NGSS Engineering Design
Making sense of phenomena and solving problems while deepening student engagement.
The TE hands-on activities featured here, by grade, focus on the engineering design component of the Next Gen standards.
These hands-on activities focus on the K-2 Engineering Design standards that allow students to: ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a simple design problem; develop a prototype to illustrate how an object functions (as necessary in solving problems); and compare different solutions and analyze data from tests to identify strengths and weaknesses of each solution.
- Be “Cool” with Popsicle Engineering
- Naturally Organized
- Invent a Backscratcher from Everyday Materials
- Engineering an Animal’s Survival
- Soil from Spoiled: Engineering a Compost Habitat for Worms
- Bacteria! It’s Everywhere!
- Inundation Inspiration
- Silkworm Strength!
- Simple Snow Load Roof Model Demo: Which Roof Is Tops?
- Sink or Float? Engineering Solutions for a Sticky Situation
- Stop Freewheeling Using Friction!
- Super Slime Engineering
- The Water Around Us
These hands-on activities focus on the grades 3-5 Engineering Design standards that provide students with an opportunity to define a simple design problem with specified criteria and constraints, generate and compare various solutions to a problem based on which better meet the criteria, and carry out controlled tests to identify aspects of a model that can be improved.
- Test & Improve: Making Tall & Strong Recycled Towers
- Engineering a Mountain Rescue Litter
- Constraints: Pop Rockets on a Shoestring Budget
- Clean Enough to Drink: Making Devices to Filter Dirty Water
- Exploring Variables While Testing & Improving Mint-Mobiles (for Elementary School)
- Biodomes Engineering Design Project: Lessons 2-6
- Bumps and Bruises in Sports: Protect Your Egg
- Controlling Sound
- Cooking with the Sun: Comparing Yummy Solar Cooker Designs
- Cutting Through Soil
- Design Devices to Help Astronauts Eat: Lunch in Outer Space!
- History and Testing Shapes of Strength for Buildings
- Modeling Oil on the Ocean: Testing & Improving Oil Booms
- Survive That Tsunami! Testing Model Villages in Big Waves
- Water Power
These hands-on activities focus on the grades 6-8 Engineering Design standards that provide students with an opportunity to define constraints and criteria of a design problem, evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process, analyze data to identify new solutions which better meet the criteria, and develop models to generate data for iterative testing and to optimize a design.
- Small-Scale Modeling of Oil Spill Cleanup Methods
- Solving Everyday Problems Using the Engineering Design Cycle
- Operation Build a Bridge and Get Over It
- A Guide to Rain Garden Construction
- Renewable Energy Design: Wind Turbines
- Amusement Park Ride: Ups and Downs in Design
- Automatic Floor Cleaner Computer Program Challenge
- Clay Boats
- Cleaning the Air
- Clearing a Path to the Heart
- Cooking with the Sun - Creating a Solar Oven
- Creative Crash Test Cars
- Design a Carrying Device for People Using Crutches
- Designing Medical Devices to Extract Foreign Bodies from Ears
- Future Hospitals: Robotics and Automated Patient Care Engineering
- Hydraulic Arm Challenge
- Off-Road Wheelchair Challenge
- Saving a Life: Heart Valve Replacement
These hands-on activities focus on the grades 9-12 Engineering Design standards that provide students with an opportunity to: analyze a global challenge to specify criteria and constraints for solutions that meet societal needs; design a solution to a complex real-world problem by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable problems; evaluate the solutions against a range of constraints; and use a computer simulation to model the impact of proposed solutions.
- Engineering Ethics: Evaluating Popular Inventions
- Creating Mini Wastewater Treatment Plants
- Concentrating on the Sun with Photovoltaic Solar Panels
- Hurricane! Saving Lives via Logical Reasoning & Computer Science
- Designing a Frictional Roller Coaster With Math and Physics!
- Above-Ground Storage Tank Design Project
- Boom Construction
- Building Arduino Light Sculptures
- Convertible Shoes: Function, Fashion and Design
- Design a Bicycle Helmet
- Designing a Robotic Surgical Device
- Does My Model Valve Stack up to the Real Thing?
- Engineers Love Pizza, Too! Engineering an Assistive Eating Device
- Exploiting Polarization: Designing More Effective Sunglasses
- Inquiry and Engineering: Gliders
- Tippy Tap Plus Piping
Why NGSS Engineering Design for K-12 Youth?
Engineering design promotes vital problem solving skills through project-based learning, while strengthening critical thinking skills. Engineering design-aligned curricula help develop students’ engineering habits of mind and design thinking by tying together multiple disciplines, and students working in teams to solve real-life problems they are passionate about!
The NGSS provide a foundation in engineering design that encourages students to design a wide range of solutions to problems that arise from phenomena. Anchoring learning in making sense of phenomena and using explanations of phenomena to design solutions well prepares K-12 students for college and careers.
What is Next Gen Three Dimensional Learning?
The NGSS are based on three dimensional learning. As outlined in the Framework, students make sense of phenomena by using Science and Engineering Practices (dimension 1) and applying Crosscutting Concepts (dimension 2), as well as Disciplinary Core Ideas (dimension 3). The integration of these three dimensions, all in service of making sense of phenomena, illustrates the importance — and interdependence — of content knowledge and practices that engage students both in scientific inquiry and engineering design.
Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) describe the practices that scientists and engineers employ within their field. The SEPs help develop students’ knowledge of science and engineering while enhancing their aptitude with related practices.
The SEPs are comprised of:
- Asking Questions and Defining Problems
- Developing and Using Models
- Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
- Analyzing and Interpreting Data
- Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
- Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
- Engaging in Argument from Evidence
- Obtaining, Evaluating and Communicating Information
Crosscutting Concepts (CCs) connect the various domains of science and allow students to better grasp and explore the interdependence between several science and engineering disciplines. The CCs provide students with an organizational scheme in which to understand the scientific world.
Crosscutting concepts address the following topics:
- Patterns
- Cause and Effect
- Scale, Proportion and Quantity
- Systems and System Models
- Energy and Matter
- Structure and Function
- Stability and Change
Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) are a collection of ideas in science and engineering aimed to provide students with essential information that can be developed and integrated well beyond a student’s schooling. Thus, the DCIs help focus K-12 science curriculum.
The DCIs are grouped by the following domains:
Physical Sciences
- PS1: Matter and its Interactions
- PS2: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
- PS3: Energy
- PS4: Waves and Their Applications in Technologies for Information Transfer
Life Sciences
- LS1: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
- LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- LS3: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
- LS4: Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
Earth and Space Sciences
- ESS1: Earth’s Place in the Universe
- ESS2: Earth’s Systems
- ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
Engineering, Technology, and the Application of Science
- ETS1: Engineering Design