• Characteristics of natural and human-made materials.
• Possible uses for natural and human-made materials.
• Safe and proper use of tools and materials to construct simple structures.

• Materials used to accomplish a design task based on specific properties.
• Appropriate materials and tools to construct a prototype safely.
• Differences between simple and complex machines.

• Appropriate materials for design tasks based on specific properties and characteristics.
• Appropriate tools used to hold, lift, carry, fasten, and separate, and their safe and proper uses.
• Safe and proper use of tools and machines needed to construct a prototype.

• Safe and proper use of common hand tools, power tools, and measurement devices used in construction.

Engineering Design

• Tools and simple machines used for a specific purpose.
• Human beings and animals use parts of the body as tools.

• Problems that reflect the need for shelter, storage, or convenience.
• Different ways a problem can be represented.
• Relevant design features for building a prototype of a solution to a problem.
• Natural and mechanical systems are designed to serve similar purposes.

• Steps of the engineering design process.
• Methods of representing solutions to a design problem.
• The purpose of a prototype.
• Appropriate materials, tools, and machines to construct a prototype.
• Design features and cost limitations affect the construction of a prototype.
• The five elements of a universal systems model.

• Steps of the engineering design process.
  The engineering design process is used to solve problems, advance society, and modify technologies, objects, and processes.
• Multi-view drawings and pictorial drawings are produced using various techniques.
• Scale and proportion are applied to orthographic projections and pictorial drawings.
• Plans, diagrams, and working drawings are used in the construction of prototypes and models.

Communication

• Components of a communication system.
• Appropriate tools, machines, and electronic devices used to produce and/or reproduce design solutions.
• Communication technologies and systems.
• How symbols and icons are used to communicate a message.

• Information travels through various media.
• Differences between digital and analog signals; how communication devices employ digital and analog technologies.
• How the various components and processes of a communication system function.
• Applications of laser and fiber optic technologies.
• Application of electromagnetic signals in fiber optic technologies, including critical angle and total internal reflection.

• Manufacturing systems of custom and mass production.
• Impacts of interchangeable parts, components of mass-produced products, and the use of automation.
• Manufacturing organization.
• Basic processes in manufacturing systems.

• Manufacturing processes
• Criteria necessary to select safe tools and procedures for the manufacturing process.
• Advantages of using robotics in the automation of manufacturing processes.

Construction

• Parts of a structure.
• Three major types of bridges and their appropriate uses.
• The forces of tension, compression, torsion, bending, and shear affect the performance of bridges.
• Effects of load and structural shape on bridges.

• Engineering properties of materials used in structures.
• Differences between tension, compression, shear, and torsion, and how they relate to the selection of materials in structures.
• Bernoulli’s principle and its effect on structures.
• Resultant force(s) for a combination of live and dead loads.
• The purposes of zoning laws and building codes in the design and use of structures.

• Transportation systems and devices that operate on or in land, air, water, and space.
• Possible solutions to transportation problems, using the universal systems model.
• Three subsystems of a transportation vehicle or device.
• Lift, drag, friction, thrust, and gravity in a vehicle or device.

• Adaptive and assistive devices.
• Adaptive and assistive bioengineered products. 

• Differences between open and closed fluid systems.
• Hydraulic and pneumatic systems and how each relates to manufacturing and transportation systems.
• The ability of a hydraulic system to multiply distance, multiply force, and effect directional change.
• The velocity of a liquid moving in a pipe varies inversely with changes in the pipe’s cross-sectional area.
• Sources of resistance for water moving through a pipe.  

• Differences among conduction, convection, and radiation in a thermal system.
• Conduction, convection, and radiation are considered in the selection of materials for buildings and in the design of a heating system.
• Environmental conditions influence the design of buildings.
• Alternatives to nonrenewable energies.

• Measure and calculate voltage, current, resistance, and power consumption in series and parallel circuits.
• Components of a circuit.
• Relationships among voltage, current, and resistance in a simple circuit, using Ohm’s law.
• Resistance is affected by external factors.
• Alternating current and direct current.