Design Challenge Learning is a dynamic way for learners to become creative problem-solvers. Design challenges use real-world problems to engage learners in an iterative and collaborative process to build innovator mindsets that are key to future success. These challenges are ideal for augmenting learning in ELA, math, science and social studies, making content relevant through a student-centered approach.
Meet some educators who love using Design Challenge Learning with their students!
Design challenges foster creativity, problem-solving, and perseverance while allowing students to work away from a screen. They can then record their process (through video, pictures or journaling) and share their results with you and/or the class. This educator guide has even more tips for student engagement.
With distance learning, it's also important to remember that parents are your teaching partners! Our parents guide and lessons on Tech at Home are just what they need to continue education at home. You can orient yourself to Design Challenge Learning with our short online course or suggest it to parents who will be engaging in challenges with their kids.
Check out these resources that are helpful, educational and distance-learning friendly.
Educators are teaching their students with varying access to technology, from almost none to full online platforms. Our Educator Guide will help you to effectively present hands-on design challenges to your learners with no, some or full access to technology.
Visit The Tech Interactive online with this 25-minute Virtual Field Trip featuring scientists in fun fields across Silicon Valley. It even comes with its own educator guide!
Engage your 7th- to 12th-grader in a design challenge where they figure out how to distribute vaccines or save a species using these booklet and video resources. Here’s how:
Have the student choose the challenge and which area they want to focus on. Pull up the booklet (print if possible, or use as prompts they address on paper).
Watch The Problem video for the chosen challenge to learn about the problem and get inspired.
Follow the prompts in the booklet to research the challenge, develop a problem statement and design a solution to address one or more aspects of the problem. Then, create a poster, PowerPoint or other way to share the solution. Have the student watch The Solution and The Impact videos to get ideas on how to share their solution and its potential impact.
Have the student share their solutions with family and friends or classmates virtually to get feedback and think about how to improve it. Have them watch The Solution video and think about how their solution compares with the one in the video.
If you have a group of interested friends or classmates, have them collaborate virtually to develop a solution.
Vaccine Delivery Challenge
Consider the complexities of infrastructure, public health and sociocultural landscapes in designing a solution to distribute a vaccine.
Student Booklets
Videos
Save the Species Challenge
Develop a solution that assists governments in protecting an endangered species.
Student Booklets
Videos
Our lessons integrate Design Challenge Learning and engineering, and are adaptable to fit your learners' needs. To help educators adjust to assigning design challenges during remote learning, we’ve created this guide with tips for low-, medium- and high-tech environments.
Just Dropping In
Explore how expansion is related to movement by designing a device that controls the movement of a dropped ball.
Duration: 65 minutes
Grades: 4-12
Unlock Resources Video
Brainstorming Ideas
Teams brainstorm and conceptualize a device that expands.
Duration: 60 minutes
Grades: 4-12
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Hover Design
Build, test and modify hovering devices in a wind tunnel to expand knowledge of design and aerodynamics.
Duration: 50-60 minutes
Grades: 3-12
Lesson Plan Video
Solve the Fall
Design and build a device that can survive a drop in order to deliver emergency supplies.
Duration: 50 minutes
Grades: K-12
Lesson Plan Video
Cupcake Delivery
Create a wind-powered vehicle to transport cupcakes to hungry customers.
Duration: 20-30 minutes
Grades: K-12
Lesson Plan Video
Circle of Pong
Explore forces of motion, potential and kinetic energy in order to place a ball in the center of a six-foot circle.
Duration: 45 minutes
Grades: 3-12
Lesson Plan
Balloon Astronaut
Design spacesuits that can withstand the hazards of high velocity impact from space debris and meteoroids.
Duration: 45 minutes
Grades: 2-8
Lesson Plan
Energy at Play
Build a device that can move a ball to a target while exploring energy transfer.
Duration: 60-90 minutes
Grades: 3-6
Lesson Plan
Save the Fruit
Create a device that will harvest fruit from a tree and examine points of failure for iteration.
Duration: Five 60-minute sessions
Grades: 3-5
Lesson Plan
Energy Madness
Design a machine that can deliver a remote control to an immobile friend.
Duration: Six 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Bridging the Gap
Build a bridge over a variety of terrains to determine how different designs affect stability and strength.
Duration: Five 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Shaky Shelves: Exploring Cause and Effect
Write a proposal to the mayor for a device that prevents product and profit loss caused by earthquakes.
Duration: Four 45-minute sessions
Grade: 6
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Coastal Erosion: Designing and Debating Solutions
Make an argument supported with evidence for a solution to the environmental issue of coastal erosion.
Duration: Five 60-minute sessions
Grades: 6-8
Lesson Plan
Weight Distribution and Flight
Conduct weight distribution experiments with paper airplanes to gather information for a short presentation.
Duration: Two 60-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Engineering Takes Flight
Explore the different flight characteristics of materials while designing an aircraft.
Duration: Five 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Escape the Lava
Design a device to rescue researchers from a lava flow.
Duration: Four 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Animal Rescue
Teams gather information and scientific evidence to design a device that will help move endangered animals from one protected area to another.
Duration: Eight to ten 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Looking to the Past to Build the Future
Apply knowledge of homes from the past to design and construct a home that can withstand a windstorm.
Duration: Five to seven 50-minute sessions
Grades: K-2
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More Plastic, More Problems: Using Ratios to Get Real
Design a device that removes garbage from the ocean while minimizing the number of animals collected.
