What is an engineering project?

Some students like to build things for their science fair projects. But just building something is not enough. An engineering project tries to build something to solve a problem. It could be how to get across a river, or how to purify water, or how to use solar energy to move a car.

But engineering is not just finding “how” to get something done. Engineering tries to find better ways to get something done. So an engineer may try to get a result using the smallest number of parts, or using the least amount of energy, or costing the least, or lasting the longest. Remember, building things to solve real problems costs money, and an engineer will want to solve the problem in an affordable way.

In an engineering project for a science fair, you will probably try different designs, or models, and test them. The judges will want to know about all the things you tried and how you decided to try something different--even when designs didn’t work well.

A good engineering project has something to measure. You can show the measurements for different engineering models, or for different conditions that you tested. There are many ways to solve engineering problems. You want to find the best one you can.