VCU STEM

Students are introduced to biomimicry, which is looking to nature for engineering ideas to solve problems.

Lesson on application of engineering techniques to understand biological systems - activities include analyzing DNA profiles of bank robbery suspects and 3D building of DNA

Students extend knowledge of skeletal system to biomedical engineering design, specifically the concept of artificial limbs.  Associated activities include designing, creating, and testing lower leg prosthetic limbs and designing splints/casts.

This lesson has students build their own barometers they can measure air pressure with. In this way students learn about the development and implementation of meteorological instrumentation. Students can measure air pressure for a given amount if time (say, a week or a month) and then discuss what qualities of their barometers could possibly be improved upon. This aspect relates to engineers constantly reevaluating their work and improving upon existing methods.

This is a neat lesson for teaching students in physical science classes about simple machines, how they work, and how they benefit society. Students have to design their own simple machines that would assist in lifting an elephant onto a train car (although an different scenario could easily be substituted). Requires very few materials.

Pretty cool demonstrations of the size of our solar system and universe with some fun little interactive "games." Also, amazing pics.

This simulation allows students to provide dimensions, angle of release, speed, and mass of an object. The simulation will calculate how far the object will travel, its range of motion, and height achieved. Students could be given a desired end result and be tasked with finding the right combination of size, speed, mass, and angle to get the correct outcome.

my favorite is the human.

free for educators/students!

A visual tour of cells, bacteria, viruses and their interaction with one another.

If the population of the earth were reduced to 100 people...

This is a great site to help students understand relative sizes of things in the universe - it's awesome.

The NOAA EVL is a great site for accessing satellite imagery and animations of phenomena at the Earth's surface. All images and animations are public domain and free for reuse, so its a great resource for teachers to share with students and collogues.

TryEngineering offers a variety of lesson plans that align with education standards to allow teachers and students to apply engineering principles in the classroom. The following training module outlines how TryEngineering lessons can benefit your students, provides tips on how these lessons can be integrated with other subject areas and offers background information on engineering and engineering careers.

What is standards-focused Project Based Learning (PBL)? When engaged in standards-focused Project Based Learning (PBL), students are working in teams to experience and explore relevant, real-world problems, questions, issues and challenges; then creating presentations and products to share what they have learned.