The E in STEM Represents Engineering

Why is Engineering Important in STEM?

Engineering incorporates all of the STEM subjects into problem-solving and the development of novel gadgets, structures, and software applications. Engineers discover, model, analyze, and improve solutions to problems using systematic methods, mathematical tools, and scientific knowledge.

New or enhanced products, such as fiber optics, pacemakers, and satellites, are created using engineering.

Engineering Is All Around Us!

Engineers were needed to develop automobiles, roads were required of civil engineers, and electrical engineers were required of mobile phones and computers. Mechanical engineers develop air-conditioning systems; buildings require engineers to construct them; bicycles, airplanes, satellites, electricity pylons, power plants, and water pipes all require engineers to construct and maintain them.

Engineers construct airports, hospitals, fire engines, furniture, and video game consoles, among other things. From television broadcasters to hospital beds, software engineers are used in a wide range of sectors.

Careers In Engineering

Mechanical engineers create both power-generating and power-consuming machinery, such as electric generators, internal combustion engines, steam and gas turbines, and refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. Other machinery found inside buildings, such as elevators and escalators, are designed by mechanical engineers.

Chemical engineering is a discipline of engineering that deals with chemical production and product manufacturing using chemical processes. This includes developing machinery, methods, and procedures for refining raw materials, as well as combining, compounding, and processing chemicals to create useful products.

Civil engineering is a branch of engineering that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally created environment, such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewerage systems, pipelines, building structural components, and railways.

Engineering Activities For K-12

Cardboard Suspension Bridge (Grades K-6)

Ever wondered how cables hold a suspension bridge up? Let's make a mini cardboard suspension bridge and find out!

Supplies Needed:

Cereal box
4 empty toilet paper tubes
Blue and green painter’s tape
Twine
Small rubber bands
Hole punch
Scissors

To make your bridge, cut a strip of cardboard from a flattened cereal box. If you want to build an extremely long bridge, you can tape on extra parts. Punch holes along the cardboard's sides, leaving a few inches unpunched on each end. The ramp to the "ground" is made up of the un-holed segment. To help with stability, try to line up the holes across the cardboard as closely as possible. To keep the rubber bands in place, thread one through each hole and loop it back through itself.

Cut two 1/2′′ slits at one end of each tube to make bridge towers. Slightly off-center and across from each other, the slits should be. Begin filming the racetrack and the river. Your river should be a little narrower than your bridge's length so that the bridge's ends can touch the "earth."

Tape your structures down. Make sure the slits are aligned with the bridge's direction.
Cut a length of baker's twine into cables. Because you can easily clip the extra off afterwards, cut them roughly twice as long as your bridge.
Each item should be sent through the slits in the towers first, then through the rubber bands.

Pull the twine taut until the rubber bands have stretched a little and the bridge is secure. Tape the twine's ends to the floor. Lastly, place your road connections on the bridge and tape them in place.

Marble Roller Coaster Race (Grades 7-12)

Have you ever experienced the thrill of a roller coaster? Have you ever wished you could create your own? You'll create one out of paper and tape in this project, and you'll learn about roller coaster physics along the way!

Materials

A few sheets of paper (Construction paper works well)
Tape
Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
A corrugated cardboard piece (as large as you would like your roller coaster footprint to be)
Marble

To construct a straight track piece, follow these steps: A three-inch strip of paper should be cut. Draw lines with a ruler and pencil to split it into three one-inch-wide portions. Along these lines, fold the outer two segments up 90 degrees.

To make a loop or a hill track, follow these steps: Begin by following the same methods as you did for the straight piece. Then, along the paper's two long sides, make inch-by-inch marks.

On both sides of the strip, cut inwards from these markings to the long lines you created, making one-inch square tabs. Make a 90-degree fold in the tabs. Bend the paper into slopes or loops now. To make the paper stay in form, tape the tabs together. With an assistance, this portion can be made easier—one person can hold the paper in position while the other works on the computer.

With a helper, this process can be made easier—one person can hold the paper in place while the other does the tape.
To make a curved track component, follow these steps: Begin by following the same methods as you did for the straight piece. Make a mark every inch along one of the paper's long edges. Then, two inches inward from these marks, make two-inch cuts.

Fold the paper 90 degrees on the uncut side, then the one-inch tabs on the opposite side up 90 degrees. Because it has cuts in it, the bottom half of this track piece is flexible and may be bent horizontally to produce a curve. To keep the shape of the paper, tape the tabs together.

Cut a 2.5-inch-wide strip of paper to use as a support strut. Draw lines with a pencil and ruler to divide it into five 0.5-inch portions. Crease these pieces, then fold them into a square shape (such that two of the segments overlap) and tape them together. From one end, make one-inch incisions along the edges, then fold the tabs outward. This will allow you to tape the tabs flat to a piece of cardboard and stand your support strut vertically.
Ensure that all curves, loops, and hills are gentle. Avoid steep turns if you don't want your "roller coaster car" (marble) to crash and come to a halt.

Female Engineers That Changed The World

Ellen Ochoa is a former astronaut, engineer, and director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Ochoa began her career at NASA in 1988 as a research engineer at Ames Research Center, then transferred to Johnson Space Center in 1990 after being chosen as an astronaut. When she flew on the space shuttle Discovery for the nine-day STS-56 mission in 1993, she became the first Hispanic woman in orbit.

She boarded the Discovery space shuttle. Its aim was to investigate the effects of solar activity on the atmosphere of the Earth. Ochoa used the shuttle's robotic arm to launch a research satellite as part of the study.

Emily Roebling was an early advocate for women in STEM disciplines breaking through the glass ceiling. Her contribution to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, which was finished in 1883, is her most well-known achievement. When her husband, the project's Chief Engineer, got ill and bedridden, Roebling took over as his connection with the engineering team in order to keep the project moving forward.

She became so skilled at managing day-to-day project management, technical challenges, materials, stress analysis, construction, and computations that she was named the bridge's permanent leader. She fought tooth and nail for her husband to preserve his original job title of Chief Engineer. Emily was the first to cross the bridge after it was finished, indicating her important role in its success.

In 1973, Patricia Bath became the first African American to complete an ophthalmology residency. She became the first female faculty member of UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute's Department of Ophthalmology two years later. Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1976, which declared that "vision is a fundamental human right."

Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe in 1986, which improved cataract therapy. She became the first African American female doctor to acquire a medical patent when she invented the device in 1988.