In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, watch the design process in action as cast members create automatic door openers to open their bedroom doors while still lying down.
Students learn more about assistive devices, specifically biomedical engineering applied to computer engineering concepts, with an engineering challenge to create an automatic floor cleaner computer program. Following the steps of the design process, they design computer programs and test them by programming a simulated robot vacuum cleaner (a LEGO® robot) to move in designated patterns. Successful programs meet all the design requirements.
Meet Melissa Bruno, a Control Engineer with E Tech Group, who uses her programming skills to teach machines to make things. She also makes amazing Halloween costumes for kids in wheelchairs! Engineering Your Future shares real stories from young professionals who want to inform and inspire students about in-demand engineering careers.
Student teams create laparoscopic surgical robots designed to reduce the invasiveness of diagnosing endometriosis and investigate how the disease forms and spreads. Using a synthetic abdominal cavity simulator, students test and iterate their remotely controlled, camera-toting prototype devices, which must fit through small incisions, inspect the organs and tissue for disease, obtain biopsies, and monitor via ongoing wireless image-taking. Note: This activity is the core design project for a semester-long, three-credit high school engineering course. Refer to the associated curricular unit for preparatory lessons and activities.
Students quantify the percent of light reflected from solutions containing varying concentrations of red dye using LEGO© MINDSTORMS© NXT bricks and light sensors. They begin by analyzing a set of standard solutions with known concentrations of food coloring, and plot data to graphically determine the relationship between percent reflected light and dye concentration. Then they identify dye concentrations for two unknown solution samples based on how much light they reflect. Students gain an understanding of light scattering applications and how to determine properties of unknown samples based on a set of standard samples.
Students discover the mathematical constant phi, the golden ratio, through hands-on activities. They measure dimensions of "natural objects"—a star, a nautilus shell and human hand bones—and calculate ratios of the measured values, which are close to phi. Then students learn a basic definition of a mathematical sequence, specifically the Fibonacci sequence. By taking ratios of successive terms of the sequence, they find numbers close to phi. They solve a squares puzzle that creates an approximate Fibonacci spiral. Finally, the instructor demonstrates the rule of the Fibonacci sequence via a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robot equipped with a pen. The robot (already created as part of the companion activity, The Fibonacci Sequence & Robots) draws a Fibonacci spiral that is similar to the nautilus shape.
A vertiport is a new type of facility for vertical takeoff and landing of various Advanced Air Mobility vehicles, such as drones and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. You could informally call these “drone airports”. Vertiports will be used for medium and short distance services, including healthcare supply delivery.
Through this hands-on curriculum, students will learn about vertiports, drones, and “advanced air mobility”; brainstorm ideas on how to design a vertiport; identify ways to make a functional, sustainable, and safe design; and build a model of a vertiport from cardboard and loose parts.
In this activity, students will create block code using the DroneBlocks app and will test their code after going through a pre-flight safety check. Students will experiment, test, and modify their code to achieve their desired goals, ultimately drawing connections to smart mobility technology.
Ozobot is an interactive robot designed to help students learn coding and computer science concepts. In this activity, students will create coding maps using markers, and will test their code using Ozobot robots. Students will experiment, test, and modify their code to achieve their desired goals, ultimately drawing connections to autonomous vehicles and other smart mobility technology.
The “Smart City Adventure” K-12 design challenge tasks students of all grade levels with reimagining their city to embrace new and futuristic mobility technology advancements to improve the movement of people and goods, on the ground and in the air. Improvements can be made in areas such as transportation, safety, accessibility, efficiency, sustainability and more.
Curriculum can be scaled to accommodate a variety of grade bands and learning objectives. For example, educators might choose a single topic area for K–2 or 3–5 students (such as Electric Vehicle Charging Stations), whereas a variety of topics with detailed features could be introduced for 6–8 or 9–12 students. Feel free to contact the DriveOhio workforce team for more ideas!
