Students learn about the concepts of accuracy and approximation as they pertain to robotics, gain insight into experimental accuracy, and learn how and when to estimate values that they measure. Students also explore sources of error stemming from the robot setup and rounding numbers.

This video segment adapted from First Light explains why the highest peak in the Pacific, Mauna Kea, is an ideal site for astronomical observations. Featured are new telescope technologies that allow astronomers to explore the universe in more depth.

Watch move videos at www.perkinselearning.org/videos/webcastIn this webcast, Yue Ting Siu provides us with an introduction to current technologies employed t...

The Access to Justice Legal Apps Challenge Modules intend to get participants to think of new ways to use technology to better increase access to justice, and to ultimately design a concept for a legal app to address an access to justice issue.

The set of five modules are intended to operate as a “mini-course” for Ontario high-school students. Each module contains background information on the topic to help instructors prepare for the lessons. The background information has sources to support instructors and students delving further into topics of interest. The modules are designed so that they can be used in either an in-person or virtual learning environment.

How can you use the Engineering Design Process to access a geographically inaccessible location to deliver supplies?

In this activity, students watch a short clip from the ASHP documentary 1877: The Grand Army of Starvationto learn about the impact of railroad expansion on Americans and the nation as a whole. After watching the clip, students complete the “Technological Turning Points and their Impact” worksheet in order to examine the positive and negative effects of the railroad.

Our brains control every movement we make. Most of us take for granted our ability to pick up a cup or change the television station. However, for people who have lost a limb or become paralyzed, the inability to do these things means a loss of freedom and independence. This video segment from Greater Boston describes how neuroscientists and bioengineers have teamed up to create a system that allows people who have lost motor functions to control electronic devices through their thoughts alone. Grades 6-12

Students will use iPads to research and perform a workout that focuses on core strength. Students will evaluate the workout upon completion.

Do you need proof that driving is a dangerous activity? More Americans have died in car crashes over the past 100 years than in all the wars the U.S. has ever fought combined. More than 40,000 Americans die each year on the nation's highways, most as the result of high-speed collisions. In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn how engineers developed the air bag, an important automobile-safety device now found in most cars.
Recommended for: Grades 3-12

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members make their own hovercraft and demonstrate how the air leaking out of a balloon can make a plastic plate hover above a table.

During World War Two, a fierce battle between American and Japanese forces on Kwajalein atoll left a trail of debris on the deep lagoon floor. This lagoon now has one of the largest collections of well-preserved aircraft in the world. In this video, as part of the first ever film crew allowed onto this secret military base, Jonathan explores a B-25, F4-U Corsair and Dauntless dive bomber still sitting on the bottom of the ocean, as if ready to take off. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In this activity, students explore the basic living requirements of algae (phytoplankton)through hands-on experience and an interactive game. Students investigate what algal biofuels are, how they are made, where they can grow, and, most importantly, why this topic should be investigated. Algal biofuels are an emerging source of renewable energy.

This activity is an indoor lab where students will make predictions of what a force vs time and acceleration vs time graph will look like for a ride in an elevator going down and up. Students will collect data remotely using a Force Plate and accelerometer and then download the data to the computer for further analysis.

The Maryland State Department of Education is working to prevent the misuse and abuse of opioids. This is a student-centered lesson for the 9-12 grade band. This lesson can be modified or remixed to meet the needs of the students you teach.  The content of this lesson includes students identifying and analyzing influences that could lead to drug use. Students are then tasked with forming strategies to overcome factors and influences that could lead to drug use.

Students develop an app for an Android device that utilizes its built-in internal sensors, specifically the accelerometer. The goal of this activity is to teach programming design and skills using MIT's App Inventor software (free to download from the Internet) as the vehicle for learning. The activity should be exciting for students who are interested in applying what they learn to writing other applications for Android devices. Students learn the steps of the engineering design process as they identify the problem, develop solutions, select and implement a possible solution, test the solution and redesign, as needed, to accomplish the design requirements.

After using the historical development of concepts of conserved motion to develop introductory understanding, students are directed to a series of activities to gain a better understanding of momentum, conservation of momenta, angular momentum, and conservation of angular momenta.

This book is designed for use in an introductory course on digital logic design, typically offered in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and other related programs. Such a course is usually offered at the sophomore level. This book makes extensive use of animation to illustrate the flow of data within a digital system and to step through some of the procedures used to design and optimize digital circuits.

This map shows how much electrical power is produced from wind in each state from 1999 through 2010. The animation shows a general increase in the amount of wind power produced per state and the number of states producing it.

Antimatter, the charge reversed equivalent of matter, has captured the imaginations of science fiction fans for years as a perfectly efficient form of energy. While normal matter consists of atoms with negatively charged electrons orbiting positively charged nuclei, antimatter consists of positively charged positrons orbiting negatively charged anti-nuclei. When antimatter and matter meet, both substances are annihilated, creating massive amounts of energy. Instances in which antimatter is portrayed in science fiction stories (such as Star Trek) are examined, including their purposes (fuel source, weapons, alternate universes) and properties. Students compare and contrast matter and antimatter, learn how antimatter can be used as a form of energy, and consider potential engineering applications for antimatter.

In this video Jonathan visits the New England Aquarium as a volunteer aquarist for a day to learn what it takes to care for thousands of fish in dozens of exhibits, up to the massive 200,000 gallon Giant Ocean Tank (GOT). What he finds is an eye opener‰ŰÓit‰ŰŞs not all fun and games. Maintaining an aquarium is serious work. But it does have its benefits, as Jonathan discovers while diving in the GOT and feeding the sharks. This segment won a New England Emmy Award! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.