Design Challenges

Family-friendly activities
to unlock your creativity!

Ready to have some fun with TGR Foundation’s Design Challenges?! These family-friendly activities will unlock your creativity to explore, design and test solutions for real-world problems. The challenges use everyday household items but you can switch them out with similar items you have at home.
Ready to have some fun with TGR Foundation’s Design Challenges?! These family-friendly activities will unlock your creativity to explore, design and test solutions for real-world problems. The challenges use everyday household items but you can switch them out with similar items you have at home.

Week One

Develop a new vehicle for transporting hazardous waste.
Create a maze to move marbles from the tabletop to the floor.
Create a cube/block with letters of the alphabet.
Build an arch that is three feet tall.
Build an amusement park on a square of cardboard.

Week Two

Create a device that will spin a marshmallow five revolutions.
Suspend an egg from a paper clip hanging from a yardstick.
Create a pedestal for each of the miniature cars.
Design a parachute that can hold weight and descend slowly.
Build a ping pong ball launcher to project them into containers.

Week Three

Create a flying machine that travels the farthest possible distance.
Using a string, you must move an unopened can across the floor.
Build the tallest, free-standing tower with newspaper.
Move the cotton balls into the paper bag without touching the cotton balls.
Design a trampoline that will lift an object that weighs three ounces.

Week Four

Design a basketball shooter and hoop.
Design a lander that can keep two mini marshmallows (“aliens”) inside a cup.
Design a device that will move a cup of beads from one side of the table to the other.
Build the strongest bridge with a unique design.
Design a device that will float in water and hold 50 pennies.

Week Five

Build a game that the family can play by the end of the week.

Week Six

Build musical instruments that the family can play at the end of the week.

Week Seven

Build an Animal Shelter with materials found inside and outside the house.

Week Eight

Use a simple design process to create a wordless picture or photo book.
Design Reflection Questions:
  • What were some interesting discoveries you made while working on the Design Challenges, about the problems and about yourself?
  • What were some of the difficulties of the Design Challenges and what made them difficult?
  • What were some learning moments and what made them so?
  • How can you use what you have learned in the future?