Reading the Rules

Duration: 30 minutes

Grade Levels: 4–12

Use these fun icebreakers to understand the complex details of the criteria and constraints for The Tech Challenge.

Grade Levels: 4-12

Duration: 30 minutes

Concepts/Skills: criteria, constraints, reading comprehension

Materials

  • 2026 Tech Challenge Rules (1 per person)
  • Pens or pencils (1 per person)
  • Scratch paper
  • Some icebreakers will call for additional materials. See directions below.

Directions

These icebreakers are designed to be used at any point in the design process, when teams are just starting out, or right before they put the final touches on their final solution. Using activities like these will help you understand and remember the complex parts of the design criteria and constraints.

  • Beginning the Challenge: Choose one icebreaker to play when you introduce the Rules. 
    • Play as a team and then reflect on what everyone learned about the Rules. 
  • Middle of the Challenge: Try out different icebreakers during your team’s meetings to help everyone understand the details of the Rules. 
  • End of the Challenge: Once a team thinks they have a final design, it’s important to review the Rules to make sure their solution meets all of the criteria and constraints.

Reading the Rules Icebreakers

Choose from the four icebreakers below.
Scavenger Hunt
  1. Assign each team member 2-3 pages of the Rules (or as many pages needed for all the pages to be included).
  2. Ask them to read through all the rules on their pages and write down 5 things they find that they think are important on scratch paper
  3. Once they are done, have them trade their list with a partner and challenge them to find all 5 things in the Rules. 
  4. Once everyone has completed the scavenger hunt, bring the whole group back together and discuss what they learned.

Tips

  • If it is the first time you are reading or reviewing the rules, divide the document up into sections and assign one page to a different student or pair of students.
  • Pair team members up and have them compete to see which team can find the information the fastest.
4, 3, 2, 1
  1. Have team members look through the whole Rules on their own. 
  2. Ask them to find one example each of places where there are 4, 3, 2 and 1 of something important in the Rules and write down their findings.
  3. Once everyone is done searching, have them share what they found with the group.

Example:

  • The challenge needs to be completed within 4 minutes.
  • There are 3 types of targets.
  • Each stack target has 2 pins that align with the module.
  • We will submit just 1 Team Journal before the Showcase.
Criteria & Constraint Charades

 


 

For this icebreaker, you will also need:

  • An easel pad or chart paper
  • Marker(s)
  1. Tear out several pieces of scrap paper. Write one of the criteria and constraints for the Challenge on each one.
  2. Fold the pieces of paper and place them in a hat.
  3. Have team members pick one and try to draw what it is describing on chart paper. The rest of the team tries to guess what it is.
  4. Continue taking turns until all the criteria and constraints are drawn.

 Example: 

To demonstrate safety while using the controls on the device, students could draw one team member touching the controls and the other team members standing in the safety area.


Tip: Advisors for younger engineers may want to do all the drawing and just have their team members guess.

Quick Safety Check


In The Tech Challenge, everyone is equally in charge of making sure safety comes first!

  1. Give each teammate a highlighter and ask them to highlight places that discuss safety in the Rules.
  2. Challenge the team members to find and highlight as many ways as they can to practice safety in 5 minutes.
  3. Encourage them to split up the pages of the Rules so they can look through all of them in the short time frame.
  4. Once 5 minutes is up, have them compile all the safety information they found in their Team Journal.

For this icebreaker, you will also need:

  • Highlighters (1 per person)
  • Team journal

In addition to the official Rules document and Diagrams, make sure your team reviews the Safety Poster. 

Debrief

  1. After students have completed the icebreaker(s), lead a short debrief with some of these questions. Possible Debrief Questions include:
    • What did you discover about the rules for the Challenge?
    • Which parts of the rules do you feel like you understand well? Which parts are you still unsure about?
    • What else do we need to know before we start researching and brainstorming?

Remember: It's important to review the Rules throughout the process, not just at the very beginning. Engineers check the criteria and constraints for a project many times to make sure they understand what they need to create. 

The Tech Challenge

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

  • Provide examples of icebreakers teams can use during team meetings.
  • Familiarize them with the rules for the current Tech Challenge.

To learn more about this year's Tech Challenge, go to thetech.org/thetechchallenge

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