Water pushes upwards with a force called ‘upthrust’. (You can feel this if you try to push a light object such as a balloon or aeroboard under water). The shape of a ‘boat’ affects the weight (passengers/cargo) it can hold. The more water that the boat displaces the more it will float and therefore the more weight...

Many different personal attributes can impact on road safety including a person's vision, ability to concentrate, reaction times and mobility. The car of the future should be designed to help people overcome these issues.

Magnetism is a key scientific phenomenon. Utilising this has allowed designers to create new and innovative products, such as fully working MAGLEV trains and hoverboards.

This resource focusses on designing a hoverboard that works using magnetism and magnetic field.

Students will design a jet pack that can be worn by either the players or referee during a football game on the Moon. They will consider how a jet pack works and the different parts of a jet pack. They will then sketch an idea for a wearable jet pack with consideration for how it will fit, the weight of the jet...

In this activity pupils will design a robot that can mark the pitch lines for a game of football on the Moon. They will produce a labelled sketch of their idea before writing a microcontroller program using the Crumble system.

This activity could be used to teach about designing electronic products and...

In this activity, aimed at secondary-aged pupils, the students will design a new carriage that is powered by electricity for the King’s coronation. They will consider the design brief and criteria for the carriage before sketching and...

From Practical Action, this resource is an eco-tool used to compare the sustainability of two products or design ideas.

Produced by the Technology Enhancement programme (TEP), these materials help students to understand, design and prototype mechanisms (including levers, gears and linkages). The resource also supports students to work through some of the mathematical concepts involved in calculating gear ratio.

Students are...

Design for a better world is a design challenge for students aged 11-14 years. It offers students the opportunity to:

• Learn about the global goals for sustainable development.
• Access a range of global contexts including water and sanitation, food security and climate action in which to...

This collection of three resources asks students to:

*design and model the physical elements of a robot arm and demonstrate how this could be achieved using a smart material. Students can then subsequently use this information to support the design of a robot arm.

*design and model a robot arm in 2D,...

In this activity, pupils will use the theme of the London Marathon to respond to a design context, investigate the context on the internet and design a wheelchair for sports use. 

Pupils will consider the use of different search...

Inspired by the Born to Engineer video from Mathew Holloway, this resource uses the Crumble controller, setting students a design challenge that sees them create their own umbilical controlled buggy that can navigate small spaces. Although specific to the Crumble controller, this resource could be used as a design...

In this activity, students will use memory metal wire to create a model of a deployable structure.  The James Webb Space Telescope has several structures that must be deployed in space, including parts of the primary mirror.  Students must create and evaluate a design to enable the primary mirror to fold inside the...

Designing the Future from Siemens is a set of activities which help students to discover the manufacturing process and how digitalisation is making factories smarter.

This resource includes an online interactive game which allows pupils to explore a smart factory highlighting the different areas in the...

This resource requires students to consider the challenges of designing and developing a new sports venue. To make this challenge more manageable, it has been divided into four separate challenges: the site, the structure, the court and the environment. As well as researching and developing ideas, the challenge is...