What is Engineering?

Inside your activity booklet

Engineering means designing, testing and making useful The activities in this booklet are designed to test all sorts
things. To do this, engineers use mathematics, science – of skills that you’ll need to become an engineer.
and their imaginations!
Think you can create your own crystals, design a planet
Things invented by engineers improve people’s lives and explorer and navigate your way round a circuit? Let’s
even change the world. In fact, an engineer has helped find out!
to make almost anything you can think of – from a
smartphone, to a solar panel, to your shampoo. Look out for symbols below on the top of each page to
see what each activity involves:
What do Engineers do?
Engineers work in teams to solve problems. The problems
could be anything from how to fire a rocket into space, to = logic
how to repair someone’s heart. But whatever the problem,
this is how they go about solving it:
?
ASK QUESTIONS = creativity
Engineers ask questions to make sure they understand the
problem they need to solve

IMAGINE
= maths
They let their brains go wild and think up lots of possible
solutions

DESIGN
= experiment
They make detailed designs of the best ideas

TEST
They make models to test their ideas All the answers are at the back in case you get stuck!
There’s lots to discover and plenty of skills to practice.
BUILD Let’s have a look at what engineers really do and if you
They have the final version built, and check it carefully have what it takes to be an awesome engineer!
 Circuit route T O BE
N
TRAI TRONAUwThat
AN AS that you haspvaece?
Which route must the electricity zip along to light up the line of bulbs?
The electricity can pass through batteries but only green lights, not red.
nk to
u thi go in flying
Do yo takes to rk on a
it ts w o
the
tronau lab called ion (ISS).
as
Most science ace Stat You’ll need
to b
r natio
nal Sp read Russia e able to
Inte n too...
All astrona
uts fly to
Start here spacecraft the ISS in a
called a So Russian
its contro yuz. The la
ls are in Ru bels on
ssian.
Russian is written in an
alphabet, called Cyrillic.

RUSSIAN ALPHABET Рр r in rock Шш sh in shirt

(make a rolled
Aа sounds like ar Зз z in zebra ‘rrrr’ sound if
in far you can) Щщ sh_ch in
Ии ee in meet fresh cheese
Бб Сс s in sun
sounds like b
in bear Йй y in toy Ъъ (silent)
Тт t in top
Вв v in voice Кк k in key Ыы i in ill
Уу oo in spoon
Гг g in go Лл l in land Ьь (silent)
Фф f in fog
Дд d in day Мм m in moon Ээ e in eleven
Хх ch in Scottish
Ее ye in yet Нн n in note word loch Юю yoo, like you

Ёё yo in yolk Оо o in not Цц ts in planets Яя y in yard

Жж ss in mission Пп p in pet Чч ch in Charles

Can you work out how to say these Russian

space words – and what they mean?

Планета
Aстронавт Cоюз
 Stable structures Tower
Be careful! The
spaghetti will
The diagonals are
about two thirds
snap easily. the length of a
Find out which shapes make piece of spaghetti.

the strongest structures.

1. Use marshmallows and half 2. Snap other pieces of
lengths of uncooked spaghetti spaghetti to make diagonals
to build a cube like this. Does across each side of the cube.
it feel stable? Does it feel more stable now?

3. Build the Make a pyramid

tallest tower
you can from
marshmallows
and spaghetti.
Put some card
on top and see
what weight it 1. Make a square using half
will support. lengths of spaghetti and
marshmallows. Add four half
lengths to make a pyramid.

What’s going on?

Cubes and pyramids make stable
structures. Cubes make strong
building blocks if they have
reinforced diagonals. Pyramids
make good structures because ­­­2. Add more spaghetti to extend
they contain triangles, which are your pyramid building like this.
one of the strongest shapes. How stable does this shape feel?
You will need:
• marshmallows
• spaghetti
• card
 Plumbing puzzle
Which pipe will carry water uninterrupted to the bathtub?
(The water can flow in any direction as long as its path is not blocked.)
Secret cipher
Agent 003.6 is trying to decode a top secret message from his
spymaster. Can you use the percentages on the screen below to
write the correct letter under each number and help him find out
what it says?

CODE

A=5% of 60 F=25% of 64 N=25% of 80 T=60% of 15

B=20% of 40 G=70% of 50 O=75% of 72 U=50% of 12

C=40% of 45 I=90% of 30 R=50% of 94 W=70% of 10

E=80% of 90 L=60% of 70 S=6% of 200

MESSAGE:
3 42 42 3 35 72 20 9 12 47 72 9 6 47 20

9 54 8 3 12 72 16 54 47 20 72 7

27 20 12 9 47 6 18 9 27 54 20 12
 Tile-hop
Bess can only step on tiles with numbers that divide by 3. Jess can only
step on tiles with numbers that divide by 4. They can move to a tile that
touches theirs along one side, but not one that just touches at a corner.
Who will cross the floor using the fewest number of tiles?

