Flash to the Finish In this unit, students will be dropped in a random location in Hawaii. They must design the most effective route for participants to meet at a central finish point. They will need to know their surroundings and understand various topographic features of the land. Students will focus on the characteristics of…
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Reinvention: From Rubbish to Recyclable Humans create more garbage than is recycled or reused. As a result, landfills are growing in size and number worldwide, many of which are approaching capacity. This presents a significant risk to Earth’s environment as we know it. Though recycling infrastructure and participation have grown around the world, there is…
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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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“Excel”ing After The Apocalypse Congratulations! You are one of the chosen few! The challenge: keep surviving! You are being sent to one of the government-designed pods. Everyone in the biosphere has been thoroughly screened and their job assigned. You have been assigned to the civil engineering team and must determine how the land will be…
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(S.O.S.) Save Our Snowman Have you ever wanted to save a snowman and make it last forever? In this unit the question is posed, “Do you want to keep your snowman?” Students explore the physical properties of materials and how matter can change. More specifically, students explore how the physical properties of water change. When…
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Rockin’ Music Box As Beethoven once said, “Music can change the world.” In this unit, student design teams use the Engineering Design Process to design a musical instrument that can play Hot Cross Buns. This instrument and its associated design are made with the intent of providing access to music for underprivileged children in diverse…
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Sunshades and Shadows Students participate in hands-on inquiry-based centers and guided activities to increase their knowledge of shadows and light. Students explore and manipulate light, using a light source to simulate the sun at various times of day and observe shadows, create and measure shadows, and test how various types of media block light. Students…
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Mars Rover: Can You Hear Me? Can You See Me? As we proceed into the future, space exploration is becoming an essential part of our own growth as humans. Space exploration requires innovative, creative, adaptable people to develop the technology necessary for these grand endeavors into new environments. Specifically, the first settlers on Mars will…
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Protecting Precious Cargo In most car accidents, the bumper is the first point of impact and defense. The better the bumper is designed, the less possibility for damage and injury. Impact barriers, such as the barrels you see at a highway exit or the barriers separating oncoming traffic, are also important for limiting vehicle damage…
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Droppin’ the Beat In this unit, students explore the ways to dampen, mask, or stop a sound wave from propagating into a system (or material) and the surrounding environment. Students research and explore how sound waves are propagated and transmitted through various media. In the engineering design challenge, students will use their acquired knowledge to…
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