Great Resource for Integrating Engineering: TeachEngineering.org

As a mentor for CU Teach practicum students, I had the opportunity to participate in a PD experience through a new branch of the program, CU Teach Engineering.  The new program sends Graduate Engineering Fellows into classrooms to work with teachers on implementing engineering lessons/activities while learning about classroom management and practicing communication with varying audiences.

We completed a circuits lab in which we used copper tape with LEDs to create pop-up, interactive greeting cards.  (Check out the Sparkfun Tutorial for this).  In addition to this activity, which could easily be modified to work for nearly any age, elementary to high school, we learned about a great database of other engineering activities:  TeachEngineering.org.  Perhaps you've heard of this site...but it was new to me!

They have a plethora of activities, which you can search for by content area, time commitment, level of engineering design and more.  All lessons are peer-reviewed by both teachers and engineers, are standards-aligned, and are generally low-cost to implement.  Teachers can also submit lessons, or volunteer to review lessons.

Check it out.  You'll probably love it too!