To support educators in offering immersive, K-12 “hands on” learning, DriveOhio has curated free curriculum organized by educational topic and grade bands. The curriculum activities are scalable, flexible, and modular. Each curriculum topic contains a list of necessary resources and a detailed lesson plan to walk educators through step-by-step. DriveOhio offers a variety of curriculum for topics including: Electric Vehicles and Charging Stations; Automated Vehicles and Delivery Robots; Drones, Advanced Air Mobility, and Vertiports; Connected Vehicles and Intersections; and Smart City Planning. DriveOhio has also compiled extra resources related to the curriculum for both teachers and students to learn more.
In this video from Science City, meet Eduardo Torres-Jara, a postdoctoral associate in electrical engineering and computer science at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. He describes his work on innovative robots that use tactile feedback to locate and grasp objects. [3:03]
Students develop and solidify their understanding of the concept of "perimeter" as they engage in a portion of the civil engineering task of land surveying. Specifically, they measure and calculate the perimeter of a fenced in area of "farmland," and see that this length is equivalent to the minimum required length of a fence to enclose it. Doing this for variously shaped areas confirms that the perimeter is the minimal length of fence required to enclose those shapes. Then students use the technology of a LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robot to automate this task. After measuring the perimeter (and thus required fence length) of the "farmland," students see the NXT robot travel around this length, just as a surveyor might travel around an area during the course of surveying land or measuring for fence materials. While practicing their problem solving and measurement skills, students learn and reinforce their scientific and geometric vocabulary.
Using the LEGO® NXT robotics kit, students construct and program robots to illustrate and explore the Fibonacci sequence. Within teams, students are assigned roles: group leader, chassis builder, arm builder, chief programmer, and Fibonacci verifier. By designing a robot that moves based on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, they can better visualize how quickly the numbers in the sequence grow. To program the robot to move according to these numbers, students break down the sequence into simple algebraic equations so that the computer can understand the Fibonacci sequence.
Looking for an activity that combines robotics, coding, and engineering with a real life problem? This unit uses MakeBlock parts, Scratch programming, and modeling to help students design a solution to soil compaction. This unit features 2 lessons and 2 files. Lessons are aligned to NGSS.
Students further their understanding of the engineering design process while combining mechanical engineering and bioengineering to create an automated medical device. During the activity, students are given a fictional client statement and are required to follow the steps of the design process to create medical devices that help reduce the workload for hospital workers and increase the quality of patient care.
In this video segment adapted from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researchers in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory working to engineer smarter robots are now building a machine that interacts socially with people.
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members enter the FIRST LEGO League Challenge tournament and work as a team to program their LEGO robot to navigate a complex obstacle course. [6:01]
The Maker Party, an initiative in which people around the world meet up, learn to make things, and share what they've made online. This collection is designed to support the Maker Party by providing a one-stop shop of STEM and digital making resources that focus on the problem, technology, or process behind object creation. Teachers can use the collection, which is categorized into design, how to (DIY), arts and crafts, robotics, and engineering subtopics, in conjunction with hands-on activities to further this initiative. Like the Maker Party, this collection is designed to encourage hands-on engagement in science, technology, engineering, math, and the arts. This Collection includes: Video (58), Media Gallery (3), Lesson Plan (3) for Grades All , Resources in Spanish (5).
The Mission to Mars curricular unit introduces students to Mars the Red Planet. Students discover why scientists are so interested in studying this mysterious planet. Many interesting facts about Mars are revealed, and the history of Martian exploration is reviewed. Students will learn about the development of robotics and how robots are beneficial to science, society and the exploration of space. Details on engineers' involvement in space exploration are presented. Furthermore, students will learn how orbits allow astronauts to move from planet to planet and what type of equipment is used by scientists and engineers to safely explore space. Lastly, the specific details on and human risks for a possible future manned mission to Mars (and back to Earth again!) are discussed.