With the challenge to program computers to mimic the human reaction after touching a hot object, students program LEGO® robots to "react" and move back quickly once their touch sensors bump into something. By relating human senses to electronic sensors used in robots, students see the similarities between the human brain and its engineering counterpart, the computer, and come to better understand the functioning of sensors in both applications. They apply an understanding of the human "stimulus-sensor-coordinator-effector-response" framework to logically understand human and robot actions.

Students experience the engineering design process as they design, fabricate, test and redesign their own methods for encapsulation of a (hypothetical) new miracle drug. As if they are engineers, teams make large-size prototypes to test proof of concept. They use household materials (tape, paper towels, plastic wrap, weed-barrier fabric, glues, etc.) to attach a coating to a porous "shell" (a perforated plastic Wiffle® ball) containing the medicine (colored drink mix powder). The objective is to delay the drug release by a certain time and have a long release duration—patterned after the timed release requirements of many real-world pharmaceuticals that are released from a polymer shell via diffusion in the body. Guided by a worksheet, teams go through at least three design/test iterations, aiming to achieve a solution close to the target time release constraints.

Students learn about glaucoma its causes, how it affects individuals and how biomedical engineers can identify factors that trigger or cause this eye disease, specifically the increase of pressure in the eye. Students also learn how RFID technologies transfer energy through waves and how engineers apply their scientific understanding of waves, energy and sensors to develop devices that measure the pressure in the eyes of people with glaucoma. Students conclude by sketching their own designs for a pressure-measuring eye device, preparing them to conduct the associated activity in which they revise, prototype and evaluate their device designs made tangible with a 3D printer.

Prior to reaching households, water is exposed to a variety of treatments designed to render it fit for human consumption and use. One of the first treatment steps is the removal of suspended solids using chemical additives called flocculants. In this activity, students learn about two commonly used flocculants and clean water collected from a local pond or river. They experiment with flocculant, stirring and pH variables.

Students show their creativity and think like engineers as they design products or services that can be used to improve environmental problems in the community. While being aware of the steps of the engineering design process, students are challenged to consider all aspects of their products/services, including their costs, and impacts on the environment and people in their communities. They present their "green" solutions, in the form of advertisements, to the class for critical review of their feasibility.

Students learn basic concepts of robotic logic and programming by working with Boe-Bot robots—a simple programmable robotic platform designed to illustrate basic robotic concepts. Under the guidance of the instructor and a provided lab manual, student groups build simple circuits and write codes to make their robots perform a variety of tasks, including obstacle and light detection, line following and other motion routines. Eight sub-activities focus on different sensors, including physical sensors, phototransistors and infrared headlights. Students test their newly acquired skills in the final activity, in which they program their robots to navigate an obstacle course.

Student teams conduct an experiment that uses gold nanoparticles as sensors of chemical agents to determine which of four sports drinks has the most electrolytes. In this way, students are introduced to gold nanoparticles and their influence on particle or cluster size and fluorescence. They also learn about surface plasmon resonance phenomena and how it applies to gold nanoparticle technologies, which touches on the basics of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum, electrolyte chemistry and nanoscience. Using some basic chemistry and physics principles, students develop a conceptual understanding of how gold nanoparticles function. They also learn of important practical applications in biosensing.

In this activity, students will review and evaluate the ways land is covered and used in their local community. They will also consider the environmental effects of the different types of land use. Students will act as community planning engineers to determine where to place a new structure that will have the least effect on the environment.

In this activity, students work as engineers to build and observe a model landfill. They will understand the process and pitfalls of the use of landfills as a method for the waste disposal.

Students are introduced to an engineering challenge in which they are given a job assignment to separate three types of apples. However, they are unable to see the color differences between the apples, and as a result, they must think as engineers to design devices that can be used to help them distinguish the apples from one another. Solving the challenge depends on an understanding of wave properties and the biology of sight. After being introduced to the challenge, students form ideas and brainstorm about what background knowledge is required to solve the challenge. A class discussion produces student ideas that can be grouped into broad subject categories: waves and wave properties, light and the electromagnetic spectrum, and the structure of the eye.

In this lesson, students begin to focus on the torque associated with a current carrying loop in a magnetic field. Students are prompted with example problems and use diagrams to visualize the vector product. In addition, students learn to calculate the energy of this loop in the magnetic field. Several example problems are included and completed as a class. A homework assignment is also attached as a means of student assessment.

To learn about the concept of center of mass, students examine how objects balance. They make symmetrical cut-outs of different "creatures" and experiment with how they balance on a tightrope of string. Students see the concept of center of mass at work as the creatures balance.

Students are introduced to the engineering design process, focusing on the concept of brainstorming design alternatives. They learn that engineering is about designing creative ways to improve existing artifacts, technologies or processes, or developing new inventions that benefit society. Students come to realize that they can be engineers and use the design process themselves to create tomorrow's innovations.

Students strengthen their communicate skills about measurements by learning the meaning of base units and derived units, including speed one of the most common derived units (distance/time). Working in groups, students measure the time for LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots to move a certain distance. The robots are started and stopped via touch sensors and programmed to display the distance traveled. Using their collected data, students complete a worksheet to calculate the robots' (mean/average) speeds at given motor powers.

The Tippy Tap hand-washing station is an inexpensive and effective device used extensively in the developing world. One shortcoming of the homemade device is that it must be manually refilled with water and therefore is of limited use in high-traffic areas. In this activity, student teams design, prototype and test piping systems to transport water from a storage tank to an existing Tippy Tap hand-washing station, thereby creating a more efficient hand-washing station. Through this example service-learning engineering project, students learn basic fluid dynamic principles that are needed for creating efficient piping systems.

Students reflect on their experiences making silly putty (the previous hands-on activity in the unit), especially why changing the borax concentration alters the mechanical properties of silly putty and how this pertains to tissue mechanics. Students learn why engineers must understand tissue mechanics in order to design devices that will be implanted or used inside bodies, to study pathologies of tissues and how this alters tissue function, and to design prosthetics. Finally, students learn about collagen, elastin and proteoglycans and their roles in giving body tissues their unique functions. This prepares them for the culminating design-build-test activity of the unit.

This is the last of five sound lessons, and it introduces acoustics as the science of studying and controlling sound. Students learn how different materials reflect and absorb sound.

Students are introduced to various types of energy with a focus on thermal energy and types of heat transfer as they are challenged to design a better travel thermos that is cost efficient, aesthetically pleasing and meets the design objective of keeping liquids hot. They base their design decisions on material properties such thermal conductivity, cost and function. These engineering and science concepts are paired with student experiences to build an understanding of heat transfer as it plays a role in their day-to-day lives. While this introduction only shows the top-level concepts surrounding the mathematics associated with heat transfer; the skills become immediately useful as students apply what they know to solve an engineering challenge.

In this activity, students learn how engineers design faucets. Students will learn about water pressure by building a simple system to model faucets and test the relationship between pressure, area and force. This is a great outdoor activity on a warm day.

Through a series of activities, students discover that the concept of mechanical advantage describes reality fairly well. They act as engineers creating a design for a ramp at a construction site by measuring four different inclined planes and calculating the ideal mechanical advantage versus the actual mechanical advantage of each. Then, they use their analysis to make recommendations for the construction site.