13 2 51 9 52 45 33
Bess 10 6 4 16 20 8 26

6 40 35 15 37 42 38 21
5 18 11 12 66 4 9 63

44 33 37 21 30 26 14 17
19 42 39 13 24 31 19 6

47 48 9 47 3 2 38 49
14 80 60 19 10 63 7 11

23 36 16 1 27 27 22 3
28 5 24 43 50 69 48 54

44 24 40 64 31 24 36 19
12 31 7 56 24 20 45 29

3 19 39 17 32 34 28 22
34 28 32 38 48 8 8 4

84 16 21 6 20 25 18 15
23 5 13 43 27 12 46 32

30 46 35 51 36 4 16 41
7 29 48 10 49 52 44 50

40 1 12 41 5 9 28
3 18 25 3 47 11 30
Jess
 Hanging crystals When a
layer forms
at the
bottom, it
means no
more will
Watch these amazing crystals dissolve.
grow on a piece of wool. 1. Fill two jars with hot water. 2. Put the jars in a warm
Stir in about six teaspoons of place where they won’t get
bicarbonate of soda, until no moved, with a small plate in
more will dissolve. between them.

The wool should

hang down but
not touch
the plate.

3. Cut a piece of wool as long as 4. Leave the jars for a week.

your arm. Tie a paperclip to each Crystals will grow along the
end of it and place one end in wool and hang down over
each jar. the plate.

What’s going on?

The wool soaks up the mixture. When the water
evaporates, all that’s left are bicarbonate of soda
You will need: crystals. The hanging crystals are formed when the
• x2 jars mixture starts to drip from the wool and evaporate.
• bicarbonate of soda Be careful when pouring If you’re lucky, you might even get crystals that drip
• wool
• plate very hot water. onto the plate and form columns.
• water
PLANET EXPLORER
THINK ABOUT...
Design your own rover to explore
Scientists use robotic vehicles called ROVERS to investigate and another planet.
explore the surface of other planets. What’s the planet
What will the roverlike?
nee d?
Like this one:

for?
What is it looking
Camera to take Where does its power come from?
photographs of Radio transmitter Batteries? Sunlight?
the planet to send information A nuclear power source?
back to Earth

Solar panels How does it

for power send messages
back to Earth? BEEP BEEP

Robotic arm

Chunky wheels
Laser that can to get over the
investigate tough terrain
rocks and soil How does it move?
Wheels? Tracks?
Hopping legs?

How will it get

over rocks?

NAME: Curiosity Rover NAME:

PLANET: Mars PLANET:
MISSION: Taking samples and looking for signs that Mars could support MISSION:
life, including water and chemicals such as oxygen and carbon.
 So do you think you have what it takes to become an
awesome engineer? This is only the beginning, and there’s
Usborne Quicklinks
a whole lot more to discover...
For links to websites with more activities to do online or at home,
and to find out more about engineering, go to the Usborne
Prepare to be amazed by Usborne’s out-of-this-world STEM
Quicklinks website at usborne.com/quicklinks and enter the
books on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
keywords ‘think like an engineer’.

Here are some of the things you can do at the websites we

recommend:

• Meet young engineers and find out what they’re working on

• Design, build and test a hamster run

• Make your own glow sticks, an unpoppable balloon, a

marshmallow blaster and more

• Try some simple coding projects

• Find out how zippers, and lots of other everyday items work

• Read comics about science, technology, engineering and maths

Head to usborne.com/STEM to find out more

Answers:

Program D

Program C Program B

Please follow the online safety guidelines at the Usborne Quicklinks website. We recommend
Making a move:
that children are supervised while using the internet. Usborne Publishing is not responsible
Tile hop: Bess 24 tiles, Jess 22 tiles, Jess won
and does not accept liability for the availability or content of any website other than its own,
Cogs in the machine: clockwise
or for any exposure to harmful, offensive or inaccurate material whichmay appear on the
Plumbing: Secret cipher: All agents return to base for new instructions
Web. Usborne Publishing will have no liability for any damage or loss caused by viruses that
Train like an astronaut: astronaut, Soyuz, planet
may be downloaded as a result of browsing the sites it recommends.
Circuit route: must pass through purple batteries