Students gain an understanding of the factors that affect wind turbine operation. Following the steps of the engineering design process, engineering teams use simple materials (cardboard and wooden dowels) to build and test their own turbine blade prototypes with the objective of maximizing electrical power output for a hypothetical situation—helping scientists power their electrical devices while doing research on a remote island. Teams explore how blade size, shape, weight and rotation interact to achieve maximal performance, and relate the power generated to energy consumed on a scale that is relevant to them in daily life. A PowerPoint® presentation, worksheet and post-activity test are provided.

Testing is critical to any design, whether the creation of new software or a bridge across a wide river. Despite risking the quality of the design, the testing stage is often hurried in order to get products to market. In this lesson, students focus on the testing phase of the software/systems design process. They start by exploring existing examples of program testing using the CodingBat website, which contains a series of problems and challenges that students solve using the Java programming language. Working in teams, students practice writing test cases for other groups' code, and then write test cases for a program before writing the program itself.

In this interactive activity from the Building Big Web site, think like an engineer and use your knowledge of dome design to match the right type of dome to the right location in a fictitious city.

In this activity, students use the binary number system to transmit messages. Two flashlights are used to demonstrate how astronomy spacecraft to transmit images and other scientific data to Earth. This activity is part of Unit 4 in the Space Based Astronomy guide that contains background information, worksheets, assessments, extensions, and standards.

In this activity, students simulate how light collected from a space object converts into binary data and reconverts into an image of the object. A pencil and paper activity demonstrates how astronomical spacecraft and computers create images of objects in space. This activity is part of Unit 4 in the Space Based Astronomy guide that contains background information, worksheets, assessments, extensions, and standards.

Students practice creating rudimentary detail drawings. They learn how engineers communicate the technical information about their designs using the basic components of detail drawings. They practice creating their own drawings of a three-dimensional block and a special LEGO piece, and then make 3D sketches of an unknown object using only the information provided in its detail drawing.

Students use a compass and a permanent magnet to trace the magnetic field lines produced by the magnet. By positioning the compass in enough spots around the magnet, the overall magnet field will be evident from the collection of arrows representing the direction of the compass needle. In activities 3 and 4 of this unit, students will use this information to design a way to solve the grand challenge of separating metal for a recycling company.

This Super Lesson utilizes Project Based Learning to assist learners with designing, building, and testing flying contraptions as an introduction to Engineering. The goal of this project is to engage students in collaborative team work and to introduce students to the Science and Engineering Practices: Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Planning and Carrying Out Investigations, and Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions.

We have offered this Super Lesson as an 8-week elective course, developing and strengthening student interest in applied Math and Science topics. It could also be offered within upper elementary or middle school Science and Math courses. In addition, each week’s topic could be used as a stand alone mini-lesson if time is limited. We have worked to include multiple options within this unit to make it accessible to both general education and special education programs, including recommendations for modifications and extensions.

In this video adapted from ANDRILL, find out how geoscientists get through more than a dozen football fields of ice and water in order to study the rock and sediment beneath Antarctica.

This course deals with the design of drinking water treatment plants. We discuss theory and design exercises.

This movie provides an 18-minute introduction to how NASA is observing our ever-changing planet. On the The Dynamic Earth DVD Web page you can download the video as an iPod or iPhone version, as well as an AppleTV/Full resolution version, and access a glossary and links to related Web sites.

Introduction to dynamics and vibration of lumped-parameter models of mechanical systems. Three-dimensional particle kinematics. Force-momentum formulation for systems of particles and for rigid bodies (direct method). Newton-Euler equations. Work-energy (variational) formulation for systems particles and for rigid bodies (indirect method). Virtual displacements and work. Lagrange’s equations for systems of particles and for rigid bodies. Linearization of equations of motion. Linear stability analysis of mechanical systems. Free and forced vibration of linear damped lumped parameter multi-degree of freedom models of mechanical systems. Application to the design of ocean and civil engineering structures such as tension leg platforms.
This subject was originally offered in Course 13 (Department of Ocean Engineering) as 13.013J. In 2005, ocean engineering became part of Course 2 (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and this subject merged with 2.003.

Instructional materials for the course "ENGR 1110: Engineering Graphics" include videos, assignments, slides, and drawings on the following topics: engineering graphics and scales, orthographic views, isometric views, dimensioning, section views, AutoCAD, layers, colors, mirrors, fillet, arrays, chamfer, blocks, Fusion 360, sheet metal modeling, tracing, textures, lofting and more.

Instructional materials for the course "ENTC 2160: Architectural CAD" include videos demonstrating how to create CAD drawings and use CAD tools. Videos cover the following topics: exterior walls, interior walls, doors, windows, dimensioning, linetypes, electrical, slab, stairs, hatching, fireplaces, and roofing.

Instructional materials for the course "ENTC 2170: Computer Aided Design and Drafting" include videos, assignments, slides, and drawings on the following topics: engineering graphics and scales, orthographic views, isometric views, dimensioning, section views, AutoCAD, layers, colors, mirrors, fillet, arrays, chamfer, blocks, Fusion 360, sheet metal modeling, tracing, textures, lofting and more.

Ground shaking is the primary cause of earthquake damage to man-made structures. This exercise combines three related activities on the topic of shaking-induced ground instability: a ground shaking amplification demonstration, a seismic landslides demonstration, and a liquefaction experiment. The amplitude of ground shaking is affected by the type of near-surface rocks and soil. Earthquake ground shaking can cause even gently sloping areas to slide when those same areas would be stable under normal conditions. Liquefaction is a phenomenon where water-saturated sand and silt take on the characteristics of a dense liquid during the intense ground shaking of an earthquake and deform. Includes Alaska and San Francisco examples.

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This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explores glaciers, wind, water, and volcanoes and their role in shaping the landscape of the polar regions.

This article assembles free resources from the Earth's Changing Surface issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

In this video produced for Teachers' Domain, Chi-An Wang, a mechanical engineering graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes her process when working with New Balance to design a new triathlon shoe.

To gain an understanding of mixtures and the concept of separation of mixtures, students use strong magnets to find the element of iron in iron-fortified breakfast cereal flakes. Through this activity, they see how the iron component of this heterogeneous mixture (cereal) retains its properties and can thus be separated by physical means.