When you first sit down with an EiE binder or materials kit, it can feel overwhelming. There are prep lessons, assessments, storybooks, diagrams, student journals, and a seemingly random assortment of craft materials—it’s easy to start jumping from item to item and get lost in the shuffle. We’ve heard that feedback before, and that’s why our video team set out to create a set of four short clips that help you dive in to our in-school curriculum. If you’re brand new to EiE, the 10 minutes you’ll spend watching this set of videos will save you tons of time in the long run. If you’re an EiE pro, you might learn something new . . . and they’re fun to watch, too!

A picture is worth a thousand words. A video is worth even more, when it saves you time and energy! That’s why Engineering is Elementary offers “How-To Videos”—short segments you can stream from our website. Each video walks you through some lesson prep for the unit you’ll be teaching.

The Engineering is Elementary team is committed to making our engineering curricula accessible to all students, including English Learners—the fastest growing group of public school students in the United States. We already have Spanish-translated student-facing materials available for our 20 in-school curriculum units, and you'll notice an exciting addition if you check out our two out-of-school time curricula. You can now download Spanish translations of the student notebooks for all 20 Engineering Adventures and Engineering Everywhere units!

Any teacher will tell you that getting students to work together effectively in teams is not easy. Simply telling students to work together won’t lead to productive collaboration. The term “collaboration” has many definitions, but most writers agree it’s more than just working in a group. Collaboration is the act of engaging in creative group work that sparks innovation and productivity. To accomplish this, teachers need to model productive collaboration and give students authentic opportunities to collaborate. Of course, this is always easier said than done. Because EiE values collaboration and views collaboration as an essential part of engineering (and of life), we developed curricula that models for teachers easy and effective ways to encourage productive collaboration.

Teachers often tell us that kids gravitate towards engineering when they learn how engineers help people. EiE’s real-world connections are often focused on helping others, and our civil engineering units exemplify that. Civil engineering is an exciting field for kids to consider: they all have experience with buildings and infrastructure, and they may not be aware of the career opportunities available to civil engineers. As infrastructure in the United States ages, the need for skilled civil engineers increases—the US Department of Labor projects that the demand for civil engineers will increase 8% by 2024. These five in-school and out-of-school-time units could kick-start an interest in civil engineering for your kids, and show them how some innovative engineering can help countless people.