![preview of 'Paper Airplanes: Building, Testing, & Improving. Heads Up! ' Activity](/content/images/SquareImages/cub_airplanes_lesson06_activity1.jpg)
Paper Airplanes: Building, Testing, & Improving. Heads Up! Middle School Activity
Students learn the different airplane parts, including wing, flap, aileron, fuselage, cockpit, propeller, spinner, engine, tail, rudder, elevator. Then they each build one of four different (provided) paper airplane (really, glider) designs with instructions, which they test in three trials, measuring flight distance and time. Then they design and build (fold, cut) a second paper airplane design of their own creation, which they also test for flight distance and time. They graph the collected class data. Analysis of these experiments with "model" airplanes and their results help them see and figure out what makes airplanes fly and what can be changed to influence the flying characteristics and performance of airplanes.
![preview of 'Physics of Roller Coasters' Lesson](/content/images/SquareImages/duk_rollercoaster_music_less.jpg)
Physics of Roller Coasters Middle School Lesson
Students explore the physics exploited by engineers in designing today's roller coasters, including potential and kinetic energy, friction and gravity. First, they learn that all true roller coasters are completely driven by the force of gravity and that the conversion between potential and kinetic energy is essential to all roller coasters. Second, they consider the role of friction in slowing down cars in roller coasters. Finally, they examine the acceleration of roller coaster cars as they travel around the track. During the associated activity, students design, build and analyze model roller coasters they make using foam tubing and marbles (as the cars).
![preview of 'Potato Power' Activity](/content/images/SquareImages/cub_energy2_lesson04_activity2.jpg)
Potato Power Elementary School Activity
Students use potatoes to light an LED clock (or light bulb) as they learn how a battery works in a simple circuit and how chemical energy changes to electrical energy. As they learn more about electrical energy, they better understand the concepts of voltage, current and resistance.
![preview of 'Building Roller Coasters' Activity](/content/images/SquareImages/duk_rollercoaster_music_act.jpg)
Building Roller Coasters Middle School Activity
Students build their own small-scale model roller coasters using pipe insulation and marbles, and then analyze them using physics principles learned in the associated lesson. They examine conversions between kinetic and potential energy and frictional effects to design roller coasters that are completely driven by gravity. A class competition using different marbles types to represent different passenger loads determines the most innovative and successful roller coasters.
![preview of 'Architects and Engineers: Working Together to Design Structures' Lesson](/content/images/SquareImages/cub_intro_lesson03.jpg)
Architects and Engineers: Working Together to Design Structures Elementary School Lesson
Students explore the interface between architecture and engineering. In the associated hands-on activity, students act as both architects and engineers by designing and building a small parking garage.
![preview of 'Newspaper Tower' Activity](/content/images/SquareImages/duk_tower_tech_act.jpg)
Newspaper Tower Middle School Activity
Student groups are challenged to design and construct model towers out of newspaper. They are given limited supplies including newspaper, tape and scissors, paralleling the real-world limitations faced by engineers, such as economic restrictions as to how much material can be used in a structure. Students aim to build their towers for height and stability, as well as the strength to withstand a simulated lateral "wind" load.
![preview of 'What Is Heat?' Lesson](/content/images/SquareImages/ucd_heat_lesson01.jpg)
What Is Heat? Middle School Lesson
Students learn about the definition of heat as a form of energy and how it exists in everyday life. They learn about the three types of heat transfer—conduction, convection and radiation—as well as the connection between heat and insulation. Their learning is aided by teacher-led class demonstrations on thermal energy and conduction. A PowerPoint® presentation and quiz are provided. This prepares students for the associated activity in which they experiment with and measure what they learned in the lesson by designing and testing insulated bottles.
![preview of 'Hydraulic Arm Challenge' Activity](/content/images/SquareImages/wpi_hydraulic_arm_challenge.jpg)
Hydraulic Arm Challenge Middle School Activity
Students design and build a mechanical arm that lifts and moves an empty 12-ounce soda can using hydraulics for power. Small design teams (1-2 students each) design and build a single axis for use in the completed mechanical arm. One team designs and builds the grasping hand, another team the lifting arm, and a third team the rotation base. The three groups must work to communicate effectively through written and verbal communication and sketches.
