Can You Give Me A Lift?

This lesson was created to prepare students for the 2026 Tech Challenge: Raise the Roof.

Students will explore strategies for building a device that can lower into a hole and lift out a person stuck at the bottom.

Materials 

Building Materials

Fill the “backpack” for each team with a variety of materials from the categories listed below. We recommend that each bags contains:

• 1 string or rope (3 ft)
• 1 base
• 2 types of round objects
• 2 types of long item
• 3 types of connectors

Tip: Give each team a different set of materials to encourage a variety of solutions. See the table or graphic for examples of some of the categories of things to choose from.

Look for items that:

Tip: Don’t use glue and limit the use of tape. This allows for faster iteration, more reuse of materials, and less mess.

Additional Materials

In addition to the building materials, teams can also use natural materials found in the surrounding environment in their design. Gather some of the natural materials listed below and have them available for students in the room. In this lesson, natural materials are not introduced until the iteration section, but feel free to have them available for both prototyping sections.

Tip: Don’t use glue and only allow the limited use of tape described above. This allows for faster iteration, more reuse of materials, and less mess.

Preparation

1. Prepare one backpack for each team by adding the materials highlighted above.
2. Place the natural materials on a table that students can access during building.
3. Try out the activity yourself, with other educators or kids you know. This will give you practice with the resources so you can anticipate student questions.

Test Rig Set-up by Gradeband

Frame the Challenge

Activate Prior Knowledge (5 min) 

1. Ask learners to think about a time when they lost an item down a hard to reach place (behind the couch, down a sewer grate, etc.).
   
   • What factors made it challenging to reach the item?
   • Did you use any tools to help you retrieve the item?
   • How did you make sure the item wouldn’t be damaged in the process?
2.  Now have the learners to consider what they might need to do if they needed to lift out something larger and heavier.
   
   • What tools could help you lift out an object that is heavy?
   • What kind of machines are designed to lift heavy objects? What kinds of features do they have?
3. Let the learners know that they will be working in their Tech Challenge teams to figure out how to lift out a person that is stuck at the bottom of a hole.

Introduce the Challenge (5 min)

1. Introduce the design scenario:

2. Introduce the design problem, criteria, and constraints.

3. Show learners an example of the backpack and included materials.

• Identify each item by its category instead of its name to help them think generally about each item’s potential for this design challenge.
  • Ex: Call chenille stems and rubberbands their two connectors.
• Point out the natural

4. Let learners know that they will be sharing their findings with the rest of the class and giving each other feedback.

Design Challenge 

Prototyping (Build and Test) (15 min) 

1. Have learners get into their Tech Challenge teams.
   • If the class is not preparing for the Tech Challenge, have them get into teams of 3–4.
2. Pass out one backpack/bag to each team and have them start building.
3. During the prototyping time, support teams with open ended Prototyping Questions to guide the process:
   
   • What are some potential ways the materials in your backpack could be used to build your device?
   • How safe is the passenger on the way back up? Is there any potential of them accidentally bumping into the walls during the ride?
   • How do you reset the device after using it? Is there a way to build an automatic reset feature into it?

Pulleys

Teams may want to consider creating a pulley to organize the string and make it simple to wind the string back up when lifting out the passenger.

Quick Shareout (5 min) 

1. At the end of the time limit, have teams stop even if they haven’t been able to test yet.
2. Ask for volunteers to share what they have noticed and wondered as they prototyped.
3. As needed, remind students that the goal is for everyone to get rescued, so this is a good time to share what they have learned so far with each other.

Iterate

Introduce new criteria and iterate (15 min) 

1. Next, introduce a new design scenario: 
   • While you were building your device, you accidentally knocked some of your supplies into the hole! Now, not only do you not have those materials to build with, but you’ll need to be able to bring up the person and the fallen materials at the same time. Don’t forget you can also use items from the surrounding environment in your design.
2. Introduce new criteria:

   Design Problem	Design a device that can safely lift a person out of the hole
   Criteria	Design can only include materials from backpack (paper bag) or the surrounding environment (natural materials)  Design must be attached to the surface edge. New criteria: Design must now carry the person and the fallen materials out of the hole at the same time.
   Constraints	There’s a time limit! New constraint: Remove 1 round object and 1 long item from each backpack.

3. Have learners get back into their teams again and begin iterating on their design.
4. Bring the class back together when the time is up.

Share Solutions (10 min) 

1. Have all teams show their final designs by demonstrating them at the test rig.
2. After all the teams have demonstrated their designs, ask teams to do a final share out. Possible Sharing Questions could include:
   
   • Tell us how your device retrieves the passenger and the fallen items.
   • How did you change your design once you lost some of your building materials?
   • Would you make any other changes if you had more time?
3. Invite students to continue to give positive feedback on other team’s designs and encourage them to share suggestions.

Debrief (5 min) 

1. After students share their solutions, lead a short debrief with some of these questions. Possible Debrief Questions include: 
   • What was it like having to design a solution with limited materials?
   • What are other situations where you might need to lift and move a heavy object? Would you have built your device differently for this situation?
   • Where else do you see simple machines like pulleys used in your daily life?

Standards Connections

Vocabulary