Activities
Engineering Design Resources
Summary
Energy Engineering Design Lessons & Activities for Middle & High School
This collection of energy engineering design lessons has students design, build, and improve real solutions to energy problems. Through hands-on builds and constraint-based design projects, students define a problem, weigh trade-offs, and test or defend a solution against real limits like cost, materials, and available resources. Each lesson maps to engineering design standards and practices in NGSS.
Build and test a working model
- Build a Windmill — design a turbine that has to spin, then improve it
- Float the Offshore Wind — build a turbine platform that stays upright in moving water
- Build a Waterwheel — build a wheel that turns under a current
- St. Patrick’s Day Engineering Challenge — open-ended build with a set testing protocol
Design a solution under real constraints
- Energy Efficiency and Trade-Offs Challenge — size a home’s energy system against cost and energy caps
- Bioenergy Challenge — build a feasibility-checked bioenergy plan for a town on a fixed budget
- Designing an Electric Grid — map a grid and the voltage changes across it
- Innovative Building Design Research Project — research and propose a building design
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