What better way to engage fifth-grade students in science and engineering practices than to use paper airplanes to encourage them to question, explore, create, and test designs! This multi-day unit draws from a fourth-grade curriculum (Pearson 2012) aligned with the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) used in…

This study aimed to present an example activity in which the engineering design process was used. The activity was carried out in an out-of-school learning environment in 12 periods of 40 minutes. Twenty-four students who were in the 6th, 7th or 8th grade, participated in the activity. Students were presented with a design problem in which moving…

Engineering design is a core component of technology and engineering education, and although not every student will become an engineer following high school, all students can profit from having engineering design experiences in high school (Apedoe, Reynolds, Ellefson, & Schunn, 2008; Denson & Lammi, 2014; Grubbs & Strimel, 2015;…

There is considerable interest in electric and hybrid cars because of environmental and climate change concerns, tougher fuel efficiency standards, and increasing dependence on imported oil. In this article, the author describes the history of electric vehicles in the automotive world and discusses the components of a hybrid electric vehicle.…

Describes how 900 elementary students planned, designed, and constructed Technotown out of 1 million LEGO pieces. Presents a learning activity (objectives, materials, challenge, evaluation, and closing thoughts) on the building of a subway system for Technotown. (SK)

This guide is intended for use in teaching a course in human and product transportation systems. The purpose of the course is twofold. First, students are introduced to the design process and the steps used to analyze various solutions to basic problems. Second, the course focuses on the application of the design and evaluation process to review a…

This technology studies curriculum for grades 6-8 is a plan for each middle school student to experience technology education for approximately 60 days (1 trimester of a 180-day school year) in each grade. Section A provides definitions; structure or content for grade-level programs with science and technology unifiers (unifying curricular…