4-H Engineering Design Project

Extension is expanding its online education and resources to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions.

What you'll do

What problem do you want to solve -- Cook a hot dog with the sun? Make a car run on wind power? Communicate with birds? Design a solution and build it. Learn engineering design skills and you'll know how.

Upcoming events

All 4-H events

There are no upcoming events. Check out other 4-H events.

Levels of learning

Getting started

Get started with 4-H'ers in your area

Find a club near you or contact your local 4-H office for more info.

Get started on your own

Wind energy experiment from National 4-H (free)
Rubber band cars experiment from National 4-H (free)
Iowa 4-H Science, Engineering & Technology Hot Sheet (free download)
3-D modeling derby, Engineering an Empire and other activity books from Utah 4-H (free download)
Try Engineering (free online games)

Learning more

How and why do things move the way they do? (video)

PBS Design Squad
Curiosity Machine design challenges
Engineering science fair projects from education.com
Engineering is Everywhere hands-on activities
Power of the Wind activities and kit (for sale)

Becoming awesome

Engineering Go For It activities, careers, scholarships and more

Fairs and exhibits

Exhibit ideas

Engineering design covers a broad range of topics and objects. Judges will look at how well you have applied the engineering design process.

Some ideas

You could design, build and test a:

Hand that can grab items
Water filtration device
Musical instrument
Model of a roller coaster
Model of a bridge
Bottle rocket launcher
Catapult
Goat milking stand
Model of a wind turbine
Rubber band car
Solar oven
Rube Goldberg-type Machine
Wave-powered device to recharge boat batteries

Fair judging

What a judge is looking for (project evaluation sheet)
County fair judging - what's that like? (video)

Record keeping

Some counties require record keeping for fairs.

Cool videos

Paper bridges, gliders and more

Build your engineering design skills with these at-home activities.

Future study and careers

You could study engineering. There are different kinds of engineers -- electrical, civil, mechanical and biosystems engineering, to name a few.

You could study design products, clothing, landscapes, building interiors and more.

If it wasn't designed by mother nature, it was probably designed by a designer or an engineer. They dream up and make possible most objects we use in modern life.

Reviewed in 2018