Engineering Journals
Practice writing and documentation skills, whether in-person or virtual, with this journaling lesson.
Duration: 60 min
Grades: 3-8
Lesson Plan     Handout 1     Handout 2     Video

Paper Engineering
Practice and improve the precision of learners’ journaling skills by having teams build a paper table based on another team’s engineering journal.
Duration: 60 min
Grades: 3-8
Lesson Plan     Handout 1     Handout 2

There are many ways to relate The Tech Challenge to what your students are doing in the classroom.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
The Tech Challenge aligns with the engineering design standards, a core idea of California Education Standards for K-12.  

The design process — engineers’ basic approach to problem-solving — involves many practices. They include problem definition, model development and use, investigation, analysis and interpretation of data, application of mathematics and computational thinking, and determination of solutions. These engineering practices incorporate specialized knowledge about criteria and constraints, modeling and analysis, and optimization and trade-offs.

Read the engineering design standards:

High school

Middle school

Third through fifth grade

Complete NGSS standards

More about engineering design from NGSS (PDF)

Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

What is the difference between the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in Science and the NGSS?

The CCSS Literacy Standards were written to help students meet the particular challenges of reading, writing, speaking, listening and language in various fields — in this case, science. The literacy standards do not replace science standards; they supplement them. The NGSS lays out the core ideas and practices in science that students should master in preparation for college and careers.

The Tech Challenge aligns with standards in reading, writing, speaking and reading.

Full Common Core English language arts standards (PDF)

Full Common Core math standards (PDF)

The Tech Challenge helps students build 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, communication and teamwork. To learn more about 21st-century skills, click here.

• Check out our video about working as a team while sheltering in place.

• We recommend teams take advantage of Zoom, Facetime, whatsapp and other video conferencing methods to communicate with your teammates. And don’t forget about good, old-fashioned texting, emailing, and phone calls.

• We also recommend using Adobe scan or the scan function in Apple Notes to scan photos and other documents for your engineering journal. Google docs, sheets, and slides are also great ways to collaborate with distant team members.

• Be sure to read our digital camera tips in order to be ready for the Virtual Showcase

Watch our YouTube series to learn how to safely use tools that you'll need to build your device. 

Cardboard Safety

Tech Tools! Safety advice from The Tech

• Tell me about:
• your brainstorming.
• the source of your ideas.
• how you worked as a team.
• how you tested your solution.
• What idea did you choose as your solution? Why?
• How does your design work? 
• What did you choose to document in your journal? Why?
• How did each of you contribute?
• How did you build your solution?
• Tell me about your failures.

Adviser: A person at least 18 years old who monitors safety, acts as a mentor and who may provide things like transportation and snacks. Your team should only have one adviser, and he or she shouldn't give you all the answers or do the project for you.

Assemble: To fit together the parts or pieces of.

Brainstorming: Coming up with ideas — sometimes crazy ones — for a solution to a problem. It's possible to brainstorm on your own, but most find it works best as a team activity.

Cardboard: A material similar to thick, stiff paper, that is made of pressed paper pulp or pasted sheets of paper. It is often used for making cartons, boxes and signs.

Constraints: A control or limit to a design. For example, a constraint might be that your device can't weigh more than 3 pounds.

Corrugated: Shaped into folds or parallel and alternating ridges and grooves.

Design: The creation of a plan for the construction of your device. Sometimes used to refer to the device itself.

Device: The gizmo you and your team are designing, engineering and building for The Tech Challenge.

Dimension: A dimension is a measurement such as length, width, or height. If you talk about the dimensions of an object or place, you are referring to its size and proportions.

Engineer: A person who designs, constructs and tests devices, materials and systems while considering constraints caused by safety, practicality, rules and cost.

Engineering analysis: Looking at a problem using scientific analytic principles and processes so you can see the properties of what you are designing. To start, break down a problem into its basic parts to look at relationships between its pieces and things other than your device.

Engineering Design Process: A series of steps engineers follow when creating devices, products or processes. Once you get started, the steps don't have to be followed in order. For example, if your device fails, your team can always go back to brainstorming to solve that problem. We use ScienceBuddies.org's chart to talk about the Engineering Design Process.

Engineering journal: A record of all the brainstorming, research, prototyping and other work that goes into developing your team's device.

Envelope: The acceptable size of an item. Think of it like this: you have a box that measures 24" x 24" x 24". You want to ship a bunch of shoes to a friend but you can't close the lid. Then your box is too small and your stuff isn't within the envelope.

