These activities provide students with an understanding of the importance of fitness for purpose when designing new products. Students learn how to effectively dismantle and investigate an engineered product to determine its function/purpose.

In this activity, from the LSIS, students discover for themselves the importance of the perpendicular distance in moments. It is presented as a whole class discussion but can easily be adapted for small group work.

The activity uses a magnetic disc that takes about 15 minutes to construct. The activity will...

This resource investigates how hoverboards work.

Suggested learning outcomes include:

• Understand how at least two different examples of hoverboards function.
• Know how to analyse examples of existing products.
• Analyse the main features of a product and identify improvements that...

This resource considers the social implications and challenges faced.

Suggested learning outcomes include:

• To know what is meant by a remote area.
• To understand the social problems and challenges faced by people living in remote...

This IET...

From Practical Action, this resource encourages students to look at how design specifications are balanced when developing new products.

In this activity students literally form a line to demonstrate their understanding of  the environmental, economic and social impact of everyday products, then discuss and debate.  The activity helps them understand the impact of everyday products throughout their life cycle from manufacturing to disposal.

This activity, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), looks at the properties and applications of waves in general, and the electromagnetic spectrum in particular. Students are asked to work out the type of electromagnetic radiation used in different...

Inspired by the Born to Engineer video from Sam Fraser, an engineer who combines his love for engineering with a passion for football, this resource supports students to increase their understanding of materials engineering, including materials testing, design and material properties (Hooke’s Law, shear,...

Medical Emergencies, from the Centre for Science Education, is a set of teaching materials which offer a cross-curricular approach to learning about engineering. Students design and make a hanging storage device that could, ideally, be folded up to make a rucksack or...

In this DIY Faraday Challenge, students are asked to work in teams to design and construct the rocket which will transport supplies via Earth orbit to the astronauts on Mars. They are also required to build a system to transport the rocket to the...

This resource investigates modelling and constructing pulley systems designed to lift loads.

Suggested learning outcomes include:

• To be able to recognise and describe the main parts of a pulley system.
• To understand how a pulley system can reduce the effort needed to lift a load.
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Produced by LSIS, this short activity can be used to monitor and assess understanding of moments. It can also be used as an extension or reinforcement activity at the end of a topic on moments or as a revision activity. It is a useful way to check students’ familiarity with, and use of, the spoken and written...

This pack is about music technology and was developed to accompany the Musical Moods mass participation project for National Science & Engineering Week 2011 which aimed to find a new way of classifying online content based on mood. The activities are linked to the British Science Association’s CREST Awards...