Engineering

Engineering is such a great field for girls to pursue. It is creative, challenging, and it pays well. Engineers change the world and help people. What could be better?

Most of the activities on this pages are downloadable Design Briefs, an engineering term for a challenge for the girls. They use the design process, which is important for girls to learn and internalize.

Great links and resources to help you explore engineering

TeachEngineering.org  — so many wonderful activities –you can run a whole club from this page. (Elementary, Middle, High)

Children’s Engineering Council — Design briefs and training (Elementary)

Engineering Magic –The Milk Pitcher Trick–design constraints (Middle)

Air Cars  from PBS-Zoom into Engineering–use everyday parts to learn about air pressure (Elementary)

Stress and Strain–Break the Mold — understand materials and tensile strength (Middle)

BuckyBalls — integrating nanotechnology into engineering (Middle)

Cell Phone Tower — Design Brief to build the tallest and strongest tower (Elementary, Middle)

Engineering Magic–the Playing Card and flexible magnets (Middle)

Don’t Lose Your Marbles –Engineering challenge using math and energy (Elementary, Middle)

Earthquake!!! — building and testing safe buildings (Elementary, Middle)

Egg Bungee-Jumping — a classic engineering activity (Elementary, Middle)

Geodesic Domes — a large unit from the National Building Museum on structures and materials (Middle)

Design Challenges from The Tech Museum of Innovation (Elementary, Middle, High)

More Geodesic Domes–building your own incorporating math and materials science (High)

Build your own Indoor Planetarium — from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (Middle, High)

Design Brief–Build your own playground — a very open-ended project (Elementary, Middle)

 Rocket-powered boats:  Aqua-Thrusters — Newton’s Laws plus chemical reactions = fun (Elementary)

Build your own Solar Cooker — bring on the marshmallows! (Middle)

Parachuting to Safety — build a chute that lands safely (Middle, High)

What Floats Your Boat?  — density and buoyancy in boat-building (Middle)

Building Big— Games and activities from the wonderful old PBS series (Elementary, Middle)

AMA Flight School — Understand principles of flight via games (Middle, High)

What exactly is an engineer? — a nice article for girls about the engineering profession

Resources for Design Thinking from Stanford’s dschool (Middle, High)

SciGirls from PBS — videos, activities and information for girls who want to create (Elementary, Middle)

EGFI –Dream up the future–something for everyone interested in engineering (Middle, High)

Design Squad from PBS — a designing community with ideas and interests for all ages (Elementary, Middle)

Northrup Grumman Educational Resources for kids, families and educators (Elementary, Middle, High)

 “I like making the roller coasters because you had to experiment to make them work right. ” 

Makayla, age 8

Try Engineering— you know you want to! Resources for teachers and students (Elementary, Middle, High)

Engineer Girl — this is you, right? Everything needed to become an engineer all in one place  (Middle, High)

Dr. E’s Challenges — pushing the envelope in LEGO® Robotics using Mindstorms and WeDo (Elementary, Middle)

PBS Kids Engineering Games — especially good for younger girls (Elementary)

Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA — an entire program underscoring the contributions of women in STEM (Elementary, Middle)

National Fluid Power Challenge–create a team and compete to learn about fluid power (Middle, High)