If you’re concerned about how to teach engineering concepts in a K-12 environment, here are two resources that may be helpful.

The TeachEngineering project is designed “to make applied science and math come alive through engineering design in K-12 settings.” Concepts in life, earth and physical science are taught, connected, and reinforced through real-life problems or scenarios in student- and teacher-friendly formats. The site is searchable by grade level and topic with an option to search by NGSS standards. The lessons have been designed by university engineering faculty and teachers and build on what students learn in science. The lessons include objectives, background information, suggested activities, discussion questions, vocabulary, handouts, and suggested assessments and extensions. For example, here are some problem-solving lessons that could relate to a study of anatomy or the skeletal system:

• Grades 3-5 Our Amazing Skeleton
• Grades 6-8 Engineering Bones
• Grades 9-12 Bone Fractures and Engineering

Another source is IEEE’s TryEngineering. This is a portal of engineering activities and career information with lesson plans and engineering-related “games.” These can be searched by age level or topic. The lessons are PDF documents and also show alignment with curriculum frameworks (such as NGSS and Common Core).

• Smooth Operator
• Build Your Own Robot Arm
• Heart of the Matter

The resources from both of these project are complete enough that even if you never studied engineering, you and your students can be involved in interesting problem-solving activities.

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lalunablanca/24455707/