Students will use the Engineering Design Process to develop experiments to test various colors, the behavior of light, and different materials to see how these materials affect the speed of the solar car. Students will adapt a basic solar-powered vehicle in order to control the car’s speed. Students will work in Engineering Design Teams to…
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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 is Wright Patterson Air Force Base, a dry cleaner, and a corporate farm. Students will investigate contaminants from each of…
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Microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, are a crucial, yet little understood part of our everyday lives. MEMS are very small devices which can be found in printers, air bags, smartphones, game controllers, TVs, and many other types of household items. This STEM unit will introduce students to the world of MEMS through a very important type of MEMS –…
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Student teams are challenged to create an energy-free speaker system for any hand-held device. In order to effectively complete the design challenge, students will explore the wave behaviors and transfer of energy in a sound wave. Students will also analyze the volume of the device and the speaker system as solid figures. Students will study…
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Working people, school children, and others pack meals to take with them that will be eaten later in the day, however there may not be access to refrigeration or the capability to heat their food. Students will design and build a lunchbox that will maintain two different temperatures in different sections of the lunchbox. Students…
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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 layered soil arrangement (soil…
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Student teams engineer a computer program that sorts rocks bas on properties in order to identify a specific rock within a Rock Family. Teams identify properties of rocks, then utilize a dichotomous key to sort them by the properties. Students collaboratively engineer a PowerPoint with guiding questions to identify each rock type; thereby, generating a…
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Visitors to schools in underdeveloped countries have found that students suffer from a lack of technology. Some students do not even have access to a flat surface on which to write. Service groups and industries in the United States, have shown interest in providing learning materials for students of such schools. When groups ship materials overseas,…
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Student teams utilize the engineering process to build an eco-friendly, cost-effective packaging prototype for shipping products. In order to effectively complete the design challenge, students research recyclable packaging options for diminishing the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill. Teams follow the engineering design process to design a prototype, and utilize a Decision Analysis…
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In this 7th grade unit, student teams design and construct a small/micro-scale symbiotic aquaponic system that can be used by populations lacking natural resources needed to provide and cultivate a sustainable, nutrient-rich food source. This unit engages students in participating in an engineering design challenge in which they create a viable farming method consisting of…
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