How Does Wind Energy Work? PostedJune 3, 2022 UpdatedJune 3, 2022 Posted byHoward Chan https://www.raisingglobalkidizens.com/how-does-wind-energy-work-educational-wind... In partnership with Raising Global Kidizens (https://www.instagram.com/raisingglobalkidizens/), this is an excellent resource for teaching wind energy for your students.How a wind turbine works?Looking for a resource to engage your learners in STEM while studying a method of generating clean energy?Search no further than our 60+ page Wind Power educational resource, complete with details on how to build a wind turbine model, courtesy of @coricreate_edu . Read More Q&A0
AeroEducate 6-8 Activity: Quiet the Skies PostedMay 17, 2022 UpdatedJune 1, 2022 Posted by Sharon Bowers https://www.aeroeducate.org/teachers In the Quiet the Skies activity learners design and build a Thunder Drum to simulate jet engine noise. Then learners design and build chevrons to reduce the simulated jet engine noise. Read More Q&A0
AeroEducate 6-8 Activity: Balloon Plane PostedMay 17, 2022 UpdatedJune 1, 2022 Posted by Sharon Bowers https://www.aeroeducate.org/teachers In the Balloon Plane activity learners explore how changes in mass impact acceleration. Read More Q&A0
AeroEducate 6-8 Activity: Hovercraft PostedMay 17, 2022 UpdatedJune 1, 2022 Posted by Sharon Bowers https://www.aeroeducate.org/teachers In the Hovercraft activity learners create a hovercraft with easily found materials and make adjustments to the design to enable the hovercraft to operate on different surfaces. Read More Q&A0
AeroEducate 6-8 Activity: Hot Air Balloons PostedMay 17, 2022 UpdatedJune 1, 2022 Posted by Sharon Bowers https://www.aeroeducate.org/teachers In the Hot Air Balloons activity learners construct and launch hot air balloons using plastic bags and a hair dryer as a heat source. Read More Q&A0
AeroEducate 6-8 Activity: Straw Plane PostedMay 17, 2022 UpdatedJune 1, 2022 Posted by Sharon Bowers https://www.aeroeducate.org/teachers In the Straw Plane activity learners create and test a glider plane complete with ailerons, rudder, and elevators. Then they modify the structure of the plane's parts so that it consistently lands within a target zone. Read More Q&A0
AeroEducate 6-8 Activity: Magnus Cups PostedMay 17, 2022 UpdatedJune 1, 2022 Posted by Sharon Bowers https://www.aeroeducate.org/teachers In the Magnus Cups activity learners create and fly cup gliders to explore lift and the Magnus effect. Learners experiment with changing variables to see how changes in structure impact the gliders' flight. Read More Q&A0
Triremes PostedMay 13, 2022 UpdatedMay 13, 2022 Posted byScott Weiler https://reach.ieee.org/inquiry-units/triremes/ The fall of 480 BCE, Xerxes, the King of Persia, attacked Greece on land and at sea. While the land battle that ended with a Spartan stand to the last man at Thermopylae, has been burned into the collective memory of western civilization – think of the movie 300 – it was the Greek navy that repelled Xerxes’ assault and saved Athens from certain defeat. What saved Greece from the encroachment of an empire that had already consumed much of western Asia? The Athenian navy employed an innovative ship design called the Trireme. Built for speed and agility and designed as an offensive weapon, the trireme allowed the ancient Greeks to destroy most of the Persian fleet and stop the western advance of the imperial Persian king. This Inquiry Unit focuses on the technology of ancient naval warfare. Students will analyze primary and secondary source documents and engage in hands-on Formative Performance Tasks as they explore the connections between naval technology and the principles of democracy. Read More Q&A0
ELECTRIC LIGHTING PostedMay 13, 2022 UpdatedMay 13, 2022 Posted byScott Weiler https://reach.ieee.org/inquiry-units/electric-lighting/ When was the last time you lived without electric lights? Maybe a thunderstorm, hurricane, or blizzard caused a power outage in your neighborhood. Many of us feel so uncomfortable without electricity that we keep gasoline-powered generators on hand to minimize the effects of such an unexpected loss of power. Nevertheless, just 150 years ago, most of the world lived their normal lives without electricity and the dependable light that it supplies. One hundred years before that, and “normal” life was almost what it had been for perhaps 5000 years – only fire (torch, candle, etc.) to light the night. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource 1 Experience Red Light, Green Light: Forces of Friction, Roads & Tires PostedOctober 6, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/cub_mechanics_lesson05 Building upon their understanding of forces and Newton's laws of motion, students learn about the force of friction, specifically with respect to cars. They explore the friction between tires and the road to learn how it affects the movement of cars while driving. In an associated literacy activity, students explore the theme of conflict in literature, and the difference between internal and external conflict, and various types of conflicts. Stories are used to discuss methods of managing and resolving conflict and interpersonal friction. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Super Slinger Engineering Challenge PostedSeptember 26, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/wpi_empathy_activity1 Students are challenged to design, build and test small-scale launchers while they learn and follow the steps of the engineering design process. For the challenge, the "slingers" must be able to aim and launch Ping-Pong balls 20 feet into a goal using ordinary building materials such as tape, string, plastic spoons, film canisters, plastic cups, rubber bands and paper clips. Students first learn about defining the problem and why each step of the process is important. Teams develop solutions and determine which is the best based on design requirements. After making drawings, constructing and testing prototypes, they evaluate the results and make recommendations for potential second-generation prototypes. