This lesson is for a multi-day project where student groups will plan, design, and build roller coasters out of paper and tape. It tests their knowledge of Physics and Engineering Design.
Students are provided with recycled materials and given the challenge to built a boat that will carry weight and sail across a container without sinking. Students will learn about buoyancy and what
Students will learn about the history of the Ferris wheel while engineering their own out of Popsicle sticks. Students may work individually to create their own spinning ferris wheel An emphasis on
This lesson will implement chain reactions and simple machines into a Rube Goldberg invention. Students will learn about the Rube Goldberg and his crazy inventions. They will then create their own
This Lesson demonstrates and helps students understand the concept of non-contact forces with a hands-on-activity. In the experiment, the students will be making a magnetic car in groups of 2-4. After
Students determine the period of rotation for the flying pig toy using formulas derived throughout the circular motion unit.
By 2028, NASA plans to send a mission to Mars to retrieve samples collected by rovers and return to Earth. Student teams are challenged to build a rover and design a way to retrieve as much cargo as
Students will design paper gliders to develop an understanding of the principles of flight. This is a low-tech lesson that does not require extensive/expensive supplies. It can be scaled up or down
Students use their knowledge from the 2 previous lessons to design, draw blueprints, and build a load bearing bridge.
Students explore different types of bridges and then practice building them with K'Nex sets.
Students explore designing bridge prototypes with spaghetti to find weak points and redesign a new prototype.
Students are introduced to wave characteristics, types, and the transfer of energy by waves. They explore the relationship between amplitude, wavelength, frequency and energy by using slinkys to
This lesson provides students with examples of balanced and unbalanced forces and helps them understand the resulting motion of an object. Students view a PowerPoint, take notes, complete a couple
Classes will build three different types of rockets, guess which style will have the highest altitude, launch and calculate results based on right triangle math!
Students will design a balloon rocket. They will then create a fish line track for the rocket to follow. The track will be able to me modified to test different angles of ascent. This will allow
Understanding and studying energy transfer produced by molecules collisions can be difficult and abstract for them. To make it easier for them to visualize, creating a Newton's Cradle will help them
This multi-day activity is designed for introductory 5th grade STEM after school club. On Day 1, each student will build and test a simple roller coaster following the teacher’s instructions. Students
This multi-day activity is designed for introductory 5th grade STEM after school club. On Day 1, each student will build and test a simple straw rocket following the teacher’s instructions. Students
This multi-day activity is designed for introductory 5th grade STEM after school club. On Day 1, each student will build and test a simple straw rocket following the teacher’s instructions. Students
This multi-day activity is designed for an introductory 5th grade STEM after school club. On Day 1, each student will build and test a simple mousetrap car following the teacher’s instructions
In part 1 of this investigation, groups were challenged to design for speed and collect data to find the fastest car in the class. Using those designs, part 2 will test the mass of a car vs the power
This is the 3rd part of a 4 part lesson series where students will determine the thrust and stability of their water bottle rockets to answer their essential question: Using the Design Process how can
Teams brainstorm ideas that meet the size and material design constraints and create prototype bridges of the most promising solutions. They test their bridges to see how much weight they can hold
In groups of 2-4, students will work through the Engineering Design process on building a tower as tall as possible with 100 index cards, that supports the weight of an object, chosen by the teacher.