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All Resources and Lesson Plans: Materials and Tools

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Resource	Grade Level	Media Type
100's Day What does 100 look like? Sound like? Feel like? In this video from Curious George, explore the many ways to measure 100 things.	K-2	QuickTime Video
Air Bag Design Using automobile crash test footage, this video segment adapted from NOVA shows some of the challenges in designing the air bag.	3-12	QuickTime Video
Arch Bridge This video segment adapted from Building Big illustrates the strength of the arch in bridge design and construction.	3-12	QuickTime Video
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.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Balloon Brain: Designing a Helmet In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members are challenged to design protective headgear for a water balloon using what they know about the properties of the materials available.	K-8	QuickTime Video
Building a Dam Like a Beaver In this video segment from WGBH, children make a dam with dirt, sticks, and stones to try to stop the flow of water.	K-2	QuickTime Video
Building the Channel Tunnel How do you build a tunnel 32 miles long -- under water? This video segment adapted from Building Big, follows the construction of the Channel Tunnel (nicknamed "Chunnel"), the engineering wonder that connects England to France.	3-12	QuickTime Video
Clifton Suspension Bridge This video segment from Building Big illustrates the basic design principles of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England.	3-12	QuickTime Video
Columns: Experimenting with Balloons Watch the ZOOM cast find out how many balloons filled with air and then with water are required to support the weight of a cast member.	3-8	QuickTime Video
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.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Columns: Finding the Strongest Shape In this video segment, members of the ZOOM cast experiment by bending and folding sheets of paper into various shapes to see which shape will support the weight of a heavy book.	K-8	QuickTime Video
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.	K-8	QuickTime Video
Construct an Aqueduct Think like an engineer and build an aqueduct in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.	3-12	Shockwave Interactive
Design: Building a House This collection of images follows the process of building a house from cutting the trees and making the bricks to finishing construction.	K-8	Flash Image
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?	3-8	QuickTime Video
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.	3-8	QuickTime Video
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.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Designing Electric Circuits: Steadiness Tester In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members discover that metal is a good conductor of electricity as they play the steadiness tester game.	3-5	QuickTime Video
Design: The Right Tool for the Job Which tool is the right tool for the job? This collection of images features a series of cutting tools performing the tasks for which they were designed.	3-8	Flash Image
Easy-Fit Design In this video produced for Teachers' Domain, Chi-An Wang, a mechanical engineering graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes her process when working with New Balance to design a new triathlon shoe.	3-12	QuickTime Video
Electric Girl Anna loves electricity. Watch her construct a homemade flashlight and show off her new, electrifying hairdo in this video segment from ZOOM.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Funny Boat In this video segment adapted from FETCH!™, contestants are challenged to use materials from a garbage dump to build a boat that floats, can be steered, and is propelled by something other than oars.	3-8	QuickTime Video
Glider Boy Meet 12-year-old Jesse, the designer of dozens of gliders, in this ZOOM video segment. Some of his gliders fit in your hand, while others can only be stored in the garage. Watch his gliders go and learn why they fly.	K-8	QuickTime Video
Grass Bridge In this video segment adapted from NOVA, watch residents of the Peruvian Andes build a suspension bridge made entirely of grass.	3-12	QuickTime Video
A House for Teddy Bear In this video segment from WGBH, children experiment with cardboard and build a house for their stuffed animals.	K-2	QuickTime Video
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.	K-2	Lesson Plan
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.	3-8	QuickTime Video
How Engineering Affects Your Life Students explore the engineering that impacts their day-to-day life.	K-2	Lesson Plan
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.	3-8	QuickTime Video
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.	3-8	Flash Interactive
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.	3-12	QuickTime Video
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.	3-12	QuickTime Video
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.	3-12	QuickTime Video
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.	K-8	QuickTime Video
Materials Lab This interactive activity from the Building Big Web site explores the properties of different types of building materials.	3-12	Flash Interactive
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.	3-12	QuickTime Video
Observe, Make, Measure There are many ways to get information in the world. This collection of still images features tools that help us observe, make, and measure things.	K-5	Flash Image
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.	3-12	Flash Interactive
Sharing Water Between Dams In this video segment from WGBH, children figure out how to control the flow of water so it supplies two dams.	K-2	QuickTime Video
The Skyscraper Challenge In this interactive activity from the Building Big Web site, investigate hypothetical structural emergencies and figure out how to repair them.	3-12	HTML Interactive
Telescope Girl In this video segment from ZOOM, 12-year-old Katy gives people in her neighborhood a glimpse of the moon through a 10-inch reflecting telescope she built herself.	K-8	QuickTime Video
Testing Insulators: Ice Cube in a Box Watch the ZOOM cast discover which insulator -- newspaper or aluminum foil -- is better at keeping an ice cube frozen longer.	K-5	QuickTime Video
Triangles: Designing a Newspaper Chair Watch the ZOOM cast build a chair out of newspaper by making good use of the strength of triangles.	3-8	QuickTime Video
The Tunnel Challenge This interactive activity, from the Building Big Web site, explores tunneling and the tools and methods used to do the job.	3-12	HTML Interactive
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.	K-8	Flash Image