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.

Unit & Lesson Structure

Each Blueprint unit consists of three types of lessons. These can be completed in any order you'd like

  • designed for one class period
  • introduction to an engineering concept
  • quick builds with instructions
  • 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
  • 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

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

Level 1

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

Teacher Guide >

Lesson Slides >

Student Handout >

Build Instructions >      

Level 2

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.

Teacher Guide >

Lesson Slides >

Student Handout >

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon) 

Level 1

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.

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon) 

Level 2

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.

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)   

 

Level 1

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

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handouts  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)  

 

Level 1

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

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)  

 

Level 2

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

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)  

Level 1

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

Teacher Guide >

Lesson Slides >

Student Handout >

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)  

 

Level 2

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

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)  

Level 1

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.

Teacher Guide >

Lesson Slides >

Student Handout >

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)  

Level 2

Students use Blueprint to build a complex machine most of us will interact with at some point in our lives: a car jack used to lift a car and change a flat tire.

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon) 

Level 1

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.

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)  

Level 2

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.

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)  

Level 3

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.

Teacher Guide (Coming Soon)

Lesson Slides  (Coming Soon)

Student Handout  (Coming Soon)

Build Instructions  (Coming Soon)   

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

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.

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.