India and Jacob are off on another adventure! In the latest installment of “Engineering Adventures,” our afterschool curriculum for grades 3–5, the globe-trotting duo is posting reports from Mongolia, where they’re attending Naadam, a traditional festival featuring wrestling, archery, horseback riding, and music. But there’s a problem: the festival loudspeakers aren’t loud enough. Can the intrepid duo engineer an amplifier to save the day? The kids in your out-of-school-time program are invited to help!

Children learn in different ways. Some students respond particularly well to kinesthetic or embodied learning—learning through body movement and dance. If you’re teaching the Engineering is Elementary unit Marvelous Machines: Making Work Easier, here’s a brilliant idea from Amy Williams, the dance teacher at Indianola Informal K-8 in Columbus, Ohio: integrate dance with your students’ exploration of simple machines.

Every Thursday the EiE blog brings you tips and resources to help you teach elementary engineering.

Some educators think of extension lessons as a convenient and educational way to fill a few minutes when your students finish work ahead of schedule. But they're much more than that! Well-designed extension lessons

• make connections between the topic you're teaching and other subject areas,
• help students explore a topic more
  deeply, and
• provide extra support for students who need to strengthen their skills.

Did you know that Engineering is Elementary offers a large collection of extension lessons? We have hundreds of engaging short lessons, all designed by K-5 classroom teachers and expert curriculum developers so that they integrate perfectly in your engineering classroom.

For a modern take on old-fashioned flashcards, check out “Technology Flashcards,” the Engineering is Elementary iOS app. This digital game makes learning about technology and engineering fun for elementary-school-aged children. If you have access to a set of iPads for your classroom or summer camp, try it and see!

Here’s a STEM activity for summer camp that’s literally timely! It’s About Time is a curriculum unit that’s all about timekeeping; it’s also one of the newest offerings from Engineering Everywhere (EE), the out-of-school-time curriculum for middle schoolers developed here at Engineering is Elementary.