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Hands-On Activities
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Classroom Activities
Interactive & Hands-on
The EXPLORE Mobile Lab’s goal is to be a resource to complement classroom instruction with engineering concepts and applications. Each activity comes with a short lesson plan, an instruction booklet for each group and an engineering notebook page for each student.
Before you begin an activity, please review the information on our How To Prepare page. It provides a short video on how to get the most out of the lessons.
Class Activities
For each activity, we will have a short description (connecting to standards & fun), approximate time to complete, and links to: lesson plan, instruction booklet, engineering notebook page.
Nuclear Energy
Students will create their own version of a chain reaction to model the process of nuclear fission. Students will discuss the process of generating electricity while learning how engineers are working every day to make it easier and safer to provide electricity to homes across the country.
Build A Better Body
Students will use the engineering design process to build a functioning prosthetic lower leg. They will work in teams to design the prosthetic using the given materials. Once it is built, they will test their designs and discuss how they could improve them next time.
MORE
- Project Overview
- Instructional Video
- Supplementary Activities
Bridge The Gap
Students will use the engineering design process to design and build a bridge using available materials that meet specific design criteria. Once the bridge is built, students will test their designs to determine how well the bridge functions. Students will also learn about different types of bridge designs.
MORE
- Project Overview
- Instructional Video
- Supplementary Activities
Egg Lander
Students will design and build devices to protect and accurately deliver dropped eggs. The devices and their contents represent care packages that must be safely delivered to people in a disaster area with no road access. Once the device is built, students will test it based on the given design criteria.
MORE
- Project Overview
- Instructional Video
- Supplemental Activities
Looking At The Stars
Students will create and decorate their own spectrographs using simple materials and holographic diffraction gratings. After building the spectrographs, students observe the spectra of different light sources, while discussing the properties and behavior of waves.
Clean It Up
Students will investigate their impact on the environment while discovering how engineers work to clean up the world. They will learn the concepts of environmental engineering as it relates to drinking water and wastewater treatment plants. A hands-on activity will simulate water filtration.
MORE
- Project Overview
- Instructional Video
- Supplementary Activities