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
Partner Resource Navigational Techniques by Land, Sea, Air and Space PostedJune 25, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/lessons/view/cub_navigation_lesson07 Students learn that navigational techniques change when people travel to different places — land, sea, air and space. For example, an explorer traveling by land uses different navigation methods and tools than a sailor or an astronaut. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource The Artificial Bicep PostedMay 5, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_biomed_lesson02_activity1 Students learn more about how muscles work and how biomedical engineers can help keep the muscular system healthy. Following the engineering design process, they create their own biomedical device to aid in the recovery of a strained bicep. They discover the importance of rest to muscle recovery and that muscles (just like engineers!) work together to achieve a common goal. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Bouncing Balls: Collisions, Momentum & Math in Sports PostedApril 17, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_energy_lesson03_activity1 Students examine how different balls react when colliding with different surfaces, giving plenty of opportunity for them to see the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions, learn how to calculate momentum, and understand the principle of conservation of momentum. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Adding Helpful Carrier Devices to Crutches PostedApril 1, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/makerchallenges/view/cub_carrierdevices_maker1 People using crutches have their hands occupied, which makes it difficult to carry books and other items they want to have handy. Student teams are challenged to design assistive devices that modify crutches to help people carry things such as books and school supplies. Given a list of constraints, including a device weight limit and minimum load capacity, groups brainstorm ideas and then make detailed plans for their best solutions. They create prototypes and then test for functionality by loading them and using them, making improvements with each iteration. At a concluding design expo, teams present their concepts and demonstrate their final prototype devices. Read More Q&A0
Supporting Students’ Science Learning During COVID-19 School Closures PostedMarch 26, 2020 UpdatedMarch 26, 2020 Posted byKate Gramling http://stemteachingtools.org/news/2020/guidance-for-supporting-science-learning-... NGSS aligned resources that might be useful to educators, families, and educational leaders. Includes links documents - some editable - that can be adapted to different situations. Provided in English, Spanish, and Arabic. Read More Average Ratings 0 Reviews0 Q&A0
Partner Resource Engineering Pop-Up Books PostedMarch 25, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_art_lesson01_activity2 Students learn about applied forces as they create pop-up-books — the art of paper engineering. They also learn the basic steps of the engineering design process. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Do the Robot! Programming a RedBot to Dance PostedMarch 23, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/makerchallenges/view/spfun_dance_maker1 Students program the drive motors of a SparkFun RedBot with a multistep control sequence—a “dance.” Doing this is a great introduction to robotics and improves overall technical literacy by helping students understand that we use programs to control the motion and function of robots, and without the correct programming, robots do not operate as intended and are unable to complete simple tasks that we count on them to perform. Students are given the basic code and then time to experiment, alter and evolve it on their own. As time permits, students may also want to construct and decorate frames and chassis for their robots using found/recycled materials such as cardboard boxes. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource A Simple Solution for the Circus PostedMarch 14, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_simp_machines_lesson01_acti... In this activity, students are challenged to design a contraption using simple machines to move a circus elephant into a rail car. After students consider their audience and constraints, they work in groups to brainstorm ideas and select one concept to communicate to the class. Read More Q&A0
Partner Resource Spool Racer Design & Competition PostedMarch 5, 2020 Posted byTeach Engineering Team https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/ucd_energy_lesson01_activity1 Students see how potential energy (stored energy) can be converted into kinetic energy (motion). Acting as if they were engineers designing vehicles, they use rubber bands, pencils and spools to explore how elastic potential energy from twisted rubber bands can roll the spools. They brainstorm, prototype, modify, test and redesign variations to the basic spool racer design in order to meet different design criteria, ultimately facing off in a race competition. These simple-to-make devices store potential energy in twisted rubber bands and then convert the potential energy to kinetic energy upon release. Read More Q&A0