Students learn about the importance of dams by watching a video that presents historical and current information on dams, as well as descriptions of global water resources and the hydrologic cycle. Students also learn about different types of dams, all designed to resist the forces on dams. (If the free, 15-minute "Water and Dams in Today's World" video cannot be obtained in time, the lesson can still be taught. See the Additional Multimedia Support section for how to obtain the DVD or VHS videotape, or a PowerPoint presentation with similar content [also attached].)

Through a series of three lessons and one activity, students are introduced to inertia, forces and Newton's three laws of motion. For each lesson, a combination of class demonstrations and PowerPoint® presentations are used to explain, show and relate the concepts to engineering. Lesson 1 starts with inertia, forces and Newton's first law of motion. Lesson 2 builds on lesson 1 with s review and then introduces Newton's second law of motion. Lesson 3 builds on the previous two lessons with a review and then introduces Newton's third law of motion. In a culminating activity, students apply their knowledge of forces, friction, acceleration and gravity in an experiment to measure the average acceleration of a textbook pulled along a table by varying weights, and then test the effects of friction on different surfaces.

Students are introduced to the concepts of force, inertia and Newton's first law of motion: objects at rest stay at rest and objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Examples of contact and non-contact types of forces are provided, specifically applied, spring, drag, frictional forces, and magnetic, electric, gravitational forces. Students learn the difference between speed, velocity and acceleration, and come to see that the change in motion (or acceleration) of an object is caused by unbalanced forces. They also learn that engineers consider and take advantage of these forces and laws of motion in their designs. Through a PowerPoint® presentation and some simple teacher demonstrations these fundamental science concepts are explained and illustrated. This lesson is the first in a series of three lessons that are intended to be taught as a unit.

Students are introduced to Newton's second law of motion: force = mass x acceleration. After a review of force, types of forces and Newton's first law, Newton's second law of motion is presented. Both the mathematical equation and physical examples are discussed, including Atwood's Machine to illustrate the principle. Students come to understand that an object's acceleration depends on its mass and the strength of the unbalanced force acting upon it. They also learn that Newton's second law is commonly used by engineers as they design machines, structures and products, everything from towers and bridges to bicycles, cribs and pinball machines. This lesson is the second in a series of three lessons that are intended to be taught as a unit.

Students begin to explore the idea of a force. To further their understanding of drag, gravity and weight, they conduct activities that model the behavior of parachutes and helicopters. An associated literacy activity engages the class to recreate the Wright brothers' first flight in the style of the "You Are There" television series.

Students will use an inquiry based approach to discover and reinforce how things move. They will discover that a push and a pull are a pair of forces that put things into motion. They will also investigate how friction is a force that slows an object in motion.

Students will use an inquiry based approach to discover and reinforce how things move. They will discover that a push and a pull are a pair of forces that put things into motion. They will also investigate how friction is a force that slows an object in motion.

In this open-ended design activity, students use everyday materials milk cartons, water bottles, pencils, straws, candy to build small-scale transportation devices. They incorporate the use two simple machines a wheel and axle, and a lever into their designs. Student pairs choose their materials and engineer solutions suitable to convey pyramid-building materials (small blocks of clay). They race their carts/trucks, measuring distance, time and weight; and then calculate speed.

Mike Rettberg demonstrates Newton's Laws to his 8th grade science class by rolling a cart containing an egg into a barrier and crashing it. In the process, students learn difficult terms that are reinforced by their discussion of which Laws they are seeing in action.

In this activity, students use mathematics to understand tides and gravitation and how gravity works across astronomical distances, using an apparatus made from a slinky, meter stick, and a hook. A description of the mathematical relationships seen in the demonstration is included. The resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

Investigating a waterwheel illustrates to students the physical properties of energy. They learn that the concept of work, force acting over a distance, differs from power, which is defined as force acting over a distance over some period of time. Students create a model waterwheel and use it to calculate the amount of power produced and work done.

David shows how the area under a force vs. position graph equals the work done by the force and solves some sample problems. Created by David SantoPietro.

David goes through some example problems on the concept of work. Created by David SantoPietro.

In addition to the associated lesson, this activity functions as a summative assessment for the Using Stress and Strain to Detect Cancer unit. In this activity, students will create a 1-D strain plot in Microsoft Excel depicting the location of a breast tumor amidst healthy tissue. The results of this activity will function as proof of the accuracy and reliability of the students' breast cancer detection design.