All resources in Engineering

Pipeline AZ

(View Complete Item Description)

Explore Careers, Industries, and Education Programs in Arizona. Pipeline AZ is a cloud based workforce ecosystem helping people figure out who they are and what they can do.

Material Type: Interactive, Primary Source, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Pipeline AZ

Self-Study Guide for Career Readiness in Secondary Schools

(View Complete Item Description)

This self-study guide provides state and local education agencies and schools with a tool to assess the implementation of career readiness practices across a district or secondary school and to plan improvements. It is arranged by implementation areas that have been found to be important to career readiness efforts based on a review of the literature and discussions with stakeholders. Each area includes guiding questions for discussion, potential sources of evidence, and a rating scale for self-assessment of implementation. This process of ongoing discussion, evidence use, and self-assessment can help states, districts, and secondary schools improve the effectiveness of career readiness practices.

Material Type: Case Study, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: AZCTECC .

Design Step 1: Identify the Need

(View Complete Item Description)

Students practice the initial steps involved in an engineering design challenge. They begin by reviewing the steps of the engineering design loop and discussing the client need for the project. Next, they identify a relevant context, define the problem within their design teams, and examine the project's requirements and constraints. (Note: Conduct this activity in the context of a design project that students are working on, which could be a challenge determined by the teacher, brainstormed with the class, or the example project challenge provided [to design a prosthetic arm that can perform a mechanical function].)

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Denise W. Carlson, Lauren Cooper, Malinda Schaefer Zarske

AM I on the Radio?

(View Complete Item Description)

Student groups create working radios by soldering circuit components supplied from AM radio kits. By carrying out this activity in conjunction with its associated lesson concerning circuits and how AM radios work, students are able to identify each circuit component they are soldering, as well as how their placement causes the radio to work. Besides reinforcing lesson concepts, students also learn how to solder, which is an activity that many engineers perform regularly giving students a chance to be able to engage in a real-life engineering activity.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Brandon Jones, Emily Spataro, Lara Oliver, Lisa Burton

Crash Course

(View Complete Item Description)

At Crash Course, we believe that high-quality educational videos should be available to everyone for free. The Crash Course team has produced more than 15 courses to date, and these videos accompany high school and college-level classes ranging from the humanities to the sciences. Crash Course transforms the traditional textbook model by presenting information in a fast-paced format, enhancing the learning experience. With hundreds of millions of views on our YouTube channel, Crash Course has a worldwide audience in and out of classrooms. While the show is an immensely helpful tool for students and teachers, it also has a large viewership of casual learners who seek out online educational content independently. It has changed attitudes towards education by creating a community of learners who are looking for more than just help passing a test. We hope Crash Course is useful to you, and thanks for watching!

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Blake de Pastino, Brandon Brungard, Hank Green, Joe Ball, John Green, Julie Walsh, Mark Olsen, Meredith Danko, Michael Aranda, Nicholas Jenkins, Nicole Sweeney, Stan Muller, Zulaiha Razak

3D Printing, Computer Aided Design (CAD) and G-Code Basics

(View Complete Item Description)

Students learn how 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is revolutionizing the manufacturing process. First, students learn what considerations to make in the engineering design process to print an object with quality and to scale. Students learn the basic principles of how a computer-aided design (CAD) model is converted to a series of data points then turned into a program that operates the 3D printer. The activity takes students through a step-by-step process on how a computer can control a manufacturing process through defined data points. Within this activity, students also learn how to program using basic G-code to create a wireframe 3D shapes that can be read by a 3D printer or computer numerical control (CNC) machine.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Matthew Jourden

Ampere's Law

(View Complete Item Description)

The lesson begins with a demonstration introducing students to the force between two current carrying loops, comparing the attraction and repulsion between the loops to that between two magnets. After formal lecture on Ampere's law, students begin to use the concepts to calculate the magnetic field around a loop. This is applied to determine the magnetic field of a toroid, imagining a toroid as a looped solenoid.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Eric Appelt

Angular Velocity: Sweet Wheels

(View Complete Item Description)

Students analyze the relationship between wheel radius, linear velocity and angular velocity by using LEGO(TM) MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robots. Given various robots with different wheel sizes and fixed motor speeds, they predict which has the fastest linear velocity. Then student teams collect and graph data to analyze the relationships between wheel size and linear velocity and find the angular velocity of the robot given its motor speed. Students explore other ways to increase linear velocity by changing motor speeds, and discuss and evaluate the optimal wheel size and desired linear velocities on vehicles.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: James Muldoon, Jigar Jadav, Kelly Brandon

Applications of Systems of Equations: An Electronic Circuit

(View Complete Item Description)

Does the real-world application of science depend on mathematics? In this activity, students answer this question as they experience a real-world application of systems of equations. Given a system of linear equations that mathematically models a specific circuit—students start by solving a system of three equations for the currents. After becoming familiar with the parts of a breadboard, groups use a breadboard, resistors and jumper wires to each build the same (physical) electric circuit from the provided circuit diagram. Then they use voltmeters to measure the current flow across each resistor and calculate the current using Ohm’s law. They compare the mathematically derived current values to the measured values, and calculate the percentage difference of their results. This leads students to conclude that real-world applications of science do indeed depend on mathematics! Students make posters to communicate their results and conclusions. A pre/post-activity quiz and student worksheet are provided. Adjustable for math- or science-focused classrooms.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Marianne Livezey

Applying Hooke's Law to Cancer Detection

(View Complete Item Description)

Students explore Hooke's law while working in small groups at their lab benches. They collect displacement data for springs with unknown spring constants, k, by adding various masses of known weight. After exploring Hooke's law and answering a series of application questions, students apply their new understanding to explore a tissue of known surface area. Students then use the necessary relationships to depict a cancerous tumor amidst normal tissue by creating a graph in Microsoft Excel.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Luke Diamond

Both Fields at Once?!

(View Complete Item Description)

This lesson discusses the result of a charge being subject to both electric and magnetic fields at the same time. It covers the Hall effect, velocity selector, and the charge to mass ratio. Given several sample problems, students learn to calculate the Hall Voltage dependent upon the width of the plate, the drift velocity, and the strength of the magnetic field. Then students learn to calculate the velocity selector, represented by the ratio of the magnitude of the fields assuming the strength of each field is known. Finally, students proceed through a series of calculations to arrive at the charge to mass ratio. A homework set is included as an evaluation of student progress.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Eric Appelt