Teacher Resources

Click here for a web based collection of lessons and web resources from the NSF
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KidWind Wind Energy Education Project is a team of teachers, engineers and scientists committed to innovative energy education. Their goal is to promote the elegance of wind power through affordable tools and training programs that challenge, engage and inspire students of all ages.
TryEngineering.org is a resource for students (ages 8-18), their parents, their teachers and their school counselors. This is a portal about engineering and engineering careers, and we hope it will help young people understand better what engineering means, and how an engineering career can be made part of their future.
Discover Engineering Want to save the planet? Want to help others? Want to design with computers? This comprehensive website gives career profiles and facts and keeps visitors up-to-date on what is new in engineering.  Explore the videos, activities, and interactive games.
National Engineer's Week Future City Competition A fun and exciting educational engineering program for seventh- and eighth-grade students that combines a stimulating engineering challenge with a "hands-on" application to present their vision of a city of the future.
Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century How many of the 20th century's greatest engineering achievements will you use today? A car? Computer? Telephone? Explore our list of the top 20 achievements and learn how engineering shaped a century and changed the world.
Engineering Your Future This page contains an extensive list of links to answer all your engineering questions.
Cleaning Water In this lesson (Grades 3-5) from NASA, students create and test a system to filter "gray" water. Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) recycle their water, including moisture from their sweat and exhalations and water from showering and shaving. These wastewaters are purified and then used as drinking water.
Engineering Design Challenges: Thermal Protection Systems In this lesson (Grades 6-9), students learn how NASA engineers design thermal protection systems -- the systems that protect spacecraft from the heat of atmospheric friction (during launch and re-entry) and engine exhaust heat.

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Enrichment, Practice, and Games for Students

	Interactive 3D Catapult               Design a custom-built catapult to accomplish a selected task. Click the height, distance, or strength buttons to see a description of each task. Select 'Design' when you are ready to design your catapult.
	KidWind for Students                  This site is a great page for students to learn more about wind energy and turbines. Listed on the site are local events about wind energy, careers in the field, and science fair ideas to show others what you have learned!
	West Point Bridge Designer       This site hosts one of the biggest student engineer competitions around. Download the Bridge Builder software onto your computer and experiment building the best bridge you can! The software is free to download whether or not you choose to enter the contest.
	Extreme Engineering These jobs are larger than life.  Take a virtual tour of the mechanical feats and amazing construction: Sky City, Transatlantic Tunnel, City in a Pyramid, and many more.
	Design Squad Eight high school contestants tackle engineering challenges for an actual client—from building a machine that makes pancakes to a "summer sled" for LL Bean.Meet the cast of this PBS show, watch episodes, and try your hand at designing stuff.
	Try Engineering; Play Games: Sometimes the best way to understand what engineers do is to try your hand at it! The following are links to several engineering games on the internet to give you a first hand try at the problem solving skills engineers employ every day!
	A Sightseer's Guide to Engineering Do you realize that nearly everything around you that makes your life easier and more fun, nearly everything that makes our economy go, has been created by an engineer?  So when you take a trip- either around your neck of the woods or around the country- you'll find countless sights that help tell the engineering story.  The sights listed here are certainly not the only ones, but they're a sampling of activities, creative marvels, and thrills that will help get you started.
	Engineer Girl Explore fun facts, cool readings, and great achievements in engineering on this site, designed specifically for middle school girls interested in engineering. The site receives insights from an Advisory Board made up of... you guessed it... middle school girls.

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Great Engineering Books

How Tunes by: Saul Griffith (Gr. 2-10) Part comic strip and part science experiment, Howtoons shows children how to find imaginative new uses for common household items like soda bottles, duct tape, mop buckets, and more–to teach kids the "Tools of Mass Construction"! Combining a fun, full–color cartoon format and real life science and engineering principles, Howtoons are designed to encourage kids to become active participants in the world around them.
New Roads by: Gail Gibbons (Gr. K-4) This factual book describes how roads are constructed, focusing on the people who plan and construct the road and the equipment used. Simple illustrations in bright basic colors are visually appealing. The final pages consist of a brief history of roads from Roman times to the present day.
Magic School Bus Inside the Water Works by: Joanna Cole (Gr. 3-5) Join Ms. Frizzle and her students as they follow the trail of water, from its sky-high source to the school bathroom sink on this wet and wild fieldtrip. After parking the school bus on a cloud and shrinking to raindrop size, Ms. Frizzle's class gets to see the waterworks from the water's point of view.
Underground, The Way Things Work by:David Macaulay (Family) A visual journey through a city's various support systems exposes a typical section of the underground network and explains how it works. We see a network of walls, columns, cables, pipes and tunnels required to satisfy the basic needs of a city's inhabitants.
Engineering the City: How Infrastructure Works by: Matthys Levy & Richard Panchyk (Gr. 6-12) Future engineers, math enthusiasts, and students seeking ideas for science projects will all be fascinated by this book, which is filled with engineering "projects and principles for beginners." Facts about dams and bridges segue into information about water transportation and irrigation, and eventually into a chapter that answers the question, "What happens when I flush the toilet?" Other sections deal with highways, railroads, electrical circuitry, and garbage disposal.
Engineering Projects for Young Scientists by Peter H. Goodwin Designed to show young people how fascinating engineering can be, this book helps them apply basic engineering principles as they complete projects in a range of areas, including the design of bridges, cars, rockets, and even amusement park rides.
Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build & Test by: Carol A. Johman and Elizabeth Rieth (Gr. 2-6) An upbeat blend of science, history, and how-to instruction that will delight children and educators alike. Each chapter consists of numerous short articles combining historical and technical information on the design and construction of bridges with easy hands-on experiments.
Skyscrapers!: Super Structures to Design & Build by Carol A. Johmann (Gr. 3-6) Design the Future, Discover the PastAmateur architects can learn about each stage of skyscraper-making from the planning stage to putting on the "cladding," or exterior, in Skyscrapers! A brief history of the skyscraper precedes a series of hands-on learning activities, including determining the best foundation and then constructing a frame.

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