Fun, At-home Projects During Engineers Week!
“Imagining Tomorrow” is the theme for this year’s Engineers Week, held February 21-27. Let’s inspire the next generation of engineers to “engineer for tomorrow”.
Below we have selected fun hands-on, virtual activities that we will highlight during Engineers Week. Start gathering your supplies now from around your house. If you don’t have something on the list, improvise with something you do have! Each morning of Engineers Week, beginning on February 22, we will update each activity with a link to a short video and instructions provided by DiscoverE.
Monday, 2/22: Tallest cup tower, Grades K-8
Supplies needed:
- Paper or plastic cups of uniform size (12 oz or 16 oz are best), but you could also try empty soda cans, dixie cups, rolls of toilet paper, or round plastic plant pots.
Tuesday, 2/23: Critical load card bridge, Grades 3-8
Supplies needed:
- 12 playing cards (any type)
- Scotch tape
- A small cardboard platform (the bottom of a milk or juice carton works great, or you can cut down a pizza or cereal box)
- And something small to use as your weights, like pennies or paper clips
Wednesday, 2/24: Windy city paper tower, Grades 3-12
Supplies needed:
- 3 sheets of paper. No unused paper at home? Try recycling your mail or old magazines.
- Tape—no more than 2 yards (6 feet)
- Scissors
- Ruler/yardstick
- A weight with a hole in the middle such as a large washer, a circle of beads on a string, a piece of bread with a hole in the middle. You can even tape pennies around the end of a paper tube.
- Paper and pencil for drawing plans
- Electric box fan or table fan
Thursday, 2/25: Step launcher, Grades 3-8
Supplies needed:
- A ping pong ball, or small foam ball, to launch
- Lever materials like paint stirrers, rulers or spoons
- Fulcrum materials like thread spools or paper towel tubes
- Tape or rubber bands
Friday, 2/26: Water pollution cleanup, Grades K-12
Supplies needed:
- Polluted water
- Bowl
- Items to pollute the water: dry grass, potting soil, toilet paper, fishing line, plastic pieces, detergent, paper. Use your imagination!
- Filtration system
- Cups or recycled bottles
- Items to filter/clean the water which could include: cotton balls, coffee filters, spoons, funnels, strainers, cloth, paper towels, kitty litter, sand, rocks, marbles, charcoal from the grill. You might need to pre-rinse items like kitty litter, rocks, and charcoal to remove tiny pieces that could actually add to the dirt in the water.
Have fun!!
