Aerodynamics: What Causes Lift?

How does an airplane stay aloft when upside down? This media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site offers an explanation based on Newton's third law of motion.

Air Bag Design

Using automobile crash test footage, this video segment adapted from NOVA shows some of the challenges in designing the air bag.

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Airplanes: Designing for Stealth

Explore this NOVA interactive activity to see how engineers have modified a military plane's sound, shape, and heat emissions to minimize detection.

Air Power: Making a Hovercraft

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.

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Ask an Engineer

Explore some of the wonders of modern engineering in this video from the Sciencenter in Ithaca, New York. Hear a diverse selection of engineers explain how things work.

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Building the Alaska Oil Pipeline

This video segment adapted from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE tells the story of how environmentalists, Alaska Native peoples, and engineers concerned about the effects of permafrost challenged plans for the Alaska oil pipeline.

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Can a Computer Fly an Airplane?

This video excerpt from NOVA shows how the computer system on the A330 airplane can fly the plane safely without a human pilot.

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Carbon-Fiber Car of the Future

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, find out how cars made of a material stronger than steel and half the weight can help combat climate change.

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Careers in Engineering Technologies

This interactive activity produced for Teachers’ Domain explores various career paths in engineering technologies.

China’s Innovative Past

This audio segment from PRI's The World Science Podcast explores the roots of China's creative past and examines why China, a country that over 1500 years came up with some of the most important inventions the world had ever seen, might have lost its innovative edge to the West.

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Composite Materials for Space

Discover why engineers use composite materials to build spacecraft prototypes in this video segment adapted from NASA 360.

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The Cumberland Gap Tunnel

This KET video chronicles the incredible engineering effort that built the tunnel through Cumberland Mountain as well as the challenges posed by the geological composition of the area.

The Deployable Energy Absorber

Watch how engineers stage a crash to test a new helicopter safety design technology in this video from NASA.

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Designing Balloon Cars

Can the air in a balloon power a car? Watch students from Weston, Massachusetts, demonstrate their balloon car designs in this video adapted from ZOOM.

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Engineering Biofuels

In this video segment adapted from KQED's QUEST, find out how synthetic biologists use the techniques of metabolic engineering and directed evolution to make more effective biofuels.

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Engineering Career Options

It's a profession that can take you from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space, from within the microscopic structures of the human cell to the top of the tallest skyscrapers. In this stills collage adapted from The American Society for Engineering Education, learn about some of the most popular engineering fields.

Engineering for the Red Planet

In this video segment from NASA, robotics researcher Ayanna Howard uses engineering to improve the intelligence of robots in space exploration.

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Ethanol Biofuel

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn about one scientist's idea for using biotechnology to make ethanol a more efficient alternative to gasoline.

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Flying Cheap: The Crash of Continental Flight 3407

From FRONTLINE Flying Cheap, correspondent Miles O’Brien investigates safety concerns over major airlines outsourcing flights to regional carriers.

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Franklin Chang-Díaz: Rocket Scientist

This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW profiles Franklin Chang-Díaz, a scientist who is working on plasma-powered rockets and was NASA's first Latin American astronaut.

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