Women in Engineering and
Program Advocates Network (WEPAN)
http://www.wepan.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=38
Hands-on activities to introduce middle school students
to engineering. Topics include food packaging, amusement
park rides, fabrics, communication devices, and sneaker
engineering.
How Stuff Works
http://www.howstuffworks.com
A great site for explanations of how things work. Provides
good explanations of general engineering concepts, such as How
Gears Work, How Gear Ratios Work, and How Differentials Work.
Women in Engineering Lesson Plan Resources
http://www.engineering.tufts.edu/wieo/k12-lesson.htm
A compilation of lesson plan resources on engineering. Topics
include light, lasers, optics, gears, and electricity.
LEGO/Logo
http://www.robotbooks.com/Lego-Mindstorms.htm
LEGO/Logo combines LEGO building materials and the Logo programming
language. Students begin by building robots out of LEGO pieces---including
not only the familiar LEGO blocks, but also LEGO gears, motors,
and sensors. Then students write Logo computer programs to control
the machines that they have built.
Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy
http://www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/education/roboticscurriculum/index.html
Available in English or Spanish, this school robotics curriculum
is in depth coverage of the concepts involved in building and
programming a robot.
Tufts Center for Engineering Educational
Outreach Curriculum
http://www.ceeo.tufts.edu/robolabatceeo/k12
An encyclopedia of LEGO part names and uses, building and
programming hints, and physics concepts. Provides classroom activities
and curriculum ideas using LEGO and Robolab to help teach subjects
from science and engineering to reading and art are available
for download.
Bridge Building Curricula
A large amount of curricula are online for bridge building curriculum, activities,
and resources. Here are some of the Web sites:
Yale-New Have Teachers Institute
http://www.yale-university.com/ynhti/curriculum/
units/2001/5/01.05.04.x.html
Design Tips for Kids
http://www.abcdpittsburgh.org/kids/kids.htm
Discovery School
http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/pdf
/stableandunstable/stableandunstable.pdf
Bridge Building Lab Manual
http://education.sdsc.edu/download/enrich/bridges.pdf
