Grades K-1: Playdough Mixology: ​Improving Playdough

Child’s play. If you’ve ever followed a recipe, you know that the amount of each ingredient and the order in which you mix them matters. ​Chemical engineers​ use these same principles when designing processes. When students read the storybook Michelle’s MVP Award,​ they learn about a girl who designs a better way to make play dough. The activities in this unit reinforce the science concepts “solid” and “liquid” as students explore the properties of different materials—and the properties of mixtures of materials. The final engineering design challenge? Think like a chemical engineer and design a process for making high-quality play dough.

Grades 2-3: Catching the Wind: ​Designing Windmills

Did you know that ​mechanical engineers​ design anything with moving parts? Help your students think like mechanical engineers—and use their understanding of air as wind—to design and create wind-powered machines. The storybook ​Leif Catches the Wind​ introduces students to wind turbines that generate renewable energy. Students will study how common machines such as mechanical pencils and egg beaters work, then use their mechanical engineering skills to solve a real world challenge as they design sailboats and windmills that catch the wind.

Grades 4-6: 1-2-3 Jump​: Designing Parachutes

Ready to think like an engineer? A Long Way Down: Designing Parachutes introduces students to aerospace engineering​—and how drag (air resistance) and conditions , like temperature, atmosphere, and surface of a planet all impact outcomes. Students learn how aerospace engineers use their knowledge of astronomy to design space technologies. Starting with the storybook Paulo’s Parachute Mission, ​students follow a boy from Brazil as he designs a parachute to solve a problem—to get a large, heavy fruit down from a tree. Like Paulo, students learn how to use knowledge to design a solution to a challenge. The storybook features a diverse set of characters and settings to help make engineering more accessible to learners of all backgrounds.