How Do We Measure 100?

In this media-rich lesson, students explore the value of the number 100. They use a variety of objects in sets of 100 to measure length and to learn about the benefits of using standard units of measurement.

How Do You Keep Lemonade Cool?

This video segment adapted from FETCH!™ shows contestants experimenting with different materials to see which is the best insulator and thus best able to keep the lemonade at their stand cool for customers.

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How Engineering Affects Your Life

Students explore the engineering that impacts their day-to-day life.

How Would You Turn a Bolt in Space?

In this fast-paced NASA Brain Bites™ video, an astronaut demonstrates the impact of microgravity on the use of tools in space.

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Igloo 101

Learn what it takes to build an igloo—from the best kind of snow to the most effective tools—and other little-known facts about these traditional Canadian Inuit structures in this interactive activity from NOVA.

The Impact of Technology: Cars

This video segment adapted from A Science Odyssey looks at the invention of the automobile and the development of mass production.

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Inspector Detector Challenge

In this video from Design Squad Nation, kids design and build magnetic-field detectors and use them to find hidden magnets. They also learn how NASA uses magnetometers to learn what is going on inside a planet or moon.

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Juice Boxes

A kid discovers that an ordinary juice box is surprisingly high-tech and, once discarded, will last for 300 years, in this animated video from LOOP SCOOPS.

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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.

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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.

Let's Build Something Interactive

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

Levers: Raising the Moai on Easter Island

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a team of archaeologists and engineers explores different uses of the lever by recreating the engineering feats of the ancient Easter Island peoples.

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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.

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Lifting with Levers

In this Cyberchase video segment, the CyberSquad figures out how to use a lever to help them remove a stack of heavy objects blocking their path.

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Macro Concerns in a Nano World

Nanotechnology is beginning to play a larger part in our lives. In this video from QUEST produced by KQED, explore how because of mounting environmental and health concerns about exposure to nanomaterials, a growing debate about their possible regulation has been sparked.

Magnetic Microbots

This video excerpt from NOVA’s "Making Stuff: Smaller" and accompanying activity for grades K–8 teach students how materials scientists are building extremely small robots that may be able to travel inside the human body.

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Materials Lab

This interactive activity from the Building Big Web site explores the properties of different types of building materials.

Measuring for an Exact Fit

In this Cyberchase video segment, the CyberSquad must figure out how to construct rectangular lids to fit precisely on two different boxes.

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Motorcycles for Health

In this video segment adapted from Rx for Survival, health care workers in The Gambia learn to use and maintain motorcycles in order to travel to isolated villages with a uniquely designed ambulance attachment that can mean the difference between life and death.

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Moving Atoms

A materials science and engineering professor, Dr. Chris Muhlstein of Penn State University, explains how to rearrange atoms without touching them with your hands.

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