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Build Your Own Wind Turbine
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Learners construct an electricity-generating wind turbine out of a plastic bottle.

Hull Engineering
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In this activity, learners explore how the hull shape impacts a ship's performance and stability.

Jam Jar Jet
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In this activity, learners create a "Jam Jar Jet" based on Francois Reynst's discovery of a pulsejet engine, which uses one opening for both air intake and exhaust.

Kinetic Sculpture: Program the Pico Cricket to Make Your Art Light Up or Spin
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Use a Pico Cricket (micro-controller) to animate your art! You can program a Pico Cricket to make your art spin, light up, or make music.

An Ice Lens
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In this optics activity, learners discover basic lens-making techniques by using a tennis ball to make a lens out of ice.

Jump Into Design: Understanding the Design Process
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In this series of activities (page 5), students are introduced to the design process.

Smart Domino Tricks
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In this activity, you take regular dominoes, and turn them into conductive switches that can turn on a LEGO RCX block or Pico Cricket (micro controller). LEGO RCX block or Pico Cricket is required.

Interactive Pencil Drawings: Drawings That Tell a Story!
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Margaret Pezalla-Granlund, a Minnesota artist, came up with this really fun and surprising activity using graphite from a pencil, connected with a Pico Cricket to tell a story: "The first time I saw s

Clap Sensor: Build a Sound Sensor Using a Pico Cricket
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This activity requires a Pico Cricket (tiny computer). Learners work on designing and building a sound sensor out of household materials, like plastic wrap and cardboard.

Equatorial Sundial
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In this activity, learners make an equatorial sundial, which is simple to construct and teaches fundamental astronomical concepts. Learners use the provided template and a straw to build the sundial.

Edible Glass
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In this activity, learners discover the principles of edible glass by making a supersaturated sugar solution.

Build Your Own Solar Oven
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Learners follow directions to construct a solar oven that really cooks! The solar oven uses aluminum foil to reflect sunlight into a cooking chamber, which is painted black.

Water Fountain
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In this activity, learners explore how a hydraulic pump works. Learners work in teams to design and build a unique water fountain that employs a hydraulic pump.

Pipeline Challenge
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In this activity, learners explore how engineers develop pipeline systems to transport oil, water, gas, and other materials over very long distances.

Making Metals Strong
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In this activity, learners demonstrate the effects of cold-working (strain-hardening) and annealing. Learners discover that these processes change the load that a wire can support.

Robot Basketball
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In this activity, learners explore accuracy and precision.

Using Ohm's Law to Build a Voltage Divider
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In this activity, learners apply Ohm’s Law to construct voltage divider circuits. Learners discover how to read resistor codes and calculate resistor values.

A Question of Balance
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In this activity, learners explore how engineers use scales and measures when designing a manufacturing process to ensure that final products are uniform in weight or count.

Musical Ice: How to Make an Ice Theremin
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Build a musical ice theremin by programming a micro controller, like a Pico Cricket to respond to resistance generated by the ice melting, or the ice being touched.

Investigating and Using Biomass Gases
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In this activity, learners will be introduced to biomass gasification and will generate their own biomass gases.