Grades K-1: It’s a Jungle Out There: Seeing Animal Sounds
Bring new excitement to the study of sound as you introduce students to acoustical engineering. The story book Kwame’s Sound introduces a young drummer from Ghana who is blind; his father, an acoustical engineer, shows Kwame that sound is vibration and can be represented with both visual symbols (such as musical notation and spectrograms) and tactile symbols. Hands-on, student–centered activities lead students to explore the properties of volume and pitch, investigate ways to damp sound, and develop their own novel way to represent the key elements of sound.
Grades 2-3: What’s Buggin’ You?: Designing Hand Pollinators
Insects pollinate many kinds of plants. What if the right insects aren’t around to do the work? As an agricultural engineer, what would you do? The storybook Mariana Becomes a Butterfly shows how one girl solves a pollination problem. Learning along with Mariana, students become agricultural engineers who have to solve a real-world challenge. They’ll apply their knowledge of insects, insect life cycles, pollination, and natural systems as they test a variety of materials, then engineer their own technologies for pollinating plants by hand.
Grades 4-6: The Attraction is Obvious: Designing Maglev System
Transportation engineering comes alive. Introduce students to engineering as they learn how innovative “maglev” or magnetic levitation trains move by using magnets instead of wheels. The technological innovation behind these trains makes relevant, real-world connections for students as they send magnets sailing, help magnets hover, and poke around magnetic fields. With their new insights into the science of magnets, students will use the engineering design process to design, test, and improve their own tabletop maglev transportation systems—just like the character in the storybook Hikaru’s Toy Troubles.