Recently Added Curriculum

Students are introduced to ethics and engineering ethics through a short, engaging case study that prompts discussion about how engineers should respond to difficult choices. They explore ethical questions and learn about professional codes of ethics. After researching the code of ethics for an engineering discipline of their choice, students analyze case studies based on real engineering experiences. They identify normative claims and evaluate possible actions using ethical frameworks such as virtue ethics, duty ethics, and utilitarianism. Finally, students complete a case study analysis, applying ethical reasoning to situations from the provided cases or from their own independent research.

Students act as engineers as they design, build, and test a smart prosthetic grip system using Arduino, a force-sensitive resistor (FSR), and a servo motor. Students construct a prosthetic finger or hand from materials of their choice and program it to move through different angles of motion, modeling how real-world assistive technologies function. As they test their designs, students collect data to investigate how the angle of the prosthetic joint affects the force applied at the fingertip. They use this data to create and analyze a quadratic model, identify the angle that produces maximum grip force, and interpret key features of the function such as the vertex and intercepts. Using their mathematical analysis, students refine and optimize their prosthetic designs to improve performance.

Students use the engineering design process to build and refine a low-cost, light-based diagnostic prototype that simulates real-world biomedical tools. Students learn how light interacts with matter through spectrometry and explore how photonics technologies are used in point-of-care devices such as pulse oximeters to assess blood flow and cardiovascular health. Using everyday materials to model scattering “blood” samples, students test and compare how light transmission changes, analyzing brightness and clarity rather than precise absorbance.

This activity introduces students to the real-world challenges robotic systems face in modern warehouses, where machines must sort thousands of items accurately, safely, and efficiently. Students explore core concepts such as joint motion, coordinate systems, sensing, and basic programming logic to understand how robots move and make decisions. Thinking like robotic engineers, students then work in teams to program the SO-101 robotic arm to complete a pick-and-place challenge, moving objects from a pickup area to specific sorting bins based on color or size.

Students explore myelination, demyelination, and remyelination through a hands-on simulation. They design a model of a myelinated nerve by lining a tube with a material that helps a marble travel through quickly and smoothly. After measuring the marble’s speed through this “healthy” tube, students then simulate demyelination by damaging or removing part of the lining and measuring the slower speed. Finally, they attempt to “repair” the tube, test the marble’s speed again, and compare results.

Students explore the science and engineering behind hydraulic bridges. They begin by considering how bridges lift to allow large ships to pass and learn that hydraulic systems use pressurized fluids to generate controlled, powerful motion. Through hands-on exploration with syringes filled with air, water, and viscous substances, students observe how different fluids transfer force and how viscosity affects movement. These investigations reinforce key physics concepts, including balanced and unbalanced forces, fluid behavior, and Newton’s First Law of Inertia. Students then apply this knowledge by designing and constructing a model hydraulic bridge using syringes, tubing, and craft materials. During the design process, they evaluate stability, force transfer, and structural support while troubleshooting and refining their ideas.

This activity integrates life science, engineering, and materials science as students design a biome-specific robot. Students start by researching an assigned global biome, exploring its unique characteristics such as climate, terrain, and biodiversity. This research helps them understand the environmental challenges their robots will face. Next, they delve into the world of high-performance polymers, learning about their properties, uses, and applications. Using this knowledge and applying engineering design principles, students strategically select polymers to build a robot that can function effectively within their chosen biome's unique conditions.

Students act as biomedical engineers and follow the engineering design process to create and test custom orthotic insoles. They begin by asking questions to learn about foot-related medical problems, such as plantar fasciitis and flat feet, and identify how orthotics can help reduce pain or pressure. Next, they imagine possible insole designs that could support the foot and reduce impact during movement. During the plan stage, students sketch their ideas and select materials with varying foam densities to provide targeted support for their chosen foot condition. They then create a prototype orthotic using foam and hot glue based on their plan. To test their designs, students drop a weighted ball onto kinetic sand with and without their orthotics, measuring the depth of impact to determine how much pressure their design absorbs. Afterward, they improve their designs by analyzing test data, identifying areas of success, and considering modifications.

This activity provides a foundation for ethical hacking by using tools in Kali Linux to analyze and attack a target system, Metasploitable2. Students learn about ethical hacking, containers, and network engineering as they use Docker to build and connect their own hacker and target systems. They identify and install necessary tools on Kali Linux, including Nmap to scan the target for open ports and running processes. This information helps them create efficient username and password lists, or "dictionaries," using Crunch. The activity culminates with students using Hydra to brute-force crack the target system's passwords with their custom wordlists.

Students become “efficiency experts” who have been contracted by an auto manufacturer. They are presented with plans for three car models (made from plastic building bricks) the company currently makes. The current designs are selling well but are not as profitable as the company would like, because they require more building materials (plastic bricks) and take more time to build than would be ideal. After conducting a simulation of the company’s current mass production system, the “efficiency experts” are asked to propose modifications to the current system (e.g., vehicle design, assembly line layout, and labor allocation) that will allow the company to make more cars for a lower price, while remaining within specific safety and efficiency guidelines required by law. The “efficiency experts” then implement their redesigned system and compare building time and cost of the revised system to the original one. Finally, the experts prepare a presentation for the auto manufacturer’s executives during which they report their proposed modifications, citing specific examples of cost and time that was saved between the original production process and the revised one.

Students design, build, and test a model robotic arm capable of moving objects from one location to another. Using everyday materials such as craft sticks, string, paper clips, and rubber bands, students explore how simple machines work together to perform complex tasks, like NASA engineers who design robotic arms for Mars rovers and the International Space Station.

Students explore the mechanical principles behind hand movement by constructing a working model of a human finger and hand.

Students act as chemical engineers tasked with improving the stability of protein-based medicines by developing a cost-effective surfactant to reduce protein aggregation during shipment. They learn about surface tension, surfactants, and the contributions of the scientist Agnes Pockels before using a simple Langmuir-Pockels trough model to test unknown additives. Using their collected data, students propose and evaluate a surfactant solution to minimize protein aggregation caused by agitation.

Students use readily available materials to design and build a device that transports a large amount of material down a hill. They must work within limited resources to construct their design. As they learn about motion and forces, students apply concepts of kinematics and dynamics to evaluate the performance of their system to determine the maximum weight it can safely carry down the hill in the least amount of time without breaking the rope. Finally, students perform a force analysis to calculate the acceleration of their load.

Students are challenged to efficiently extract a model rare earth element, terbium, which is essential for electronics but typically refined using harmful acid-washing methods. Students first learn about water and solution properties such as hydrophobic/hydrophilic interactions, solubility, and the effects of temperature and agitation. They then apply this knowledge to a simulated extraction challenge: separating black pepper (terbium) from a solution of water (acid), salt (calcium), and sugar (iron). Finally, competing student groups must determine the fastest, most cost-effective combination of variables (temperature, agitation, etc.) to dissolve the salt and sugar, leaving only the "purified" pepper, thereby modeling the innovative and fiscally responsible problem-solving used by environmental engineers to safely extract rare earth elements.