Saving Runaway Gramps Students are engaged to consider the challenges faced by people in wheelchairs and develop remedial strategies following engineering design. While modern building designs follow specific regulations to provide safe accessibility to wheelchairs, many older neighborhoods still contain designs inaccessible and dangerous for people in wheelchairs. For example, many ramp designs have slopes…
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Pollution Solution: Community Aquifer Contaminants Students will assume the role of an environmental engineering EPA officer for this lesson. They will investigate a contaminated off-site residential property and will try to determine the source of contamination. Surrounding the property are Wright Patterson Air Force Base, a dry cleaner, and a corporate farm. Students will investigate…
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In this unit, students will compare the structural integrity of various shapes and materials in designing a temporary shelter. When the weather turns extreme, homeless shelters can exceed capacity. In an effort to best prepare homeless shelters to support community homeless needs, students will be tasked to design a temporary structure for a single user.…
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Stop Stomping on Me Student engineering teams assist a city that is building a new soccer field for the World Cup competition. To protect the city’s precious groundwater, the city requires a field that is as environmentally sustainable as possible but also meets the needs of professional players. Students are challenged to design the optimum…
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Fire Safety Impact Systems In this unit, students will explore the relationships between force, motion, and gravity as they team up with Underwriters Laboratories to create a prototype for use in emergency situations, such as a house fire, to break a person’s fall. Teams of students will work collaboratively to employ the engineering design process…
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Engineer a Ball Launcher Given specific constraints, students investigate and apply knowledge of forces of motion, expressions, and analyzed data to design a ball launching mechanism. Teams of students collaborate to help enable a quadriplegic owner like to “throw” the ball to his or her service animal. Students employ the engineering design process as they…
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Around the Windows: Looking Through Stained Glass Students ware engaged in various inquiries to build an understanding of wavelengths and energy transfer. They also incorporate geometry, problem solving, writing, early civilization influences, and technology skills. Teams of students create a stained glass window jar in order to discover which light wave is most efficient in…
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Launch into Energy Transformations Students assume the role of propulsion engineers and aerodynamicists on collaborative Air Vehicle teams. They are challenged to employ the iterative nature of the engineering design process to design, build, and test a nose cone system for a air pressurized-air and water fueled soda bottle rocket. Students will conduct research based…
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Compressed Air Vehicle This activity will introduce students to the use of compressed air as a means of propulsion. The goal is to allow students to discover the relationship between the amount of compressed air and the distance a vehicle is able to travel to determine the viability of compressed air for propulsion.Jet engines, also…
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The Dayton Trebuchet In this lesson, students will design a working trebuchet for maximum accuracy, distance and force using the engineering design process. Students will utilize the measurement formulas to calculate kinetic and potential energy and therefore create a trebuchet for a specific function (ex. Hitting a target, knocking down a wall or launching for…
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