Looking for fun classroom activities with a STEM focus Boeing (a Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Noteworthy Company), Iridescent’s Curiosity Machine, PBS Learning Media and the Teaching Channel have produced a collection of educational materials and tutorials that children can use to engineer an airfoil, find alternative energy sources and design their own satellite, among dozens of other activities.
The activities are intended to develop skills such as the ability to think critically, collaborate and communicate effectively. Boeing engineers worked side-by-side with its partners to develop lesson plans, documentaries and hands-on activities that break down complicated concepts into easy-to-digest resources.
All materials and tutorials are available to download for free at Boeing’s Educational Resources page. A webinar showcasing the materials is available on the Education Week Website.
“Working with Boeing engineers, wholearnedexactly what skills need to be fostered to inspire real-world problem-solving, was a unique opportunity.The engineering design challengeswe developed together with Boeinghave helped us bring science and engineering concepts directly to school childrenand families in many underserved and underrepresented communities around the world,”said Dr. Amy Kim, senior director of Iridescent’s Curiosity Machine.”Problem-solving is not limited to the specific math and science formulas, it’s about how to applythe engineering design processin hands-on ways that yield many solutions.This collection of content achieves that goal.”
The classroom content is appropriate for students K-12 and covers a range of topic areas, including:
- The magic of flight
- STEM teaching tools
- Space exploration
- Designing the future
- How flight took off
- You can build it!
- Engineering in action
- Interactive adventures
- Career runway
- Movies in-flight
From 2013-2016, Boeing invested $2.6 million in grant funding to support the creation, use and local implementation of the design challenges including 90 videosfeaturing educators and Boeing engineers. More than 20,000 students and/or their families have completed challenges from the collection.
