Third Grade, Mechanical Engineering Science Projects (17 results)

Try your hand at this engineering challenge. Can you build a "launcher" device to launch a ball as far as possible and a "receiver" to catch it? Building a receiver provides an extra twist to a traditional catapult project. Add to the challenge by using a limited set of materials to build your machine and calculate a score based on your throw distance and materials used. Read more

Can you build a volleyball machine? It will need one part to launch a ping pong ball over a net and another to return the ball. How many back-and-forth volleys can you get before the ball touches the ground? While the 2019 Fluor Engineering Challenge is over, you can still try this fun project out yourself. Follow the rules and compare your score to top scores from around the world! Looking for this year's challenge? Check out our main Fluor Engineering Challenge page for all the latest… Read more

Look around you. What types of objects do you see in the room? Furniture, lights, a computer, a fan, pencils, books, etc.? Where did they come from? Odds are you did not build them yourself. You or your parents probably bought them at a store. Before that, they were built in a factory somewhere. And even before that, they were probably designed by engineers. You might think of engineers when you think of complex machines like rockets or huge structures like bridges, but engineers also design… Read more

If you have ever been shot with a rubber band then you know it has energy in it, enough energy to smack you in the arm and cause a sting! But just how much energy does a rubber band have? In this experiment you will find out how the stretching of a rubber band affects the amount of energy that springs out of it. Read more

If you were in a raiding army in the Middle Ages, a catapult would come in mighty handy for taking down castle walls. But only if you could aim it reliably! With this science project, you will try your hand at catapult technology. Using a rubber-band-powered catapult you will send ping pong balls flying through the air. The catapult's design makes it easy to measure and repeat how hard the ball is launched and its direction, so you can find the right catapult settings to hit the target reliably. Read more

Amaze your friends and family by moving water with just a few turns of your wrist! Nope, it's not a magic trick. It's simply an Archimedes screw. In this science project, you will build a very simple pump, called an Archimedes screw, to transfer water from a low-lying location to a higher location. Read more

In this cricket-inspired engineering challenge, you will build a machine to launch a ball and knock down a target (called a wicket). How many times can you knock down the wicket in three minutes? Follow the contest rules to try it out and enter the 2020 Fluor Engineering Challenge! Available in Spanish (Español). Teachers, lesson plan versions of this challenge are also available. Read more

What are some of the ways we keep track of time? We have alarm clocks, wristwatches, and cell-phone clocks, to name a few. Just a few hundred years ago, our ancestors did not have any of these conveniences, yet they found ways to tell time. How? By using devices such as water clocks. In this science project, you will follow in the footsteps of early engineers and build a water clock that tracks time for three hours. Read more

Why do so many people use cell phone cases? Do cell phones really need the extra protection, or is it just because cases look fancy? In this engineering science project, you will test the durability of calculators instead of cell phones, find out if cases increase the durability of the device, and build some of your own cases that do! Read more

"Hey kids, step right up! Toss this ball and win a prize!" shouts the carny barker. Sounds easy enough—until you try it. Why are those "simple" games at the fairs, carnivals, and boardwalks so hard? Is it really lack of skill or coordination or do those concessionaires use some basic laws of science to help them set up the games in their favor? This science fair project can help you find out for yourself. Read more