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LESSON PLANS

Engage students in engineering with easy to use lesson plans

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Teach Engineering Through Simple & Engaging Activities

Explore IEEE Try Engineering’s database of lesson plans to teach engineering concepts to your students, aged 4 to 18. Explore areas such as lasers, LED lights, flight, smart buildings, and more through our activities. All lesson plans are provided by teachers like you and are peer reviewed.

Our lesson plans are easy to use and include student handouts and worksheets to print out. Select a category or an age range below to find lessons suitable for your students. If you have used any of our lessons, we want your feedback so please complete the survey below.

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IEEE REACH

IEEE REACH offers a one-stop shop of resources that bring to life the history of technology and engineering in the classroom. Resources include: inquiry units, primary and secondary sources, hands-on-activities, and multimedia sources (video and audio). The units have 9 themes: agriculture, manufacturing, materials & structures, energy, communication, transportation, information processing, medicine & healthcare, and warfare.

IEEE REACH: History of Technology Resources

Electricity and Magnetism

Energy

14-18

Lesson Focus This lesson focuses on transformers as one of the most important components in any electrical system. Students engage in a hands-on activity where they...

Energy

8-12, 12-14

Lesson Focus The lesson begins by making the point that while Wind Turbines often have dead spells when there is no wind blowing, they can...

Electricity and Magnetism

12-14, 14-18

Lesson Focus The lesson begins by outlining the work of some of the early experimenters and the sequence which eventually led to the realization of...

Electricity and Magnetism

8-12, 12-14, 14-18

Lesson Focus The lesson begins by outlining the work of some of the early experimenters and the sequence which eventually led to the realization of...

Engineering Design

Motion and Forces

4-7

Lesson Focus Students will learn about the engineering design process and about friction and forces. Students will work in teams to design a skier out...

Light and Heat

4-7

Me and My Shadow

Lesson Focus This lesson develops principles of the effect of sunlight on the Earth’s surface. Students will explore the effects of the location of the...

Engineering Design

4-7

Desert Island Survival

Lesson Focus Students will learn about the Engineering Design Process and design a prototype of a hut able to withstand strong winds on a deserted...

Technology

8-12, 12-14

Recycling Sorter

Lesson Focus Students will learn about the challenges waste management centers face and different methods they use to sort recycling. In small teams, students will...

Environments and Resources

4-7

Salamander Crossing

Lesson Focus Students will learn about different kinds of animal crossings engineered to help protect wildlife and the ways civil engineers can take wildlife migration...

Technology

8-12, 12-14

Writing in HTML

Lesson Focus Students will learn basic HTML and explore how code can translate into a final visual design, such as a web page. They will...

Electricity and Magnetism

Technology

8-12, 12-14

Lesson Focus Students will learn about electricity and circuits by using conductive and insulating dough to build creative electric creations. This activity is based on...

Squishy Circuits

Lesson Plans

8-12, 12-14

3D Printing by Hand

Lesson Focus Students will explore how 3D printers work. Then, working in pairs, they will use the same methods used by 3D printers to create...

Electricity and Magnetism

Motion and Forces

12-14, 14-18

Sponsored

SparkPunk Hook Up

Lesson Focus In this lesson students explore how a simple synthesizer (electronic machine that produces sound) works by assembling, testing and modify the SparkPunk (a...

Sound, Synthesizer

Electricity and Magnetism

8-12, 12-14, 14-18

Basic Electricity & Magnetism: “But it’s the Law, Doktor Ohm!”

Lesson Focus This lesson focuses on the basics of electricity and magnetism. It begins by outlining the work of some of the early experimenters and...

Electricity and Magnetism

Electricity and Magnetism

Technology

12-14, 14-18

Sponsored

Making a Motor Shield

Lesson Focus This lesson, sponsored by Digi-Key Electronics, explores the power of a microcontroller by having students add a motor shield to an Arduino board...

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Arduino, Microcontroller, Motor Shield

Properties of Materials

Technology

8-12, 12-14

Sponsored

Laser Creations: Designing and Producing a Custom ID Tag

Using vector-based graphic design software and an Epilog Laser cutter/engraver, students will learn to design and produce their very own custom backpack/luggage tag.

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Electricity and Magnetism

Technology

8-12, 12-14

LEDs and Resistors

This lesson explores LEDs and resistors and reviews the differences between parallel and series circuit design and functions.

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Electricity and Magnetism

Engineering Design

Technology

8-12, 12-14

Sketching Circuits

This lesson introduces students to the new technique of drawing electrical pathways for circuitry with pens.

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Engineering Design

Motion and Forces

Properties of Materials

8-12, 12-14

Designing Drones

Lesson focuses on helicopters and drones, how they fly, how they are used in different ways that helps people and the environment. Teams of students...

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Engineering Design

Motion and Forces

Properties of Materials

8-12, 12-14

Lesson focuses on flight and how the design of a glider will improve aerodynamic function. Teams of students explore the forces that impact flight and...

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Light and Heat

8-12, 12-14, 14-18

An Eye on Optics

The goal of this lesson is to provide students with an open-ended opportunity to explore and work with the materials, make and share observations, and...

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Mathematical Applications

Technology

8-12, 12-14, 14-18

Virtual Reality and Anaglyph Stereoscopic Technology

With the mass production and availability of low cost and robust head-mounted displays (HMDs), there has been increasing interest in virtual reality technologies - for...

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Mathematical Applications

Technology

8-12, 12-14

This lesson is intended to provide very young students with a basic understanding of how the system of binary numbers works.

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Engineering Design

4-7

The Boat and the Beetle

This lesson further develops principles of floating and sinking to young learners. It allows children to explore how boats and ships use the principle of...

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Profiles & FAQ’s

FEATURED ENGINEER

“Look around and see what issues your society faces; Think about how education and technology can help solve such problems. Technology is most valuable when...

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ENGINEER FAQs

How do engineers make a difference in their communities? In the world?

Think about the world around you: airplanes, automobiles, electricity, cell phones, medications … even a bottle of water – everything man-made has been designed by...

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