Duration: Five to seven 50-minute sessions
Grade: 6
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Aim High!
Explore angles and trajectories to determine optimal angle and height to launch a paper rocket through a target.
Duration: 75 minutes
Grades: 4-12
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Catch It, If You Can
Build and develop a scale drawing of a rain catchment system that will help conserve water. Explore challenges associated with drought in California and how water conservation can be part of a solution.
Duration: Five to six 60-minute sessions
Grades: 4-7
Lesson Plan
You Do the Math
Calculate the volume of regular objects and practice measuring and calculating the volume of irregular objects.
Duration: 55 minutes
Grades: 3-9
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The Math Behind Circuits
Build and explore different types of circuits and make calculations to gain practical skills in building, visualizing and understanding circuits.
Duration: Two 55-minute sessions
Grades: 4-6
Lesson Plan
Mayday on Mars
Use line plots to compare the trajectories of balloon-powered Mars vehicles.
Duration: Five 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Traverse the Terrain
Design a Mars terrain navigation test using coordinate planes to help NASA prepare for the next rover mission.
Duration: Four 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Storm Shield: What Living Things Need
Design and build a shelter to keep animals safe in severe weather.
Duration: Five 45-minute sessions
Grade: K
Unlock Resources
No Soil, No Problem
Using scientific evidence and knowledge, develop arguments on what plants need for growth.
Duration: Three to five 60-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Investigating Lift
Build a device to explore the force of lift in a hovercraft.
Duration: 65-80 minutes
Grades: 6-8
Lesson Plan
Save the Hiker
Build a device that will deliver life-saving treatment to someone in a hazardous situation.
Duration: Six 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Go Rover Go
Learn how modifying building materials can convert potential energy into kinetic energy.
Duration: Four 50-minute sessions
Grades: 4-8
Lesson Plan
Computer Science Education Principles
Key principles for teaching computational thinking and computer programming in any setting
PDF
Computational Thinking Posters
Classroom visuals that define computational thinking and its elements. These foundational skills support computer science education for students of all ages.
PDF
Demonstrating Change Over Time
Apply computational thinking to create or modify a computer program in Scratch that shows how the moon appears throughout the lunar cycle.
Duration: 180 to 240 minutes
Grades: 3-5
Lesson Plan
The Tech for Global Good Design Challenges engage your students in taking a systematic and empathetic approach to addressing social and engineering problems faced around the world. Each challenge includes background videos booklets, lesson plan and standards connections. Challenges are designed for Grades 7-12 and can be done in a single four-hour session or multiple shorter sessions.
Vaccine Challenge
Consider the complexities of infrastructure, public health and sociocultural landscapes in designing a solution to distribute a life saving vaccine.
Lesson Plan Standards connections
To see how this design challenge can be organized review these slides.
Videos:
Student Booklets:
Save the Species Challenge
Develop a solution that assists governments in protecting species in designated areas.
Videos:
Student Booklets:
To see how this design challenge can be organized review these slides.
Learn about the Design Challenge Learning methodology and engage in an actual design challenge.
Introduction to Design Challenge Learning
This course introduces you to the core methods for facilitating design challenges and prepares you to implement them in your learning setting. The blend of online and offline activities allows you to replicate what your learners will do while still having the flexibility to complete the course at your own pace. Great for teachers, librarians and nonprofits in the education space.
Hands-on Design Challenge (Recording)
Length: One hour
Join us as we take you through a Design Challenge! In this exploration of hands-on learning, you’ll:
Learn what design challenges are and why they work so well for distance learning.
Walk through one of our favorite design challenges so you’ll feel confident assigning it to your learners in the fall.
Hear strategies and best practices, from defining the problem through sharing solutions, so that you have the tools to succeed with this new style of teaching.
The activity referenced in the webinar is here (in both English and Spanish) if you’d like to try it out beforehand.
Design Challenges in a Virtual Setting (Recording)
Length: One hour
Looking for a realistic solution for virtual hands-on learning? Join us for this webinar about the benefits of Design Challenge Learning in a virtual setting, and how to make it doable for you, your students and families. You’ll engage in a design challenge, reflect on the Innovation Design Process, and get useful resources and tools. Come prepared with one sheet of paper, scissors, tape -- and a willingness to jump into this new world of distance learning!
Created by educators, these short guides on facilitating design challenges, promoting engineering and fostering innovator mindsets are excellent references for both novice and experienced Design Challenge Learning educators.
Innovation Design Process
Learn about the power of the Innovation Design Process.
Innovation PDF Video
Innovator Mindsets
Tools for fostering collaboration, perseverance, curiosity, empathy and boldness with engineering design.
Mindsets PDF Video
What is Engineering?
Where design and innovation meet.
Engineering PDF
The Language of Engineering
Vocabulary that builds confidence in engineering.
Language PDF
Materials Strategies for Engineering Design
Managing low-cost, accessible materials for engineering design.
Materials PDF Video
Framing the Challenge
Essential elements to engage all learners in design challenges, including narratives, criteria and constraints.
Framing PDF Video
Brainstorming
Methods for inspiring innovation at the start of a challenge.
Brainstorming PDF Video
Prototyping - Test, Reflect, Iterate
Encourage iteration and perseverance throughout the design process.
Prototyping PDF Video
Data Collection - Reflecting on your Design
Using quantitative and qualitative observations to refine designs.
Data PDF
Sharing Solutions
Create a classroom culture that supports communication, constructive feedback and iteration.
Sharing PDF Video
