Air Is Matter

This collection of still images presents different ways to visualize air, from billowing sails to windblown hair to tornadoes.

Arch Bridge

This video segment adapted from Building Big illustrates the strength of the arch in bridge design and construction.

Accessibility features: Caption

Columns: Experimenting with Paper Cups

In this video segment from ZOOM, the cast experiments to see if a bunch of paper cups covered by a piece of cardboard can support the weight of a cast member.

Accessibility features: Caption, Transcript

Columns: Hillary's Neighborhood

In this video segment from ZOOM, Hillary, from Randolph, MA, takes us on a tour of the columns in her neighborhood.

Accessibility features: Caption, Transcript

Designing a Paper Bridge

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members make a bridge from a single piece of paper. Will it be strong enough to hold a hundred pennies?

Accessibility features: Caption

Design Squad: Suspension Bridge

In this video segment adapted from Design Squad—a PBS TV series featuring high school contestants tackling engineering challenges—students employ the concepts of tension and compression to build a suspension bridge without the aid of power tools.

Accessibility features: Caption

Design Squad: Truss Bridge

In this video segment adapted from Design Squad—a PBS TV series featuring high school contestants tackling engineering challenges—students employ the concepts of tension and compression as they build a truss bridge without the aid of power tools.

Accessibility features: Caption

Down to the Core Challenge

In this video from Design Squad Nation, kids design and build devices that can extract a core sample from a potato “asteroid.” They also learn how samples give NASA scientists insight into solar system objects.

Accessibility features: Caption

Firth of Forth Cantilever Bridge

This video segment from Building Big: "Bridges" demonstrates the basic design of a cantilever bridge by looking at Scotland's Firth of Forth Railway Bridge.

Accessibility features: Caption

Hoover Dam

This video segment from Building Big: "Dams," demonstrates the basic principals at work in the Hoover Dam, a concrete gravity dam that also makes use of the properties of the arch.

Accessibility features: Caption

Investigating a Suspension Bridge

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast builds a suspension bridge from a couple of chairs, some cardboard, and rope.

Accessibility features: Caption

Kid Designer: A Comfortable Cardboard Chair

Follow along in this video segment from ZOOM as 13-year-old Nick explains how he came up with a design, tested materials, and constructed his own cardboard chair.

Accessibility features: Caption, Transcript

Let's Build Something

Children learn about the types of machines on a construction site and the different jobs they do to help us build in this original video from KET.

Lifting with Air

How can you lift a heavy metal table using air? In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members succeed in lifting a table using their own breath and a few plastic bags.

Accessibility features: Caption, Transcript

Pantheon Dome

This video segment adapted from Building Big: "Domes" illustrates how the design of the Pantheon Dome emerged out of another form, the arch.

Accessibility features: Caption

Simple Machines

This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K lists, describes and shows examples of the 6 simple machines and how they make work easier.

Accessibility features: Caption, Transcript

Soft Landing Challenge

In this video from Design Squad Nation, kids model NASA’s airbag landing system. They design and build protective covers made of balloons to protect an egg dropped from a height of three feet.

Accessibility features: Caption

Triangles and Arches in Architecture

This collection of still images features two of the most important shapes in architecture: the triangle and the arch.

Triangles: Designing a Newspaper Chair

Watch the ZOOM cast build a chair out of newspaper by making good use of the strength of triangles.

Accessibility features: Caption

Triangles: Designing a Straw Bridge

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast tries to design and build a bridge made out of drinking straws that will support the weight of 200 pennies.

Accessibility features: Caption