Welcome to Blueprint

Prototype your World

Blueprint Build is a modular system of easy-to-handle mechanical engineering parts to teach middle and high school students diverse, scalable, and creative engineering and robotics concepts.

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Unit & Lesson Structure

Each Blueprint unit consists of three types of lessons. These can be completed in any order you'd like
Learn the foundations of engineering with Sphero Blueprint.
  • designed for one class period
  • introduction to an engineering concept
  • quick builds with instructions
Exploration with Sphero Blueprint.
  • designed for one to two class periods
  • in-depth exploration of engineering concepts
  • open-ended builds with some support to get started
  • content connections to historical engineering, emerging tech, and career connections
Create with Sphero Blueprint.
  • designed for up to one week of class time
  • connections between multiple engineering concepts to serve as an end-of-unit project
  • open-ended building using the engineering design process

Units & Lessons

Sphero Blueprint inclined plane.
Sphero Blueprint inclined plane.

Unit Plan: Simple Machines

Simple machines—wheels and axles, inclined planes, levers, pulleys, screws, gears, and linkages—form the foundation of a mechanical engineer’s toolkit.

Level: Middle and High School Introduction to Engineering Courses

Time Required: 2 weeks to 1 month

Standards: NGSS, STEL

Inclined plane thumbnail.

Students will build inclined planes to explore their mechanical advantages and uses in the world around them.

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Students will review two theories about how the ancient Egyptians used inclined planes to construct pyramids then construct a model of a pyramid to form their own opinions.

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Learn how wheels and axles work with Blueprint engineering kits.

Students will build a wheel and axle system, explore the two different ways it can be classified (2nd class and 3rd class), and calculate the mechanical advantage benefits it can provide.

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Students will use Blueprint to design a car that can repeatedly stop at a specified distance and explore how mechanical advantage (MA), motion, and weight affect their invention.

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Engineer a lever with Sphero Blueprint.

Students will learn about levers including their different classes or forms by building them with their Blueprint Build Kits.

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Engineer with common linkages.

Students will build and explore common linkages with the Sphero Blueprint Build Kit and explore the benefits they can provide.

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Students will expand on their understanding of levers and linkages by constructing pantographs or art machine that scale their sketches.

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Engineer a pulley with Sphero Blueprint.

Students will build a model of a well and investigate the mechanical advantage in pulley systems.

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Students will investigate cranes as complex machine and work as a team to design and build a functional crane to share with their classmates.

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Engineer with a screw with Blueprint Engineering kit.

Students will build a basic vise that uses a screw to hold a classroom object in place and then calculate the mechanical advantage of their simple machine.

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In this lesson, students use Blueprint to build a motorcycle lift used to lift a motorcycle and change a flat tire or do mechanical work.

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Learn gears with Sphero Blueprint engineering kits.

Students will build a model of a fan and then explore how different-sized gears can be connected into gear trains to either make the fan blades spin faster or slower.

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Students will learn all about how to place two different sized gears on the same axle to create compound gears. Then they’ll design and build their own machine with Blueprint.

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Students will use Blueprint to create a model that represents the motion profile of an animal or living organism and make it come to life in the classroom.

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Blueprint engineering carnival builds for teens.
Blueprint engineering carnival builds.

Unit Plan: Carnival Builds

Transform your classroom into a carnival using Blueprint. Carnival rides and games are fun, interactive, and also feature a variety of mechanical concepts.

Level: Middle and High School Introduction to Engineering Courses

Time Required: 2 weeks to 1 month

Standards: NGSS, STEL

Make a fun prize wheel with Blueprint engineering kit.

In this lesson, build a Blueprint prize wheel and investigate the theoretical and experimental probabilities of winning the game.

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In this lesson, students will construct a high striker game using a lever and explore how changing the fulcrum or weights attached make the game easier or harder.

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Students will build a wheel and axle system, explore the two different ways it can be classified (2nd class and 3rd class), and calculate the mechanical advantage benefits it can provide.

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Build Instructions >     

In this lesson, students will build a screw system with Sphero Blueprint to simulate a roller coaster car going up an inclined plane, and learn about how parts of a screw system work together.

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In this lesson, students will learn about the gearing underneath all of those turntables.

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In this final lesson, students will explore how to build their own pirate ship and modify it to speed it up and do those terrifying 360s.

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Educator Resources

Our goal is to give you the tools and support you need to create an environment where students excel through experimentation, problem solving, and play-based learning.

Standards Alignment

Using Blueprint alongside the engineering design process provides for rich and meaningful standards alignment in STEM and Engineering classes and beyond.

The Sphero Blueprint Engineering Design Process adheres closely to the eight Science and Engineering Practices (SEP) identified in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The SEPs are essential for helping our students “investigate the world and design and build systems.”

The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) recognized that STEM education efforts frequently promote science and math instruction over technology and engineering, and developed their own set of the standards. The Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy (STEL) focus less on discrete facts and more on knowing, thinking, and doing.

Cross-Curricular Integration

While working through open-ended engineering design problems with Blueprint, students will utilize and develop skills across disciplines.

reading and writing about engineering problems and their solutions.

FOR EXAMPLE: students conduct research to better understand a problem and relevant background information, then use their written and oral communication skills to explain and share their solutions with others.

applying grade-appropriate math to better design, define, and describe their engineering solutions.

FOR EXAMPLE: students use ratios to calculate the mechanical advantage of a simple machine to describe the change in the magnitude of force required to complete the movement. 

integrate concepts from across the science disciplines from physical to environmental sciences.

FOR EXAMPLE: in designing simple machines students deconstruct how energy changes form in mechanical systems through hands-on exploration.