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Students design and create their own air-powered rockets, in this hands-on activity.

This simple construction activity teaches the importance of architectural structure. Learners build and test designs for a paper "doghouse" strong enough to hold the weight of a jumbo dog biscuit.

In this activity, learners build an electric two-paddle boat using paint paddles, plastic knives, and empty water bottles.

In this activity, learners build a sled kite that models a type of airfoil called a parawing.

In this activity, learners build a simple tabletop seesaw to test how different variables (the position of the fulcrum, distance, weight) affect its balance under increasing weight loads.

In this engineering design challenge, learners build an octopus-inspired suction pad that can grab an object and hold it tightly in the air.

This quick demonstration (on page 11 of PDF) allows learners to understand why scientists think water ice could remain frozen in always-dark craters at the poles of the Moon.

In this engineering design challenge, learners build an air-powered spinning machine.

In this activity, learners build a hot air balloon using just a few sheets of tissue paper and a hair dryer.

In this activity, learners build helicopters and launchers using wooden dowels and scrap paper. Use this activity to explore rotational motion and kinetic and potential energy.

This fun activity uses simple materials such as milk cartons and mirrors to introduce the ideas of optics and visual perception.

In this project, students explore how levers work, by making a puppet with moving limbs.

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.

In this activity, educators can demonstrate how the nanoscale arrangement of atoms dramatically impacts a material’s macroscale behavior.

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

In this activity, learners will explore the dynamics of air pressure by using a candle, a cup, and a dish of water.

In this activity, learners imitate the way vocal cords work by building a model from a plastic cup, rubber band, and a straw.

In "Exploring the Solar System: Stomp Rockets," participants learn about how some rockets carry science tools—not scientists—into space, and how a special kind of rocket called "sounding rockets" can

In this activity about living things and gravity (page 5 of PDF), learners design and build an exoskeleton or an endoskeleton for an animal of their own invention.

In this activity, learners build a bird that flies in place with help from a motor, wire, and some straws.