10 Exciting Activities to Teach Kids about Engineering

Learn about mechanical engineering by seeing large machines, materials and people coming together to make common objects. A few ideas include the Herr's Snack Factory (free!) in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Mint facility in Philadelphia.

Use found objects like straws, rubber bands, and wood. Can you make something that can drop a ball onto a plate? Let your imagination run wild!

Although wastewater processing plants are not open to the public, many have videos or simulations. Visit one online and then talk about how the plant "figures out" what is good and what needs to be removed.

Learn about water filtration with this at-home activity!

You'll learn about sensors. As you walk in, how do the doors open? Motion sensors. Go to the electronics department. Want to know what's inside a cell phone? A sensor for sound.

Design and build a weather station at home that can sense wind speed and other indicators of weather events.

Biomedical engineers use animals to figure out what might be happening in human systems. Doing this requires making comparisons between species and understanding their development.

Pick an activity of living such as movement. Keep a journal of all the various ways that different living things achieve this. How do they differ? A fish has fins while a dog has legs – what part of their anatomy makes up their means of movement?

Visit your local supermarket to create your own algorithms. An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing a task. Use the store layout to create a "fastest-possible" route. Consider the order of purchase – frozen things last, right?

Write down the steps involved in preparing a recipe. Then, rearrange the order. Does that impact the final result?