In this activity, teams of students in grades 6 to 8 will learn about the engineering design process and how a one-way valve works by creating heart valves from tape, plastic tubing, and other materials.

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 6-8, Lesson Plans | Comment »

Tags: biomdedical engineering, device, Engineering Design Process, heart, Mechanical engineering, valve

Ainissa Ramirez, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science at Yale, explains the wonders of her ever-expanding field in a series of YouTube videos. In the latest, she describes how a layer of carbon that is one atom thick, called graphene, will revolutionize our lives.

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Tags: Materials Engineering, Mechanical engineering, video, Videos

In this lesson, teams of students in grades 6 to 12 will explore the engineering design process by modifying a paper cup to carry a marble down a zip line and drop it precisely on a target. They will learn to brainstorm, test, evaluate, and redesign their devices to improve accuracy and effectiveness of the remote-release mechanism.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | 2 Comments »

Tags: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plan, Mechanical engineering, Physics, zip line

A British product-design student has invented a wheel-chair alternative whose legs can lift up and step over obstacles. Martin Harris, 21, hopes his invention will give people with mobility issues more freedom. He also believes his design, which was inspired by the kinetic sculpture of Dutch engineer-artist Theo Jansen, has potential uses in agricultural machinery or military vehicles.

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Filed under: K-12 Education News, Special Features | Comment »

Tags: adaptive technologies, Biomedical, Biomedical Engineering, Design, Mechanical engineering, student invention

Students at a rural Alabama school are putting their mechanical skills to use developing inexpensive utility vehicles that can be shipped to poor countries and assembled. Boasts teacher Brian Copes: “These students are on the fast track of changing the world.”

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Tags: Cars, Competitions for Students, Entertainment, Mechanical engineering

Lincoln Unified school district in Stockton, California, is betting that the newly-opened Jeff Wright Engineering and Construction Academy will be well worth its $8.5 million investment. Some 500 students will study topics ranging from carpentry to computerized drafting to mechanical engineering.

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Tags: Education Policy, Mechanical engineering, Public Policy, Technology Education, Vocational Education

An engineer-turned-teacher, Christopher Tolbert inspires both at-risk and advanced students with challenges that convert gasoline-powered cars to run on electricity. In Tolbert’s high-octane classroom, “every student is held accountable.”

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Tags: Cars, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Green Technology, Mechanical engineering

This vintage engineering tutorial, made by General Motors, clearly and engagingly explains how differential gears work. Posted on YouTube last year, it has now received close to a million views — not bad for something made in 1937. Ever wonder how cars can make turns without skidding? Engineers came up with the solution.

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Tags: Mechanical engineering, Videos

In this Techbridge lesson, students in grades 5-12 collaborate to solve a fun engineering challenge: to create a device capable of transferring a set of “radioactive” golf balls from one bag to another – with no human contact. Which team can complete the task in the shortest amount of time possible?

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Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12 | 7 Comments »

Tags: Collaborative Activity, Mechanical engineering, Team-building skills