Loaner Kits and Materials

Activity Kits Available for Check-out

Central Texas Discover Engineering has various equipment and kits available for borrowing and use with Central Texas students. To request a kit or other equipment please fill out the Activity Kit/Equipment Request Form.

Activity Kits and Equipment include:

• 10 K’Nex Bridges kits to build different types and variations of bridges. The recommended grades are 3-5. Two students can work together on a structure. The designs are explained in pictures and paragraphs about each bridge type are in English only. Two teacher books are provided with the kits.
• 30 Elenco Snap Circuit 300 kits for students in grade 4 and higher. Both English and Spanish versions of the instruction books are included. These electric devices will need AA batteries which we do not supply. Students can work in teams of two.
• Marble Roller Coaster Partial Kits for students in grade 4 and higher. What better way to teach the basic engineering engineering and physics concepts than to build a marble roller coaster. Through a cycle of understanding the problem, brainstorming, designing, building, testing, observing and redesigning students will gain an experiential understanding of the physics concepts and the engineering design cycle. They will also have an unstructured opportunity to develop team building skills as they work with their peers during the design process. Check out the Marble Roller Coaster guide for instructions. Additional roller coaster activities and ideas can be found on How to Smile. Foam tubing available for roller coaster activity. Marbles, tape and other construction materials not provided.
• LEGO Mindstorm NXT. We have four of these robotic kits, which will require both AA batteries and a computer for programming the devices. The instruction manuals are pictorial but there is a lot of information about the components in English only. These kits are best used in a long term project or as pre-built demos. A robot cannot be built in a normal class period. Teams of two to four students can work on a project.
• 2 Van de Graff generators available for check-out.
• 1 Geodome available for check-out. See a video of UT Austin Women in Engineering Program students putting it together to get an idea of the equipment.

Engineers Week Merchandise

Shop for Engineers Week merchandise in the DiscoverE online store.