Subtopic: Applying the Design Process

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

Anatomy of a Firework
There's more to a fireworks display than meets the eye. This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site looks at the technology behind each burst of light.

Automatic Door Opener
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, watch the design process in action as cast members create automatic door openers to open their bedroom doors while still lying down.

The Beginnings of the Telescope
This animated essay from the NOVA Web site examines the design of Galileo's refracting telescope and Sir Isaac Newton's reflecting telescope.

Build a Bridge
Survey potential bridge sites, research bridge design, and select the right bridge for the right location in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

Building Simple Machines: Plant Quencher
In this video segment from ZOOM, Jillian explains how her simple machine uses marbles, levers, flowing sand, and a spinning wheel to water a plant.

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.

Construct an Aqueduct
Think like an engineer and build an aqueduct in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

Design and Build a Tangle-Free Headphone Holder
In this lesson, students follow the engineering design process to build a tool that stores headphones for a portable music listening device, such as an MP3 player, without the wires getting tangled. As they work through this process, students learn about the engineer's role in finding solutions to meet human needs.

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?

Designing a Roller Coaster
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast is challenged to design and test a roller coaster with loops, hills, and U-turns.

Designing Electric Circuits: Door Alarm
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members design and build door alarms using a variety of materials, including aluminum foil, batteries, and buzzers.

The Dome Challenge
In this interactive activity from the Building Big Web site, think like an engineer and use your knowledge of dome design to match the right type of dome to the right location in a fictitious city.

Electric Girl
Anna loves electricity. Watch her construct a homemade flashlight and show off her new, electrifying hairdo in this video segment from ZOOM.

Exploring Windmill Design
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members are challenged to design a windmill that can be powered by a hair dryer.

Fireworks! Lifting Charge
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn how pyrotechnicians use common compounds to blast fireworks into the sky and give them shape.

Forces Lab
In this interactive activity from the Building Big Web site, select one of the actions of squeezing, stretching, bending, sliding, or twisting to explore the forces of compression, tension, shear, and torsion.

Galileo's Telescope
The invention of the telescope helped change our understanding of the universe. This video segment adapted from NOVA looks at Galileo's contribution to this technology.

Getting Airborne and Wing Design
What makes an airplane fly? Discover the connection between Newton's third law of motion and flight in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

Grass Bridge
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, watch residents of the Peruvian Andes build a suspension bridge made entirely of grass.

How Do You Get to the Moon?
This video, adapted from NOVA, showcases the competing engineering plans designed for landing a person on the Moon for the first time.

How to Build A Road
Geology and weather introduced a variety of unexpected problems when construction crews were building the Alaska Highway. In this interactive activity from the American Experience Web site, see how Army engineers improvised solutions to blaze a trail through the wilderness.

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.

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.

Kid Inventor: The Collapsible Lacrosse Stick
In this video segment from ZOOM, Lauren explains how she invented a way to make her lacrosse stick fit in her backpack.

Kismet
In this video segment adapted from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory working to engineer smarter robots are now building a machine that interacts socially with people.

Loads Lab
This interactive activity from the Building Big Web site examines different types of loads and how structures might be reinforced to withstand them.

Mars Dead or Alive: Where to Land?
In this video segment from NOVA, engineers and scientists designing the Spirit and Opportunity rovers struggle to choose landing spots both safe enough for landing and geologically promising.

Off the Grid
This interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain presents users with three hypothetical scenarios in which they are challenged to design a wind power system that will meet their electrical needs.

Pilotless Flight: Timeline of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Explore this NOVA interactive timeline and discover the many technological innovations in the history of unmanned flight, from hot-air balloons to miniature flying robots.

Raising an Obelisk: An Engineering Puzzle
This video segment adapted from NOVA follows two teams as they each test a different engineering design in an effort to explain how ancient Egyptians raised a giant stone obelisk.

Robofly
Featuring slow-motion footage of insects in flight, this video adapted from NOVA explores the engineering challenge of designing a robotic aerial vehicle that flies like a bug.

Segway Technology: What's Newton Got to Do with It?
What do the laws of physics have to do with engineering? Find out in this video segment featuring inventor Dean Kamen and his inventions, the IBOT and the Segway.

Shapes That Make Structures Strong
Students explore the various shapes engineers choose to make structures strong -- in particular, triangles, arches, and domes.

The Skyscraper Challenge
In this interactive activity from the Building Big Web site, investigate hypothetical structural emergencies and figure out how to repair them.

Train Truss Animation
This animated video segment from Building Big: "Bridges" demonstrates how a truss bridge is designed to balance the weight of a train as it travels over it.

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 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.

Virtual Balloon Cars
This interactive activity from ZOOM lets you experiment with a virtual balloon car of your own making. Find out which design elements make the car go faster and farther.

What Is a Robot?
In this lesson, students are introduced to robots, including ones that exist in their everyday lives. They learn about the kinds of things that robots do, the excitement that goes with designing and testing, and what inspires ideas for different robots.

Young Inventors
In this stills collage adapted from the National Science Teachers Association/Craftsman Young Inventors Awards, see several inventions by students in grades 4-7 and read about some of the challenges they faced during the design process.