This Practical Action resource presents a fun hands-on and brains-on challenge for Key Stages Two to Five.

The problem:...

Tommy gained an interest in engineering while helping out in his grandfather’s workshop. After studying at college he did...

A useful handbook for setting up a student-led STEM club, with exemplars from three schools.

It is increasingly recognised that giving students opportunities to act as ambassadors and mentors for STEM subjects outside of school can be of great benefit to the individual, their institution, and to the broader...

This activity challenges students to work in small teams to design a water supply system for a small town of 5,000 inhabitants. They have to work within a budget, including giving themselves a profit margin.

The...

In this resource students are asked to test the operation of pulley systems and calculating their mechanical advantage.

Suggested learning outcomes include:

• To understand what is meant by mechanical advantage.
• To be able to calculate the mechanical advantage of pulley systems.
• ...

Some of the biggest challenges we face stem from how we interact with our environment, and engineering is essential to finding sustainable solutions. From renewable power to recycling, to making our homes more energy efficient, and tackling how we feed a growing population, engineering is a vital field.
 ...

Some of the biggest challenges we face stem from how we interact with our environment, and engineering is at the heart of finding sustainable solutions. Working with water is particularly important when thinking about the environment because water sustains all life and is essential to the survival of the planet....

These technical briefs focus on ways to transport goods and people in a relatively low cost way. This is important to people in the...

This STEMNET resource describes the background and career of transportation planner, and STEM Ambassador, Dan Cornelius.

Dan's role is to assess road schemes and their impacts on local and regional areas. He develops graphic models of the situation and location. This allows him to manipulate elements, such...

This resource looks at measuring sizes of hands and presenting data.

Suggested Learning Outcomes                 

• To understand what is meant by ergonomics and anthropometrics in design.
• To be able to give examples of ergonomic design and the use of anthropometric data.
• To...

These technical briefs focus on low cost approaches to accessing clean water and sanitation. This is vital to health and well being and low costs are particularly important to poorer communities in the developing world.

Technical briefs are documents produced by Practical Action which are freely available to...

The work that engineers do affects billions of people. It is creative and hands-on. It is about solving problems, designing things and improving things. As an engineer, you could tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems - from dealing with cyber security and maintaining clean water and energy supplies to...

Produced by Rolls-Royce, this series of case studies illustrates the wide range of career opportunities that are opened up for students with skills in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. They can be used to give careers advice and guidance to students as well as to illustrate the curriculum principles...

This resource, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), allows students to investigate the wide range of sophisticated imaging technology available in modern hospitals, and to explore the latest ideas in search-and-rescue robotics.

In this practical activity, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), students investigate aspects of signal processing. Working in teams, students convert an analogue brain signal into a digital format and transmit it across the classroom to another...