Failure: Sometimes you feel this when your device doesn't work, but a big part of engineering is finding failure points and fixing them. So running into a roadblock with your device is an opportunity to use your engineering brain to make your device even better.

Failure point: When a break in a system causes a device to work improperly or not work at all. One of the jobs of an engineer is to find failure points so they can fix them, and it's one of the reasons we test again and again.

Final design: The final plan for the construction of your device, agreed upon by the whole team. The team develops the final plan after brainstorming, prototyping and testing again and again. Sometimes this term is used instead of Final Device.

Final device: The device your team will bring to the showcase — the product of all your team's brainstorming, designing, prototyping, testing and re-testing.

Innovator: Someone who creates something new or makes changes to something that already exists in order to meet a specific need. For example, you and your team as you design, engineer and build a device to survive a drop and travel some distance without using batteries.

Iteration: The different versions of the device you build as it changes due to the Engineering Design Process.

Living document: A document that is continually being updated. For example, your engineering journal.

Narration: The act of giving an account describing incidents or a course of events.

Nominal: Approximate; that is, there may be minor variances between the measurements stated in the rules and drawings and the actual test rig, for example.

Paper: A material made of cellulose pulp, derived mainly from wood, rags, and certain grasses, processed into flexible sheets or rolls, and used chiefly for writing, printing, drawing, wrapping, and covering walls.

Perseverance: Not giving up in the face of failure. Your team may experience setbacks, but it doesn't have to give up. Getting past those failures can be fun and rewarding.

Physics: The study of matter, forces and their effects. Basically, the study of everything in the universe.

Problem statement: A concise description of an issue to be addressed or a condition to be improved upon. In the 2021 challenge, teams will write two problem statements describing the real-world problems or needs solved by their solution.

Prototype: A first full-scale and usually functional form of a new type or design of a construction.

Reconfigure: To rearrange (something) into an altered form, figure, shape, or layout. 

Repeatability: The ability of your device to demonstrate the same results under the same conditions, i.e. to work every time you test it.

Safety: Your No. 1 priority! Safety involves using tools correctly, wearing your hardhat and goggles when working on and testing your device, and more. While your team should appoint a safety monitor, everyone on the team is responsible for safety!

Solution: The design your team builds for The Tech Challenge.

Specifications: Detailed descriptions of design criteria for a piece of work.

Spirit of the Challenge: The Tech Challenge emphasizes the importance of developing engineering solutions that would be practical in real life, otherwise known as the Spirit of the Challenge. For this challenge, teams should develop and document real-life solutions. They will need to demonstrate their assembled devices for the judges. Judges will also look to a team’s engineering journal for evidence of real-world application of the team’s solution. Store-bought solutions are prohibited and not in the Spirit of the Challenge. Teams are encouraged to design and build devices using their own ideas and creativity. Use of existing plans for reference and inspiration is allowed. All plans, and the source of those plans, must be documented in the team Engineering Journal.

Success Criteria: The things that need to happen in order for your project to be successful. In the 2021 challenge, teams must define at least 2 or 3 success criteria for each item they build. See rules for examples.

Transform: To change the nature, function, or condition of.

Sources: Collins Dictionary, Wikipedia, Physics4Kids.com; Ducksters; Kids ESB; Ron Kurtus' School for Champions; Britannica.com; BritannicaKids.com; KidsNet.AU, http://www.engineering-dictionary.org, Vocabulary.com, Merriam-Webster.com, and American Heritage dictionary

These books are either available at your local library or inexpensively through Amazon.

ENGINEERING

Cook, Eric
“Prototyping (21st Century Skills Innovation Library: Makers as Innovators)”
Cherry Lake Publishing, 2015.
Grades 4-8

Fontichiaro, Kristin
“Prototyping (21st Century Skills Innovation Library: Makers as Innovators)”
Cherry Lake Publishing, 2015
Grades 4-8

Hunt, Sharon
“Engineered!: Engineering Design Work”
Kids Can Press, 2017
Grades 3-7

May, Vicki V.
“Engineering: Cool Women Who Design”
Nomad Press, 2016
Grades 3-7

May, Vicki V.
“3-D Engineering: Design and Build Your Own Prototypes”
Nomad Press, 2015
Grades 3-7

Mercer, Bobby
“Junk Drawer Engineering”
Chicago Review Press, 2017
Grades 4-6

DIY

Branwyn, Gareth
“Make: Tips and Tales from the Workshop: A Handy Reference for Makers”
Maker Media Inc, 2013
Grades 7-12

Gabrielson, Curt
“Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff”
Maker Media Inc, 2015
Grades 4-6

