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Search every subject world, from Preschool to Grade 12. The first five courses of every subject path are free.

16 courses

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Science · Grade 6

Identify a Need and Constraints

Engineering starts with people, not gadgets. Learners observe and listen to users and stakeholders to find a genuine need, plan respectful user research with neutral questions, write solution-neutral problem statements with a sensible scope, and turn a client's wish list into a specification: firm constraints plus measurable criteria with target values, units and test methods. An optional Going further lesson adds factors of safety, shared budgets and breaking a large problem into sub-problems.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 110 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 6

Research, Sketch and Model

Learners take a defined problem (a tablet stand for a school's video-call corner) from research to a modelled concept. They analyse existing solutions function by function and record sources honestly, generate many ideas before judging, select concepts by screening against constraints and comparing with a reference design, communicate with annotated sketches and orthographic views, convert between drawing and real lengths with scales, and choose physical, digital or mathematical models while stating their limits. An optional Going further lesson explores how areas and masses change when models are scaled, and counts concepts in a morphological chart.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 11 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 6

Materials, Structures and Mechanisms

Learners equip a school's outdoor classroom. They choose materials by matching whole property profiles (strength, stiffness, density, toughness, durability, conductivity, cost) to requirements, using density data from a float simulation; explain tension, compression, triangulation, trusses and deep beams; and use levers, pulleys, wheels and axles and gears, calculating ideal mechanical advantage and the force-for-distance tradeoff. An optional Going further lesson calculates work, efficiency and compound gear ratios.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 11 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 6

Energy, Controls and Simple Systems

Learners treat devices as systems. They trace energy chains through devices and separate useful outputs from energy that spreads to the surroundings; describe a school greenhouse's cooling system as inputs, processes and outputs with sensors, a controller, actuators and a power source; compare open-loop and closed-loop control and write and trace flowcharts; and use a circuit simulation to choose series or parallel arrangements for a lantern. An optional Going further lesson calculates power, energy budgets, battery run time and efficiency, and adds a switching band (hysteresis) to on/off control.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 6

Prototype in Safe Virtual Environments

Learners choose prototypes of the right fidelity for each design question, then use two simulations as virtual prototypes: a ramp model to map a design space and find every setting that lands a toy car in a target zone, and a heat-transfer model to screen handle materials for a camping mug. They list what each simulation leaves out, separate questions a model can answer from those that need a physical test, and plan safe physical prototyping with a hazard–risk–control assessment. An optional Going further lesson calibrates a model against real measurements and contrasts interpolation with extrapolation.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 11 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 6

Test, Measure and Iterate

A maker club's recycled-card shelf brackets keep failing, and learners use them to practise the testing half of engineering. They write test plans tied to specific requirements with pass thresholds and repeated trials, choose instruments with suitable resolution, summarise repeated measurements, handle odd results honestly, and use a sampling simulation to see why quality checks need large enough samples. They analyse failures with the 'five whys' to separate symptoms from root causes, then make data-driven iterations, one change at a time, and decide when to stop. An optional Going further lesson quantifies measurement uncertainty and compares designs whose results overlap.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 11 questions

Science · Grade 6

Accessibility, Sustainability and Tradeoffs

Good designs work for the full range of people who will use them and do as little harm as possible across their whole life. Learners apply universal-design principles and check accessibility with real users, trace a product's environmental impact through its life cycle, and weigh competing criteria with a weighted decision matrix and a sensitivity check. A Going further lesson compares options quantitatively with functional units, break-even points and payback times.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions

Science · Grade 6

Document and Demonstrate a Design

The final course turns a design project into evidence other people can trust and build on. Learners keep an honest engineering notebook, structure a design report that traces every requirement to a test and a result, present data clearly and truthfully, credit sources and teammates, and plan an accessible demonstration that invites critique. A Going further lesson adds a bill of materials, safety margins and a verification summary.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions

Science · Grade 8

Models, Measurement and Uncertainty

Learners discover why careful repeated measurements still differ, and report results honestly as a mean plus or minus an uncertainty. They write very large and very small quantities in scientific notation and convert metric units, test a pendulum model against data by comparing ranges, and use best-fit lines to describe trends and make predictions while recognising the limits of extrapolation.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 110 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 8

Motion, Forces and Interactions

Learners describe motion precisely with velocity and acceleration and read and draw velocity–time graphs. They use Newton's first and second laws to connect net force, mass and acceleration with F = ma calculations, identify action–reaction pairs and explain collisions with momentum, and finish by explaining how gravity depends on mass and distance and why mass and weight are different.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 11 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 8

Energy, Electricity and Magnetic Systems

Learners use proportional reasoning to show that kinetic energy grows with mass and with the square of speed, calculate gravitational potential energy and describe energy stored in gravitational and magnetic fields. They compare series and parallel circuits with a simplified simulation, track energy transfers and efficiency in electrical devices, and use investigation data to find what makes an electromagnet stronger.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 11 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 8

Waves and Technology

Learners use a wave model of light to explain reflection, refraction, absorption, transmission and colour, then explore the whole electromagnetic spectrum, its uses and hazards, and calculate wavelengths with c = fλ. They see how sound and other signals are digitised by sampling and bits, argue with evidence why digital signals are more reliable, and connect the energy a wave carries to its amplitude.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 12 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 8

Inheritance, Variation and Biological Change

Learners model how a gene's sequence codes for a protein and how mutations can be harmful, beneficial or neutral. They explain natural selection through variation, inheritance, selection and time, track changing trait frequencies with percentages and graphs, and compare artificial selection with genetic engineering, weighing benefits and concerns and separating scientific questions from questions of values.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 10 questions
Free starter

Science · Grade 8

Earth History and Geologic Processes

Learners read rock layers like pages of a history book, using superposition, cross-cutting relationships and index fossils to put events in order. They organise Earth's 4.6-billion-year history with fossils and the geologic time scale, weigh the evidence for plate tectonics, model the rock cycle and the energy that drives it, and calculate how centimetres per year add up to hundreds of kilometres over millions of years.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 12 questions

Science · Grade 8

Space Systems, Climate and Human Impacts

Learners use an Earth–Sun–Moon model to explain the Moon's phases, eclipses and the seasons, then explain how gravity shapes orbits and grasp the true scale of the solar system. They connect energy from the Sun to the greenhouse effect, analyse real-world carbon dioxide and temperature data, and evaluate ways of reducing human impacts on climate with numbers and evidence.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 12 questions

Science · Grade 8

Integrated Investigation and Engineering Capstone

In this capstone, learners take on one design challenge from start to finish: a bus-stop shelter that keeps people cooler without electricity. They define precise criteria and constraints using heat-transfer science, test materials with a simulation, analyse prototype data with means and uncertainty, choose between designs with a weighted decision matrix, plan iterations that change one feature at a time, and communicate the result in an honest written report.

  • 5 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 11 questions