![preview of 'The Building Blocks of Matter' Lesson](/content/images/SquareImages/cub_mix_lesson1.jpg)
The Building Blocks of Matter Middle School Lesson
Students use the associated activity to learn about atoms and their structure (protons, electrons, neutrons) — the building blocks of matter. They see how scientific discoveries about atoms and molecules influence new technologies developed by engineers.
![preview of 'What Makes Airplanes Fly?' Lesson](/content/images/SquareImages/cub_mechanics_lesson01.jpg)
What Makes Airplanes Fly? Middle School Lesson
Students begin to explore the idea of a force. To further their understanding of drag, gravity and weight, they conduct activities that model the behavior of parachutes and helicopters. An associated literacy activity engages the class to recreate the Wright brothers' first flight in the style of the "You Are There" television series.
![preview of 'Be “Cool” with Popsicle Engineering' Activity](/content/images/SquareImages/uof-2367-popsicle-engineering-square.jpg)
Be “Cool” with Popsicle Engineering Elementary School Activity
Beginning kindergarteners are introduced to science and engineering concepts through questions such as “What is a Scientist?” and “What is an Engineer?”, and go on to compare and contrast the two. They are introduced to seven steps of the engineering design process and explore these steps using the “I do, we do, you do” set of guided instruction. At the end of the project, students produce a set of purple popsicles that they design using various materials and by following a set of criteria.
![preview of 'Paper Circuits Greeting Cards' Activity](/content/images/SquareImages/paper_circuits_greeting_cards.png)
Paper Circuits Greeting Cards High School Activity
Light up your love with paper circuits this Valentine’s Day—no soldering required! Create a sure-to-impress flashing birthday card or design a light-up Christmas card—all with paper circuits! In this activity, students are guided through the process to create simple paper circuitry using only copper tape, a coin cell battery, a light-emitting diode (LED) and small electronic components such as a LilyPad Button Board. Making light-up greeting cards with paper circuitry is great way to teach the basics of how circuits function while giving students an outlet to express their artistic creativity.
![preview of 'Radar: Using Sound for Sight' Lesson](/content/images/SquareImages/duk_bycatchunit_musc_less2.jpg)
Radar: Using Sound for Sight Middle School Lesson
Echolocation is the ability to orient by transmitting sound and receiving echoes from objects in the environment. As a result of a Marco-Polo type activity and subsequent lesson, students learn basic concepts of echolocation. They use these concepts to understand how dolphins use echolocation to locate prey, escape predators, navigate their environment, such as avoiding gillnets set by commercial fishing vessels. Students also learn that dolphin sounds are vibrations created by vocal organs, and that sound is a type of wave or signal that carries energy and information especially in the dolphin's case. Students learn that a dolphin's sense of hearing is highly enhanced and better than that of human hearing. Students are also introduced to the concept of bycatch. They learn what happens to animals who are unintentionally caught while fishing for other species.
![preview of 'Flight of the Fruit: Weight, Gravity and Imagination ' Activity](/content/images/SquareImages/uof-2308-flight-fruit-square.jpg)
Flight of the Fruit: Weight, Gravity and Imagination Elementary School Activity
Testing a model parachute can tell us many things and help us learn about a variety of concepts, such as proportionate size and scale, gravity, air resistance, weight relationships. In this freeform activity about preventing free-falling, students design their own model parachutes while considering factors in their test drops such as distance, weight, and time.
![preview of 'Humans Are Like Robots' CurricularUnit](/content/images/SquareImages/umo_robotsandhumans.jpg)
Humans Are Like Robots Elementary School CurricularUnit
Four lessons related to robots and people present students with life sciences concepts related to the human body (including brain, nervous systems and muscles), introduced through engineering devices and subjects (including computers, actuators, electricity and sensors), via hands-on LEGO® robot activities. Students learn what a robot is and how it works, and then the similarities and differences between humans and robots. For instance, in lesson 3 and its activity, the human parts involved in moving and walking are compared with the corresponding robot components so students see various engineering concepts at work in the functioning of the human body. This helps them to see the human body as a system, that is, from the perspective of an engineer. Students learn how movement results from 1) decision making, such as deciding to walk and move, and 2) implementation by conveying decisions to muscles (human) or motors (robot).
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