Students are introduced to passive solar design for buildings, an approach using the sun’s energy and the surrounding climate to provide natural heating and cooling. They learn about some disadvantages of conventional heating and cooling and how engineers incorporate passive solar designs into buildings for improved efficiency.

Students learn and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non-renewable energy sources, our nation’s electric power grid, and what it means for a residential home to be “off the grid.”

Students learn how the greenhouse effect relates to global warming and how global warming impacts our planet, including global climate change. Extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and how we react to these changes are this lesson’s main points of focus.

Students learn about the Earth’s water cycle—especially about evaporation—through the lens of a dam’s lifecycle and its role in a region’s natural hydrologic cycle.

While the creation of a dam provides many benefits, it can have negative impacts on local ecosystems. Using the associated activity students learn about the major environmental impacts of dams and the engineering solutions used to address them.

Students examine the human water cycle and how humans impact it by settling down in civilizations. Specifically, they learn how people obtain, use, and dispose of water.

Students are introduced to the space environment, learning about the major differences between the environment on Earth and that of outer space (atmosphere, radiation, microgravity)— and the engineering challenges that arise because of these differences.

Students are introduced to the International Space Station (ISS) with information about its structure, operation, and key experiments.

Students are introduced to natural disasters and learn the differences between natural hazards and natural disasters. They discover many types of natural hazards—avalanches, earthquakes, floods, forest fires, hurricanes, landslides, thunderstorms, tornadoes, tsunamis, and volcanoes—and specific examples of natural disasters.

Students acquire a basic understanding of the science and engineering of space travel and a brief history of space exploration. They learn about the scientists and engineers who made space travel possible and briefly examine some famous space missions.