It is National Engineers Week! STEM Activities for Kids has something new to share with you each day this week. Be sure to check back each day for more ways engage your students in engineering.
Get Started with Engineering
Are you ready for Engineers Week? We are so excited to bring you 7 days in a row of engineering tips, freebies, ideas and more!
First, let’s start off with the most basic question.
What is an engineer? What do engineers do?
In brief, engineers are people who solve technical problems with their mathematics and science knowledge. The usually work in teams and try to come up with innovative solutions that have practical applications. In addition to having great ideas, engineers need to make sure those ideas actually work! For a great introduction to what an engineer is and the engineering design process, Crash Course Kids has some great videos up that give a brief overview. 
Tip: Be ready to PAUSE the videos while watching them together! While the content is good, the speaker moves through all of the points very quickly. Pause after each point/question to discuss, and your students will gain a deeper understanding of what engineering is and what engineers do. For more engineering videos, you can work through the playlist here.
Educational Engineering App
Truss me is an educational engineering app where you can explore structure design with trusses! What are joints, pins, and rollers? Find out more at Scientific Monkey or download at the AppStore or Google Play to start playing immediately. There are challenges as well as a free build option.
In addition to this fun app, you won’t want to miss these other engineering apps compiled by Sunshine and Hurricanes.
Discover Engineering™
Discover Engineering™ has so many great resources for educators, parents, and students that it’s hard to know where to start. This video shows students learning about engineers, the Engineering Design Process, and tornado resistant structures:
The video is great because it shows kids learning about engineers in a hands-on way, and should appeal to elementary as well as middle school students. If you live in an area affected by tornadoes, you may find it particularly interesting.
What Do Engineers Actually Make?
The short answer is everything. CNN has put together a list of 25 of Mankind’s Greatest Engineering Achievements. They are pretty spectacular! Are there any engineering marvels in your community? Ask your students if they have noticed any striking buildings, bridges, structures. If there is a local engineering or manufacturing company, you may be able to schedule a tour of the facility. Other good places to check in the community are recycling centers, waste water centers, or utility companies.
National Engineers Week Posters
Explore National Engineers Week all week; dress up your hallway or bulletin board with these FREE posters:
There is a display header (choose from either “National Engineers Week” or “Become and Engineer”) and the following posters:
- What is an engineer? (with an alternate for the UK English spelling “maths” since the original says “math”)
- What do engineers do?
- How can I become an engineer?
- Why should I become an engineer?
- Anatomy of an engineer
Be sure to check all of the other posts for National Engineers Week!
Special thanks to A Sketchy Guy for the amazing kid graphics!
3 Comments
Leave your reply.