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The Shape of Floatation
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In this activity (on page 2 of the PDF under GPS: Sailboat Design Activity), learners will discover how the shape of an object, not just its weight, determines whether it floats or sinks.

Isopods
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In this outdoor activity, learners dig for and collect isopods (sometimes known as "roly-poly bugs" or "potato bugs" and other names).

Spaghetti Bridge
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In this engineering activity, learners investigate the differences between the strength of bridges made from flat and round building materials.

Life Size: What's in a microbe?
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In this activity on page 3 of the PDF, learners visualize the relative size and structural differences between microbes that have the potential to cause disease.

Strengthen a Paper Bridge
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In this quick activity (page 1 of the PDF under SciGirls Activity: Tug O' War), learners will test how many pennies a flat paper index card bridging the gap between two stacks of books is able to supp

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.

Stop the Stretching
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Learners work with plastic sheeting, masking tape, and string to design the perfect material for plastic chair webbing, and then construct their webbing.

Foam Tower
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In this activity (page 1 of the PDF under SciGirls Activity: Water Slides), learners will whip up some suds with a cup of water and a tablespoon of dish soap until the bubbles are stiff enough to star

Single-Cell Life
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In this activity, learners create a soil and water model of a single-cell life environment and study living microorganisms.

Snug as a Bug
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In this outdoor activity, learners make models of homes that might protect small animals from the elements, then search living plants for real structures made by small animals.

Critical Load
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In this activity, learners explore the concepts of structural engineering and how to measure the critical load, or the maximum weight a structure can bear.

High Rise
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In this design challenge activity, learners build a tower that can support a tennis ball at least 18 inches off the ground while withstanding the wind from a fan.

Sticky Structures
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In this engineering/design/arts and crafts activity, learners design and build "platforms" or "bridges" that can hold weight, and test which glue makes the strongest structure.

The Squeeze is On
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Each group of learners uses everyday materials, such as paper, toothpicks, and tape to design and construct a structure intended to support the weight of a cinder block for 30 seconds.

Rutherford's Enlarged: A Content-Embedded Activity to Teach about Nature of Science
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This paper describes a working-model demonstration of Ernest Rutherford's 1911 experiment about the nature of atoms.

Apartment Buildings and More
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In this engineering activity, young learners investigate multi-level buildings.

Building with Wonderful Junk
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In this activity (page 4), learners work in groups to plan and build large structures using recyclable materials they have brought from home.

Speedy Shelter
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In this design challenge activity, learners invent an emergency shelter that can fit a person and is sturdy and quick to build.

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.