This month the Engineering Pathway features an activity that provides the opportunity for students to learn about drafting and design engineering through designing and building a prototype tower. The Tower O' Power activity is an engineering project developed for grades 9-12 requiring several days of class time. Students use computer-aided design (CAD) to design a tower and manufacture the parts with a laser cutter. A competition determines the tower design with the best strength:weight ratio. Students also investigate basic structural truss concepts and stress concentrations. Partnership with a local college or manufacturing center is necessary for students to take a field trip to test their towers.

The Tower O' Power activity and other engineering design projects may benefit from an introduction to the Engineering Design Process. The Time for Design lesson provides that by explaining the differences between the Scientific Method and the Engineering Design Process. This may be used as a basis for a discussion of the differences between science and engineering. The lesson is designed for grades 4-6, but the description of the Engineering Design Process and the associated handout may be used with older students to provide additional structure and context for engineering design activities.

This lesson and activity are brought to you by the new Engineering Pathway, a part of the National Science Digital Library. The portal provides high-quality teaching and learning resources in applied science and math, engineering, computer science/information technology and engineering technology - for use by K-12 and university educators. The Engineering Pathway brings together quality engineering education materials from all over the internet allowing teachers to search all of these documents in a single location. The lesson and activity are from the TeachEngineering Digital Library for K-12 engineering curricula.