In this two-part activity, students design and build Rube Goldberg machines. This open-ended challenge employs the engineering design process and may have a pre-determined purpose, such as rolling a marble into a cup from a distance, or let students decide the purposes.

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.

Simple machines are devices with few or no moving parts that make work easier, and which people have used to provide mechanical advantage for thousands of years. Students learn about the wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane, screw and pulley in the context of the construction of a pyramid, gaining insights into tools that have been used since ancient times and are still important today. Through numerous hands-on activities, students imagine themselves as ancient engineers building a pyramid. Student teams evaluate and select a construction site, design a pyramid, perform materials calculations, test a variety of cutting wedges on different materials, design a small-scale cart/lever transport system to convey building materials, experiment with the angle of inclination and pull force on an inclined plane, see how a pulley can change the direction of force, and learn the differences between fixed, movable and combined pulleys. While learning the steps of the engineering design process, students practice teamwork, creativity and problem solving.

LEGO® robotics uses LEGO®s as a fun tool to explore robotics, mechanical systems, electronics, and programming. This seminar is primarily a lab experience which provides students with resources to design, build, and program functional robots constructed from LEGO®s and a few other parts such as motors and sensors.

Student teams build model hand dynamometers used to measure grip strengths of people recovering from sports injuries. They use their models to measure how much force their classmates muscles are capable of producing, and analyze the data to determine factors that influence a person's grip strength. They use this information to produce a recommendation of a hand dynamometer design for a medical office specializing in physical therapy. They also consider the many other ways grip strength data is used by engineers to design everyday products.

Chico has a friend who is stuck in a laundry shoot and uses a new tool to help his friend get free. Create a new tool using materials from a list provided and work within a budget constraint.

Students will learn and understand the design process by designing and engineering the ultimate playground. What is the design process? Read Someone Builds the Dream by Lisa Wheeler and Loren Long and Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet. Discussion about dreams, goals, and reality.
Discussion about the design process and how to use it to design your dream
playground.
Discussion about what was created in each book. Write on poster paper. Make connections between dreams and reality.
Could we dream up a better playground (or school)? How do we make it a reality?

This resource is from Tools4NCTeachers.  In this lesson, students explore 3D shapes, such as rectangular prisms and cubes. The students will identify the attributes for each 3D shape and build shapes using sticks, marshmallows, and other materials.  Pictures of sample student work and printable recording sheets are provided within this lesson.

This resource is from Tools4NCTeachers.In this lesson, students develop an understanding of place value by using arrow cards.  The focus of this lesson is on writing numbers using expanded form.Arrow cards are place value cards with an "arrow" or point on the right side.  Students can organize the cards to represent numbers in expanded notation. OR, they can overlap cards and (lining up the arrows) to form multi-digit numbers. Printable arrow cards are provided with this resource.. 

This resource is from Tools4NCTeachers.  This task may be used for instruction or assessment. Remix this resource to include extension ideas or addtional tasks.

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

This packet contains exit tickets for the Kindergarten, Cluster 4 geometry standards. Exit tickets are written responses to questions posed at the end of a lesson. They are brief assessments which allow the teacher to determine student understanding of the concepts and skills taught that day. At the Kindergarten level, a blank copy of the exit ticket should be displayed on the board and read aloud to students. As teacher reads, students work independently on their own copy of the exit ticket.

This resource is from Tools4NCTeachers.  This tasks may be used for instruction or assessment.  The file contains a student shape cutouts for students to compose shapes to make a new composite shape.  The new, composite shape does not need to have a given name (e.g., trapezoide or square).Remix this leson to include student work samples or extension ideas.

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

In this lesson, students work in pairs to create and discuss number lines to 100 using unifix cubes and adding machine tape.

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

Students are asked to draw a set of two-dimensional shapes, and build three-dimensional shapes from clay. This task may be used for instructional or assessment purposes.

This resource is from Tools4NCTeachers.In this lesson, students partition circles into halves, thirds and fourths as they create fraction flowers.  Student recording sheets and sample pictures of student work are included within the lesson.  Links to virtual tools and extension ideas are also provided.  Remix this lesson to include pictures of your students' work!

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

In this lesson, students work together to create a "human number line" by ordering themselves from least to greatest after being assigned numbers by the teacher. They then apply their learning to personal number lines.

This resource is from Tools4NCTeachers.  this lesson, students will count items in order to determine how many groups of tens are needed to make 100, 200, 300...  The students will determine the pattern of how many tens make a hundred and use that pattern to determine how many tens are needed to make 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900.  Lesson comes with printable materials.  Remix this lesson to provide extension ideas or samples of student work. 

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

This lesson calls for students to compose congruent hexagons using smaller pattern block pieces. They will explain which arrangements of pattern block pieces compose a congruent hexagon, and count the number of smaller pieces that compose the "bigger" shape.

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

This is lesson 2 of 6 lessons focused around developing a mathematical community at the beginning of the school year. While this lesson meets standard NC.K.MD.2, its primary goal is for students to learn how to work with a partner on a task. A secondary goal is to begin establishing norms for how students work together during math class.

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.

This is lesson two in a series of six lessons focused around developing a mathematical community at the beginning of the school year. The primary goal is for students to begin establishing norms for how students work together during math class throughout the whole year. A secondary goal is to estimate length.