Lesson Plans (Page 3)

Defining an Engineering Design Problem with Paper Airplanes

Lesson Plan Grade: 3rd-5th

1

2

3

4

5

3 reviews

Are paper airplanes a nuisance in your classroom? They don't have to be! Those distractions can be a constructive learning opportunity: use them to teach your students about the engineering design process. In this fun lesson, you will be the "customer" ordering a paper airplane, and your student teams will be engineering companies that will manufacture planes. Before they start making planes, they need to define the criteria and constraints of this engineering problem. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.

Sustainability: Reduce Your Environmental Impact!

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

Global warming, pollution, and deforestation are just a few examples of how human actions affect our planet. How can we reduce our impact on the environment? In this lesson, students will find out by using an online tool called Your Plan, Your Planet. Based on their findings, students will come up with their own action plans aimed at reducing their personal ecological footprint and assess its effectiveness after implementation. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-ESS3-3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.

Tallest Paper Tower Challenge for Grades 3-5

Lesson Plan Grade: 3rd-5th

Teach your students about the engineering design process with this fun lesson plan. They will design and build the tallest possible tower using nothing but paper and tape, but there's an additional twist on this classic activity. The tower must support a heavy weight at the top without collapsing! Teachers, note that middle school and high school versions of this lesson plan are also available. The 2021 Fluor Engineering Challenge is over, but you can still try this fun lesson with your… Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

Investigate Alien Genetics

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

1

2

3

4

5

1 review

In this lesson, students will model how traits are passed on from parents to their offspring by creating baby aliens based on their parents' traits. As students compare the physical features of their alien families, they will be able to make the connection between an organism's genotype and phenotype. Students will also learn the difference between dominant and recessive traits. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-LS3-2. Develop and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation.

Tallest Paper Tower Challenge for Grades 6-8

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

Teach your students about the engineering design process with this fun lesson plan. They will design and build the tallest possible tower using nothing but paper and tape, but there's an additional twist on this classic activity. The tower must support a heavy weight at the top without collapsing! Teachers, note that elementary and high school versions of this lesson plan are also available. The 2021 Fluor Engineering Challenge is over, but you can still try out this fun challenge with your… Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Building Junkbots—Robots from Recycled Materials

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

1

2

3

4

5

1 review

Junkbots are easy-to-build robots that you can make using a simple circuit and some recyclable materials. In this lesson, your students will learn about engineering design as they compete to build the fastest robot. No previous robotics experience is required! Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Sustainability: How Our Actions Affect the Environment

Lesson Plan Grade: 5th

1

2

3

4

5

1 review

How do our everyday actions contribute to our ecological footprint? Can we change our individual actions to be more environmentally friendly and create a more sustainable lifestyle? In this lesson, students will evaluate their own environmental impact using an online tool called Your Plan, Your Planet, and evaluate simple ways to reduce their ecological footprint as an individual or community. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment.

Circulatory System: Where Would a Vampire Bite You?

Video Lesson Grade: 4th

In this lesson, students will learn about the circulatory system and build a simple model to investigate blood flow in different types of blood vessels. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

4-LS1-1. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Solar-Powered Cars for Junior Solar Sprints

Lesson Plan Grade: 5th-8th

Help your students learn about solar energy, physical forces, and other science topics with this hands-on engineering experience. This lesson plan will show you how to get your classroom started building solar-powered cars that your students can enter, if desired, in regional Junior Solar Sprint competitions. No previous experience with electronics or building things is necessary. Get the dates and location for your regional competition. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

Build a Recycling-Sorting Machine

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

In this lesson plan, your students will build their own recycling sorting machines that use various methods, like magnets or puffs of air, to separate shreds of paper from paper clips. This lesson is inspired by the real-world engineering challenge of separating various materials, like paper, plastic, and metals, that get combined in single-stream recycling programs. Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-PS2-3. Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
MS-PS2-5. Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.
MS-ETS1-2. Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Lesson Plans (213 results)

Explore Our Science Videos