Engineering Teacher Resources
Engineers solve problems. As a STEM teacher in the 21st century, you guide students to solve problems every day. Meet the next generation of engineers!
Get their creative minds working with elementary engineering projects, such as a popsicle stick bridge activity or a Play-Doh circuit project. A NASA lesson encourages young engineers to design their own rocket launch platform, while sports fans can predict and test bounce heights of various balls.
Looking for something else? You’ll find it in a full unit plan on elementary STEM construction and engineering activities.
Challenge middle and high schoolers with a soda can steam engine project to practice the principles of steam engines. Have them control variables to a virtual heat machine to find the most efficient setup—and then show a video on the second law of thermodynamics that explains how they can never create an engine that reaches 100% efficiency.
Connect engineering with biology in a project that uses biomimicry as a model for student projects. You can also explore the future of genetic engineering, including its benefits and risks, with an informative science video.
Just like the advances of engineering, the instructional possibilities are endless. Use our teacher-selected resources as inspiration or download them directly for implementation. The future is here—and Lesson Planet is, too!
Showing 1 - 24 of 7,188 resources
Lesson Planet
The Engineering Process
Discover the ins and outs of the engineering process from Crash Course Kids series of 17 informative and engaging videos. Each video offers insightful details into the world of engineering, captivating animation, and kid-friendly humor...
Lesson Planet
Adventure Engineering Challenge: Asteroid Impact
Oh, no! An asteroid is on a collision course with Earth!. The challenge, should your students choose to accept it, is to design underground survival caverns to shelter people for one year. Over the course of eight lessons, engineering...
Lesson Planet
Environmental Engineering and Water Chemistry
Introduce young scientists to the fundamentals of environmental engineering with a nine-resource collection that looks at air, land, and water quality concerns. The unit begins with a PowerPoint presentation that provides background...
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STEM Ed Hub: Design Resources
Engineering design-based activities make learning science fun. Young engineers design dams, lifeguard chairs, musical instruments, candy bags, and much more. They also use measurement skills to solve the mystery of the missing pin. Each...
Lesson Planet
Up, Up and Away! - Airplanes
Oh, if only Sir Isaac and Bernoulli could see us now. Even Orville and Wilbur would be amazed by what engineers have designed using their ideas. Next generation engineers put these principles to use as they use what they learn about...
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Life Science
Photosynthesis, extinction, biomimicry, and bioremediation. Young environmental engineers study these processes. Using photosynthesis as a model and biomimicry as an example, groups research how nature provides hints for engineering...
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Simple Machines
A collection of five lessons and activities introduce young engineers to simple and compound machines. Groups use the engineering design process to design a Rube Goldberg machine to move a circus elephant into a rail car, a pulley system...
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Plate Tectonics
Young geologists examine evidence scientists have gathered to develop the Theory of Plate Tectonics. They explore how tectonic events are monitored and how future events can be predicted. The unit concludes with groups investigating how...
Lesson Planet
Finding the Best Sites
Here's a great five-part unit plan for the youngest learners on Internet safety and ettiquette. Kids learn the difference between a safe site and an unsafe one, explore how their digital footprint is created, discuss cyberbullying, and...
EngageNY
EngageNY Grade 9 ELA: Module 3, Unit 2
Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation provides the anchor text in an inquiry-based unit project that requires ninth graders to use sophisticated research skills. Learners focus on accurate search engine techniques including searching...
Lesson Planet
Crash Course Navigating Digital Information
In an age when so much information is delivered online, media literacy skills are essential. John Green's Crash Course on Navigating Digital Information provides 21st-century learners with the skills they need to help them evaluate the...
Lesson Planet
Evolution and Speciation
A collection of five Nature League videos explores evolution and speciation. Four evolution types, in-breeding, out-breeding, and how engineers have designed technology, household items, and medicines inspired by nature. Host Britt...
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The Science of Food
Alchemy in the kitchen? A nine-resource collection explains the science behind the food chain. Videos and support materials cover everything from yummy things like cheese, to chocolate, to sourdough bread, from science topics like...
Lesson Planet
Weather and Atmosphere
Weather engineers have come a long way in designing technology that provides advanced warnings of severe weather. Six lessons and six activities make up a collection of resources that teach middle schoolers about weather and weather...
Lesson Planet
Sustainable Design and Biomimicry in a Desert Ecosystem
Challenge young engineers to design a sustainable guest village in Arizona’s Saguaro National Park. A collection of four lessons and five activities provide designers with all the information they need to complete the challenge of living...
Lesson Planet
The Physics of Fluid Mechanics
In this collection, Pascal’s law, Archimedes’ Principle, and Bernoulli’s Principle aid young engineers in understanding the physics of fluid mechanics. Armed with the knowledge of how forces are applied to fluids, scholars design...
Lesson Planet
The Tech Challenge 2016 lessons
Challenge young flight engineers to design a flying device for Ant-Man, balloon crafts that have neutral buoyancy, paper airplanes from different types of paper, hoop gliders, and a launcher for ping pong balls. Although designed for the...
Lesson Planet
Design Squad Event Guide
Everything you need to plan an event for young engineers can be found in an Event Guide that includes activities, an event checklist, tips for working with youth and volunteers, signage, certificates, and an evaluation form. Kids make a...
Lesson Planet
Design Squad: Invent It, Build It
Challenge budding engineers with a collection of six activities that are designed to meet the National Science Education Standards and the ITEA National Study of Technology Content Standards. Kids invent solutions for needs in everyday...
Lesson Planet
Solar vs. Wind Energy
Power up! A series of six lessons introduce middle schoolers to the different types of energy. PowerPoints, activities, and hands-on experiments teach young electrical engineers the difference between energy and power, as well as the...
Lesson Planet
Mixtures and Solutions
Engineers must consider the properties of matter when designing new things like synthetic materials, medicines, cleaning solutions, devices, and structures. To prepare for this new world, brave young engineers examine the fundamentals of...
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Little Digital Citizens
It's never too early to learn the basics of internet safety and citizenship. Designed with the youngest scholars in mind, this five-part unit from Common Sense Media includes everything you will need to explore safe internet exploration,...
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ScienceWeb Australia: Years 9-10
Science Web Australia presents a collection of three units designed for English speaking high schoolers and utilizing resources available online. The first unit focuses on ecosystems, the second on plate tectonics, and the third on the...
Lesson Planet
Middle School Internet 101
Looking for ways to help middle school students understand their role as digital citizens? Look no further—this five-part unit walks learners through creator's rights, searching strategies, scam awareness, more. They (and you!) will love...
