DIY: Engaging Engineering Building

Hands hold a simple raft or boat constructed from recycled materials against a light wood background. The boat's base is a platform made of craft sticks glued together. Two clear plastic bottles are attached to the underside of the platform, one on each end. Craft sticks are fastened to the bottles with colorful rubber bands—pink and yellow on one bottle, and teal and blue on the other. One hand holds the boat while the other adjusts a rubber band. This image likely depicts a children's craft project or a simple science experiment demonstrating buoyancy.

Bottle Raft

This activity might save your life! If you're stranded on a desert island with some large empty containers, you could make a floating raft to escape! Let's learn how to build one!

On a light wood grain surface, two hands are shown working with pieces of pale yellow cardboard, one of which has a bright orange section. One hand holds a smaller piece of cardboard with the orange section, while the other hand uses a blue pencil to make a mark on the orange area. In the background, more connected cardboard pieces, also partially orange, form an almost-square shape. This image appears to depict a step in a crafting project using cardboard.

Pantograph

The pantograph, invented over 400 years ago, was a device used to copy and enlarge drawings simultaneously. When you move the central pencil, the end of the right arm copies your hand movements but covers a greater distance.

Periscope

Mirrors are amazing! They reflect light and create clear images. A periscope comes in handy when you want to look around corners or observe objects from a higher viewpoint than usual. You can make one using simple materials like cardboard and mirrors.

A tall, freestanding structure built from large white marshmallows and uncooked spaghetti stands on a light wood-grain table against a plain off-white background. The marshmallows serve as connectors, with spaghetti strands inserted into them, forming a tower or prism-like shape. The spaghetti pieces create a complex, interconnected framework. A single marshmallow perched at the very top appears slightly offset, suggesting a recent addition or a point of instability. This image likely depicts a finished STEM project or a model built as part of a learning activity.

Spaghetti Tower

Skyscrapers can be seen throughout cities - do you know the secret to their stability? In this activity, we'll use spaghetti and marshmallows to model tower construction and explore the key factors affecting tower stability.

Two hands hold a three-dimensional cube constructed from short segments of orange and red drinking straws. The cube is held at a slight angle, displaying its form. The light wood-grain background provides contrast to the colorful straws. The image suggests a simple construction project or a geometric model made for educational or recreational purposes.

Straw Cube

Create a shape-shifting cube using just straws and rubber bands that can transform between flat and three-dimensional forms at will.

A finished, painted windmill craft project stands on a light-blue paper cup base, which is placed on a larger white square surface. The windmill's tower and horizontal arm mechanism are constructed from light-blue and flattened light-green-painted paper cups, connected by wooden craft sticks. A small ball of teal-colored putty or clay is affixed to the end of the horizontal arm. A string is tied to this teal putty and hangs down to a small, white paper cup bucket with string handles. The bucket contains small yellow and blue balls. The windmill's blades are made from flattened paper cups painted light blue and yellow, attached to crossed craft sticks, and affixed to the horizontal arm with teal putty. This image showcases a completed and colorful DIY windmill model with a loaded bucket.

Wind Turbine

Have you ever seen massive wind turbines slowly rotating? Wind energy drives the turbine blades, and inside each wind tower is a generator that converts wind energy into electrical power, helping us learn, work, and live better.