PAPER AND CARDBOARD

Adolph, Jonathan
“Cardboard Box Engineering: Cool, Inventive Projects for Tinkerers, Makers & Future Scientists”
Storey Publishing, 2020
Grades 4 and above

Beech, Rick
“Origami You can Use: 27 Practical Projects”
Dover Publications, 2009
Grades 6 and above

Ceceri, Kathy
“Make: Paper Inventions: Machines that Move, Drawings that Light Up, and Wearables and Structures You Can Cut, Fold, and Roll”
Maker Media Inc, 2015
Grades 5 and above

Hiebert, Helen
“Playing with Pop-ups: The Art of Dimensional, Moving Paper Designs”
Quarry Books, 2014
Grades 6 and above

Ives, Rob
“Paper Engineering & Pop-ups For Dummies”
Wiley Publishing, 2009
Grades 6 and above

MacNeal, Noel
“Box!: Castles, Kitchens, And Other Cardboard Creations For Kids”
Lyons Press, 2013
Grades 2 and above

Quinn, Amy
“Creating with Cardboard”
Cherry Lake Publishing 2017
Grades 2 and above

Westing, Jemma
“Out of the Box: 25 Cardboard Engineering Projects for Makers”
DK Children, 2017
Grades 2 and above

Wheeler-Toppen, Jodi
“Amazing Cardboard Tube Science”
Capstone Press, 2016
Grades 3-7

FICTION

Sell, Chad
“The Cardboard Kingdom”
Alfred A Knopf Publishers, 2018
Grades 4 and above

Smith, Kim
“Boxitects”
Clarion Books, 2020
Grades 2 and above

VIDEOS

INFORMATIONAL VIDEOS

Paper Tubes Make Stiff Origami Structures
From shipping and construction to outer space, origami could put a folded twist on structural engineering.

What is an Engineer?
The first episode of Crash Course Engineering explains what engineering is, and gives a brief overview of its four main branches (civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical) as well as a look at some of the other fields of engineering.

The Engineering Process: Crash Course Kids
This episode of Crash Course Kids talks about the Engineering Process and why we should do things in order, as well as many of the questions we should ask along the way.

Socially Responsible Engineering: A Cardboard Stool
This video describes making cardboard  stools for schools in India that lack resources for their students.

100T inteligente
A Spanish language video with examples of cardboard furniture construction.

Kid designer: A Really Comfortable Chair
A PBS video about a young cardboard furniture designer.

TUTORIAL AND TOOL VIDEOS

How to Make a Cardboard Prototype
Building a prototype is an important part of the engineering design process.

Cut cardboard easily
A basic tutorial on the canary cutter tool.

Let’s Try Building with Cardboard
A short video from the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh with tips for constructing with cardboard.

Tech Tools: Basic Safety
Basic safety from you friends at The Tech Challenge.

Tech Tools: How to use a utility knife
Utility knives, or box cutters, are perfect for making small precise cuts on thin material. Learn how to use this excellent tool with Abby Longcor, senior director of The Tech Challenge.

Tech Tools: How to use a hammer
Bet you're thinking, "A hammer?  Of, course I know how to use a hammer!" But, just when you think you've nailed it, BAM, bruised thumb. Luckily, here's safety advice from Abby Longcor, senior director of The Tech Challenge.

Tech Tools: How to use a hand saw
Let's cut through all the back and forth to get down to safety! Hand saws are simple to use, or misuse, so listen carefully to Abby Longcor, senior director of The Tech Challenge.

Tech Tools: How to use a power drill
Here's a bit of advice we hope you don't find boring. Learn how to safely use a power drill with Abby Longcor, senior director of The Tech Challenge

Tech Tools: Journaling


HELPFUL YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Crash Course: Engineering

Mark Rober

JUST FOR FUN

Trashformation: furniture & shelter from recycled cardboard
Spanish designers make furniture and shelters out of recycled cardboard.

Caine's Arcade
A boy named Caine makes his own arcade games out of recycled cardboard.

How to build the Nordwerk MC 205 Cardboard Chair
Check out this amazingly intricate cardboard chair design.

Cardboard Superheroes: Creating Cardboard Models of Your Favorite Superheroes | Comic-Con@Home
Two brothers share their “heroic” cardboard designs.

Cardboard Hacks | LIFE HACKS FOR KIDS
This video has some fun and helpful hacks for working with cardboard.

Educational Activities for Kids: Cardboard Chair
Some creative cardboard chair designs and activities from Dyson.

10 Amazing Cardboard Games Compilation
Instructions on how to build fun games out of cardboard. This video is long, but has some great ideas for inspiration.