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Simple Pop-Up Mechanisms
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In this activity, learners construct three quick and simple mechanisms to start building a pop-up book. Learners fold, cut, and glue paper to make a bird beak, parallelogram, and V-fold.

Nature Journals
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In this activity, learners construct a home-made journal with simple, everyday materials.

Egg-stra Strength
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In this physics activity, learners will investigate the strength of egg shells.

How to Test The Strength of Shapes
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In this activity, learners explore the strength of different shapes. Fold paper into triangles, squares, and other shapes, then experiment with how much weight they can hold.

Under Pressure
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In this simple activity, learners discover how a mere piece of paper can be used to hold up the weight of a heavy book.

Newspaper Bridges
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In this activity, learners build bridges out of newspaper and tape to explore how structures are designed to bear loads.

File Card Bridges
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With two stacks of books and a few rolls of pennies, build two kinds of bridges--a beam span and an arch span--and see how much weight each of them can hold.

Gumdrop Dome
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In this engineering activity, learners construct sturdy geodesic structures out of gumdrops and toothpicks. Use this activity to explore engineering principles as well as sturdy shapes and triangles.

Build An Aqueduct
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In this activity, learners use the design thinking process to design and build their own aqueduct, or water bridge.

Horton Senses Something Small
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In this story time program, young learners listen to the Dr.

Build a Bridge
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In this activity, learners use design thinking to design and build their own bridge out of household materials including adhesives and/or connectors.

Decomposition Column
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In this activity, learners turn empty 2-liter bottles into a see-through compost container.

Thrill Ride
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In this activity, learners will build a roller coaster for a marble to run on using everyday household materials such as paper towel or toilet paper rolls, cups, boxes, books, buckets, chairs, etc.

Mini Zoetrope
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In this activity (posted on March 27, 2011), learners follow the steps to construct a mini zoetrope, a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.

Building Tall
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In this engineering activity (page 2 of PDF), young learners investigate how a wide base can make a building more stable. Learners use blocks or boxes of different sizes to construct stable towers.

As Straight as a Pole
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In this engineering activity (page 3 of PDF), young learners investigate how a pole can be made stable by “planting” its base in the ground or adding supports to the base.

Designing a Wall
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In this engineering activity (page 5 of PDF), young learners investigate how materials and design contribute to the strength of a structure, particularly walls.