Engineering Activities for Students Engineering Activities for Students Engineering Activities for Students

Engineering Activities for Students

Over the many years that Nitsch has been hosting Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, we’ve researched and modified dozens of activities that help middle- and high-school students gain hands-on experience with concepts connected with a specific type of engineering. Below, we’ve provided downloadable activity packages or links for some of our most well-reviewed activities – each would be appropriate for use at home or in a classroom!

Learn by Doing: Engineering Activities

Please note that most of the activity packages linked below contain references to working as part of a team; we’ve prioritized this at our events because collaboration and teamwork are critical elements for success in any field. However, each activity can be performed by an individual as well!

In addition, because Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day is focused on addressing the gender imbalance in engineering fields by getting more girls interested in engineering, the packages generally refer to the students as girls. Of course, the lessons learned in each activity are appropriate for all genders!

Engineering for Coastal Resilience

Students will build a waterfront property, learn how wave action impacts the site, and design ways to mitigate property damage and improve the site’s resilience!

Engineer a Water Purification Filter

Students will design a water filtration system that will clean dirty water – a major issue for communities around the world.

Design Your Own Speaker

Students will use various common materials to build a working speaker.

Learn to Code

Students have the opportunity to learn to code using fun online programs. Nitsch Engineering modified the popular maze activity for our 2016 Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, but the resources from Code.org, linked below, make more sense for sharing.

Design and Build a Prosthetic Leg

Students will design and build a prosthetic leg out of common materials. Note that the materials list in this package identifies materials Nitsch Engineering had on hand for our in-person event; this list could be modified for at home use, without requiring the purchase of any additional materials, by using only materials that are already on hand.

Design a Boat Challenge

Students will design and build boats out of aluminum foil, with the goal of supporting as much weight as possible before they sink. Nitsch Engineering modified the activity linked below for our 2014 Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, but the website linked below makes more sense for sharing.

Design and Build a Bridge

Students will design and build the longest, strongest, and tallest bridge out of common kitchen items.

Resources for Other Activities

In our research to find great activities for our annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, we revisit some websites every year because they have such great resources. We invite you to look around these sites and consider an activity from one of them!