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Constraints Engineering Challenge

Build the tallest tower you can using ONLY 10 plastic cups and 2 paper plates. Measure with your hands.

Hands OnAbout 45 minutesScreen-freeParent preview recommended

Materials and setup

How this changes by age

Pre-K (ages 3–4)

Build the tallest tower you can using ONLY 10 plastic cups and 2 paper plates. Measure with your hands.

Difficulty 1 of 3

Steps

  1. Gather your materials: 10 plastic cups and 2 paper plates. No tape, no glue.
  2. Try stacking the cups in different ways. Use the paper plates as platforms or bases.
  3. When the tower falls, look at why it fell. Was the bottom too small? Did a cup tip?
  4. Measure your tallest tower using your hands as a ruler ('5 hands tall').
  5. Try a different shape and see if you can beat your record.
  6. Tell a grown-up one thing that surprised you.

Learning objectives

  • Build within a strict material limit
  • Use simple non-standard measurement (hand lengths)
  • Practice the build-fall-rebuild cycle

Kindergarten (ages 5–6)

Build a boat from one sheet of aluminum foil that holds 10 pennies before sinking.

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Take one sheet of aluminum foil (about 6 by 6 inches). This is your only building material.
  2. Shape the foil into a boat. Try different shapes: flat tray, deep bowl, long canoe.
  3. Float the boat in a sink or tub of water.
  4. Add pennies one at a time. Count how many it holds before sinking.
  5. Goal: hold at least 10 pennies. If yours sinks earlier, reshape and try again.
  6. Tell a grown-up one thing that surprised you.

Learning objectives

  • Discover that boat shape affects how much weight it can hold
  • Build within a strict single-material constraint
  • Test a structure with incremental loads

Early elementary (ages 6–8)

Build a bridge from 20 popsicle sticks and 1 yard of tape that spans 8 inches and holds a soup can.

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Constraints: 20 popsicle sticks, 1 yard of tape, span of 8 inches, must hold a full soup can.
  2. Sketch your bridge design first. Where will the load (the can) sit?
  3. Build the bridge between two stacks of books exactly 8 inches apart.
  4. Place the soup can on the middle of the bridge. Did it hold?
  5. If it failed, identify the weak point. Rebuild and try again.
  6. Bonus: how few sticks can you remove and still hold the can?
  7. In one sentence, tell a parent or sibling what surprised you today.

Learning objectives

  • Design within multiple simultaneous constraints (materials, span, load)
  • Identify and reinforce structural weak points
  • Optimize a working design by removing unneeded material

Upper elementary (ages 8–10)

Rotating constraints challenge. Each round has a different problem with one clear performance goal. Document what failed and what improved.

Difficulty 3 of 3

Steps

  1. Round 1 — TALLEST STRUCTURE: build the tallest freestanding structure from 30 straws and 1 yard of string. Measure height.
  2. Round 2 — CARGO BOAT: build a boat from one cereal box that holds as much cargo as possible while staying afloat.
  3. Round 3 — NEWSPAPER BRIDGE: build a bridge from newspaper that spans 8 inches and holds as much weight as possible.
  4. For each week: build version 1, test it, write what failed and why. Build version 2, test it, write what improved.
  5. Track one simple metric for every version, like height, cargo held, or load held. Goal: improve it each iteration.
  6. End of the challenge: which round taught you the most? Why?
  7. In one sentence, tell a parent or sibling what surprised you today.

Learning objectives

  • Apply engineering design across multiple distinct problem types
  • Track and improve a quantitative performance metric across iterations
  • Document failures and improvements as a real engineer would

Safety and evidence note

Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.

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