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Perspectives: Powers of 10
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In this activity, learners complete a series of drawing activities to explore scale and powers of 10. Learners first trace each other on 1-meter-square pieces of paper.

Cupcake Delivery
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In this design challenge, learners will create wind-powered contraptions to transport a load, such as a cupcake or another small object, and test to see if they work.

Tops
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In this activity, learners discover that some things only stand up while they are spinning.

Boomerang
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Learners trace, cut out and fly a boomerang, outdoors or in a large indoor space.

Matraca
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In this activity, learners create a traditional Mexican noisemaker (a matraca) using cardboard, craft sticks, and a wooden dowel.

Pinball Wizard
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In this hands-on engineering project, kids use two simple machines, levers and inclined planes, to construct their own pinball machines.

Canine House of Cards
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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.

Pinhole Viewer
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In this activity, learners discuss and investigate how cameras, telescopes, and their own eyes use light in similar ways.

Build Your Own Robot Arm
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In this lesson, learners develop a robot arm using common materials. Learners explore design, construction, and teamwork, as well as materials selection and use.

Exploring Materials: Thin Films
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In this activity, learners create a colorful bookmark using a super thin layer of nail polish on water. Learners discover that a thin film creates iridescent, rainbow colors.

Be a Plumber
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In this activity (located on page 6 of the PDF), learners explore the ways people access water in their homes.

Set It Straight
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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.

Make a Totem Pole
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In this activity (on page 2 of PDF), learners make their own totem poles out of recycled materials.

Pop Bottle Whirligig
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Learn about friction and kinetic energy with this cool spinning toy.

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

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

A Towering Achievement
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In this experience, learners use the internet to research physical details about Chihuly's Fireworks of Glass "Tower" and "Ceiling" and consider the decisions Chihuly had to make as he was planning th

Extruding
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This activity was designed for blind learners, but all types of learners can explore the process of extrusion used to produce pipes and wires in industry.

The Poor Cartographer: Graph Coloring
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In this activity, learners help a poor cartographer color in the countries on a map, making sure each country is colored a different color than any of its neighbors.

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.