between the ages of 13 and 18 who like to take a creative approach to projects will find the Cisco Internet of Things World Forum Young Women’s Innovation Grand Challenge is for them!
In this short, fun activity for students in grades 2 to 12, teams learn about the engineering design process, including constraints on time and materials, by building the tallest free-standing tower out of pipe-cleaners.
In this activity, students in grades 7 to 9 will learn how to take a bearing with a compass and find an object in their classroom.
Middle school students learn about the engineering design process by building a model of an innovative human shelter inspired and informed by an animal habitat. They then present their work, explaining what attribute of the animal structure influenced their design. 
