Resources
Videos
STEM Unplugged Podcast: Exploring Manufacturing in Arizona
Event Recording: Manufacturing Tech Talks
Challenges in Hiring and Recruiting
Launching Your Career
Misconceptions in Manufacturing
Why Manufacturing?
Intel’s Fab 42: One of the World’s Most Advanced Factories
SAMTEC video tour in Sahuarita, Arizona
Lucid Motors Factory | Introducing Lucid AMP-1
Careers In Manufacturing
Testimonials & Success Stories
blog
MythBusters of Manufacturing
Disparaging myths have circulated about American manufacturing for decades. Parents have misconceptions of manufacturing jobs…
Coronavirus Makes AR’s Potential a Reality for Chip Makers
Semiconductor and other industries embrace augmented reality after finding new uses for…
This All-girl Engineering Team From Tucson Took 1st Place in an International Contest
An all-girl student engineering team at Magee Middle School came in first place in one category of an…
Viasat Works With University of Arizona Engineering Students to Bring Off-Grid Wi-Fi Connection to Remote Communities
Viasat lent its support to University…
UA, NAU Team Using Exoskeleton to Improve Mobility for Kids With Cerebral Palsy
Physical activity is a key part of healthy development, but for children…
ASU Researcher Adds a New Dimension to Semiconductor Manufacturing
Many of the small 3D objects that inspire nanotechnology and power our electronics, such as computer…
Making Robots Accessible to All
The robots we see depicted in popular culture, like R2-D2 from Star Wars or WALL-E, tend to be expensive, generalist robots. The high cost…
Major Taiwanese Semiconductor Company Plans Giant Facility in Arizona
The world’s largest contract silicon chip manufacturer will spend about $12 billion on a massive…
Designing your Future Career
Explore modern manufacturing careers as students identify required skill sets, apply innovative thinking and creativity, and connect the application of modern manufacturing to daily products and use.
Lemonade Activity
The Lemonade Activity is a hands-on activity for Kindergarten to 2nd graders, with increased complexity for 3rd to 5th graders, that introduces students to STEM concepts and four key areas of supply chain – Source, Make, Deliver, Reuse/Recycle.
Wheeling it In
In this open-ended design activity, students use everyday materials—milk cartons, water bottles, pencils, straws, candy—to build small-scale transportation devices. They incorporate the use two simple machines—a wheel and axle, and a lever—into their designs. Student pairs choose their materials and engineer solutions suitable to convey pyramid-building materials (small blocks of clay). They race their carts/trucks, measuring distance, time and weight; and then calculate speed.
Rubber Band Racers
The focus of this lesson is on rubber band powered car design. Teams of students construct rubber
band powered cars from everyday materials. Students must design their cars to travel in a straight
line for a distance of at least 3 meters within a 1 meter wide track.
What’s Your Influence?
Students use evidence, case studies, career scenarios, anecdotal stories, and other sources to support or refute a claim about the relationship between manufacturing and society.
Paper Airplane Game
Volunteers lead students through an interactive game of prototyping and mass production, where student collaboration and team-building lead to success. Students work together in groups to design, engineer and test paper airplanes, select their prototype design win, and assess their manufacturing capability as that design goes through their assembly line.
Design a Robot
Explore the role of robots in modern manufacturing and challenge your students to design a robot based on a mock target consumer. To understand and explain how their robot moves, students will explore energy and the transfer of electrical energy to mechanical energy.
Edible Rovers
Students act as Mars exploratory rover engineers. They evaluate rover equipment options and determine what parts fit in a provided NASA budget. With a given parts list, teams use these constraints to design for their rover. The students build and display their edible rover at a concluding design review.
Manufacturing in the 21st Century
Investigate the history of manufacturing and learn about the innovative technology used by engineers and designers. Explore how manufacturing careers have changed and how technology has changed the manufacturing process.
Lemonade Activity
The Lemonade Activity is a hands-on activity for Kindergarten to 2nd graders, with increased complexity for 3rd to 5th graders, that introduces students to STEM concepts and four key areas of supply chain – Source, Make, Deliver, Reuse/Recycle.
Invent a Backscratcher from Everyday Materials
Being able to recognize a problem and design a potential solution is the first step in the development of new and useful products. In this activity, students create devices to get “that pesky itch in the center of your back.” Once the idea is thought through, students produce design schematics (sketches). They are given a variety of everyday materials and recyclables, from which they prototype their back-scratching devices.
Homemade Spinning Brushbot
What better way to get kids interested in science and technology than fun, hands-on projects that move on their own? This simple, homemade, spinning brushbot was inspired by the book How to Build Robots. This book recommends taking apart a battery-powered, electric toothbrush to get the parts for this project.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving in Advanced Manufacturing
In this media-rich lesson plan, students learn how critical thinking and problem solving are used in advanced manufacturing fields, then apply what they’ve learned in activities that are based on real-world scenarios.
Designing Your Future Career
Guide students on a discovery of the modern manufacturing design process. Working in teams, students design a shoe for a target audience, and simulate market research, illustration, design, and biomechanical engineering to test and evaluate their prototype.
95 Manufacturing Terms You Need to Know
Are your students interested in getting started in manufacturing? Check out this glossary of industry-specific jargon that can guide lessons, spark ideas, and introduce manufacturing concepts to your class.
Design a Shoe
Guide students on a discovery of the modern manufacturing design process. Working in teams, students design a shoe for a target audience, and simulate market research, illustration, design, and biomechanical engineering to test and evaluate their prototype.