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Super Slinger Engineering Challenge PostedSeptember 26, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/wpi_empathy_activity1 Students are challenged to design, build and test small-scale launchers while they learn and follow the steps of the engineering design process. For the challenge, the "slingers" must be able to aim and launch Ping-Pong balls 20 feet into a goal using ordinary building materials such as tape, string, plastic spoons, film canisters, plastic cups, rubber bands and paper clips. Students first learn about defining the problem and why each step of the process is important. Teams develop solutions and determine which is the best based on design requirements. After making drawings, constructing and testing prototypes, they evaluate the results and make recommendations for potential second-generation prototypes. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Density Rainbow and the Great Viscosity Race PostedSeptember 17, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_flow_activity2 Students explore the densities and viscosities of fluids as they create a colorful 'rainbow' using household liquids. While letting the fluids in the rainbow settle, students conduct 'The Great Viscosity Race,' another short experiment that illustrates the difference between viscosity and density. Later, students record the density rainbow with sketches and/or photography. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Solar Sails: The Future of Space Travel PostedSeptember 2, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_space8_lesson01_activity2 Working as if they were engineers, students design and construct model solar sails made of aluminum foil to move cardboard tube satellites through “space” on a string. Working in teams, they follow the engineering design thinking steps—ask, research, imagine, plan, create, test, improve—to design and test small-scale solar sails for satellites and space probes. During the process, learn about Newton’s laws of motion and the transfer of energy from wave energy to mechanical energy. A student activity worksheet is provided. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Spaghetti Bridges (for Informal Learning) PostedSeptember 2, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/sprinkles/view/cub_spaghettibridge_sprinkle Students design, build and test bridges made of uncooked spaghetti noodles. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Environmental Engineering and Water Chemistry PostedAugust 31, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/curricularunits/view/wst_environmental_unit Students are introduced to the fundamentals of environmental engineering as well as the global air, land and water quality concerns facing today's environmental engineers. After a lesson and activity to introduce environmental engineering, students learn more about water chemistry aspects of environmental engineering. Specifically, they focus on groundwater contamination and remediation, including sources of contamination, adverse health effects of contaminated drinking water, and current and new remediation techniques. Several lab activities provide hands-on experiences with topics relevant to environmental engineering concerns and technologies, including removal efficiencies of activated carbon in water filtration, measuring pH, chromatography as a physical separation method, density and miscibility. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Introduction to Water Chemistry PostedAugust 20, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/wst_environmental_lesson02 Students are presented with examples of the types of problems that environmental engineers solve, specifically focusing on water quality issues. Topics include the importance of clean water, the scarcity of fresh water, tap water contamination sources, and ways environmental engineers treat contaminated water. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Biodiversity & Probability: Mice Rule! (or Not) PostedAugust 12, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/duk_evolution_mary_less Students explore the relationships between genetics, biodiversity and evolution through teacher-presented information, including walking through two example Punnett squares that show the probability of freckles in offspring from parents who have and do not have freckles. Seeing how probability figures into the study of genetics prepares students to conduct the simple associated activity that involves wild mouse populations. In the associated activity, students toss coins to determine which traits mouse parents possess, such as fur color, body size, heat tolerance and running speed, and to determine the traits of a mouse pup born to these parents. Then they compare these physical features to features that would be most adaptive in several different environmental conditions, as well as what would happen to the mouse offspring if those environmental conditions changed. Which mice would be most likely to survive and produce the next generation? Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Environmental History Timeline PostedAugust 11, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_air_lesson01_activity4 Students develop critical thinking skills by interviewing a person who has perspective on environmental history. Students explore the concept of a timeline, including historical milestones, and develop a sense of the context of events. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Can You Take the Pressure? PostedJuly 31, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/cub_airplanes_lesson01 Students are introduced to the concept of air pressure and use the associated activity to see how it is affected by different variables. They explore how air pressure creates force on an object. They study the relationship between air pressure and the velocity of moving air. Read More Q&A0