Grade 6 Engineering & Physics

32 of 36 lessons are MUST COVER. They are tested on the unit tests and exams, or are skills the SAT/ACT relies on. OPTIONAL lessons are enrichment. Do them if time allows. The course is complete when the MUST COVER lessons are done.

Unit 1: Motion

• MUST COVER 1.1 Speed, Velocity and Acceleration: Stephenson’s Rocket · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.2 Newton’s Laws with Numbers: F = ma · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.3 Friction and Galileo’s Inclined Plane · unit test
• MUST COVER 1.4 Work, Power and Watt’s Horsepower · unit test

Unit 2: Bridges

• MUST COVER 2.1 Bending and the I-Beam: Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.2 Arch Bridges from Rome to Eads · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.3 Cable-Stayed versus Suspension: Telford’s Menai Bridge · unit test
• MUST COVER 2.4 Bridge Inspection and Maintenance: The Silver Bridge · unit test

Unit 3: Architecture

• MUST COVER 3.1 Architectural Drawing: Plan, Elevation and Scale · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.2 Vitruvius: Firmness, Commodity and Delight · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.3 Great Domes: The Pantheon, Hagia Sophia and Wren’s St Paul’s · unit test
• MUST COVER 3.4 The Systems Inside a Skyscraper: Elevators, Water and Air · unit test

Unit 4: Electricity

• MUST COVER 4.1 Ohm’s Law with a Multimeter · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.2 Series and Parallel: Edison’s Pearl Street Station · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.3 Faraday, Motors and Generators · unit test
• MUST COVER 4.4 First Steps with a Microcontroller: Making an LED Blink · unit test

Unit 5: Public Utilities

• MUST COVER 5.1 Water Treatment: Coagulation, Filtration and Disinfection · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.2 Pumps, Pressure and Water Towers: The Fairmount Water Works · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.3 How Power Plants Make Electricity: Parsons’s Turbine and the Trade-offs · unit test
• MUST COVER 5.4 From Telegraph to Telephone to Fiber Optics: Colladon’s Light Fountain · unit test

Unit 6: Boats and Ships

• MUST COVER 6.1 Density and Displacement with Numbers: Why an Iron Ship Floats · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.2 Stability and the Plimsoll Line · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.3 Propulsion: Oar, Sail, Paddle, Screw and Jet · unit test
• MUST COVER 6.4 Submarines and Ballast: The Trieste and a Cartesian Diver · unit test

Unit 7: Flight

• MUST COVER 7.1 Lift: Pressure and Turning the Air · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.2 Control Surfaces: Ailerons, Elevator and Rudder · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.3 Lindbergh and Navigation: Dead Reckoning Across the Atlantic · unit test
• MUST COVER 7.4 Goddard and Rockets: The First Liquid-Fueled Flight · unit test

Unit 8: Robots, Coding and Invention

• MUST COVER 8.1 Motors and Gears: The Lunar Roving Vehicle · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.2 Loops and Conditionals: From Ada Lovelace to MakeCode · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.3 Distance Sensors: Echoes and the Speed of Sound · unit test
• MUST COVER 8.4 Drone Basics and the FAA’s Rules: Ingenuity on Mars · unit test

Unit 9: Toy Lab: The Physics of Play OPTIONAL unit

• OPTIONAL 9.1 Rubber-Band and Pull-Back Cars: Stored Energy and Gear Trains
• OPTIONAL 9.2 The Drinking Bird: A Toy Heat Engine
• OPTIONAL 9.3 Radio-Controlled Cars: From Tesla’s Boat to Your Floor
• OPTIONAL 9.4 Toy Safety Engineering: The Small-Parts Cylinder and the Drop Test

From the course’s own 36-week pacing guide, with catch-up and review weeks added to fill a 36-week (180-day) year.

Grading: Builds (effort, fair testing and the improve round) 35%, Engineer’s notebook (predictions, data tables, calculations with units, conclusions) 25%, Unit reviews 15%, Portfolio builds 25%. Scale: A 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69. Below 60: redo the build or review with help.