How did somebody come up with the idea for bridges, skyscrapers, helicopters, and nightlights? How did people figure out how to build them?
In 3D Engineering: Design and Build Your Own Prototypes, young readers tackle real-life engineering problems by figuring out real-life solutions. Kids apply science and math skills to create prototypes for bridges, instruments, alarms, and more. Prototypes are preliminary models used by engineers—and kids—to evaluate ideas and to better understand how things work.
Engineering design starts with an idea. How do we get to the other side of the river? How do we travel long distances in short periods of time? Using a structured engineering design process, kids learn how to brainstorm, build a prototype, test a prototype, evaluate, and re-design. Projects include designing a cardboard chair to understand the stiffness of structural systems and designing and building a set of pan pipes to experiment with pitch and volume.
Creating prototypes is a key step in the engineering design process and prototyping early in the design process generally results in better processes and products. 3D Engineering gives kids a chance to figure out many different prototypes, empowering them to discover the mechanics of the world we know.
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Science Books and Films
++: Highly Recommended
3-D Engineering, written by Vicki V. May, contains 25 challenging and fun projects for students to design and build their own prototypes. This book uses an engineering design process that focuses on identifying goals, asking questions, brainstorming ideas, testing prototypes, and identifying problems. Students are encouraged to keep a design journal of their work and to share their ideas with others in the classroom. The activities become more complex as they cover topics such as spinning, buoyancy, chemical reactions, sound, and electrical engineering. Each chapter contains scan codes that may be accessed by a smartphone or tablet app for additional information. Words 2 Know and an essential question to help guide the exploration of engineering are included in each chapter. Every activity has pictures and diagrams to follow and the materials needed for each challenge are easy to obtain. Students will enjoy building a bridge and designing a cardboard chair or a race car. They can explore sound by making their own didgeridoo or a dance pad, and study the pros and cons of energy sources while building a solar cooker or create a water powered hammer. This book is a wonderful resource for teachers and parents to use in the classroom and at home. It gets back to the basics with exciting activities that are hands-on that support the STEM program. When kids use their hands and work together to create a prototype, the outcomes are much higher when they are actively engaged in this type of learning. It gives students confidence in math while building problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. This is a book that teachers, parents, boys, and girls will enjoy as they learn about the many facets of the engineering world. 
