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It’s never too early to build engineering skills! Elementary STEM activities geared toward engineering help instill scientific principles, introduce students to the basics of engineering, and encourage kids to work together to solve problems, while having fun!
Important elementary engineering concepts include simple machines, force and motion, structural stability, materials science, and taking a process from design to building. Try out these team-building engineering games for kids to start thinking about the world like an engineer. These activities guide students to think outside the box as they create structures, machines, and tools that set them on the path toward their scientific future.
1. Become super cup stackers
When teachers hear “engineering projects and games,” they often envision long materials lists and complicated instructions. But that doesn’t have to be the case! All you need to create cup structures is a pack of cups, plus some creativity from your students.
You can set up challenges for them to meet, such as “Create the tallest possible cup structure in this small space” or “Balance the heaviest object you can using only cups,” and see what your eager engineers come up with.
Cup Stacking – Differentiated Challenge Cards by Heaps of Firsts
By Heaps of Firsts
Grades: K-3rd
Subjects: Classroom Community, Engineering
Cups aren’t just for drinking when you’re an engineer! A series of 80 cup stacking challenges gets young scientists working on fine motor skills, collaboration, and critical thinking. Use the activities during a STEM focus, free time with students, or even during PE classes.
2. Earthquake-proof a building
How can engineering principles save people and property during a natural disaster? Designing a building that can withstand an earthquake is a major objective of professional engineers, and it can be a great engineering activity for kids in your science class as well.
After an earthquake unit, supply students with any materials they need for their structures, or challenge them to come up with their own materials list with team members. Find ways to simulate an earthquake to put the structures to the test!
STEM Challenge Earthquake Engineering Problem-Solving Natural Disasters Activity
By Teachers Are Terrific – STEM Activities
Grades: 4th-5th
Subject: Engineering
Standards: NGSS 3-5-ETS1-1, 2, 3; 4-ESS3-1, 2
This engineering NGSS-aligned resource prompts teams of elementary students to create earthquake-resistant structures. With a complete materials list to create a gelatin shake tray, student lab sheets, and teacher instruction guidance notes, the project is a memorable hands-on way to teach students about building integrity.
3. Design a paper chair for teddy bears
Everyone has to sit somewhere — even teddy bears. Encourage younger and older elementary students to use blank paper and tape to create a structurally sound chair that will support the weight of a teddy bear. Set up a gallery and have each group demonstrate their project in front of the class, and any group that successfully gets their teddy bear atop their chair wins the challenge!
Paper Chair: Engineering Challenge Project ~ Great STEM Activity!
By Smart Chick
Grades: 2nd-7th
Subject: Engineering
This paper chair project resource includes everything you need to see this activity from start to finish. With lab sheets, student instructions, and teacher materials, this low-prep engineering resource is an effective way to get kids working together and thinking critically.
4. Set up their first Rube Goldberg machine
Rube Goldberg machines are the ultimate demonstration of cause and effect for young students. That’s why they’re such popular team-building engineering games for kids: The fun isn’t over when they’re built because you can keep playing with them afterward! Marbles, small balls, dominoes, or any other device would work in students’ Rube Goldberg machines, which should also involve ramps, tools, levers, or any other device students can think of to keep the motion going.
Rube Goldberg Simple Machine STEM Engineering Project for Energy Transfer, Force
By Designed to Educate
Grades: 4th-8th
Subjects: General Science, Physical Science
Standards: NGSS 3-5-ETS1-1, 2, 3; 4-PS3-3; 5-PS2-1; MS-PS3-2, 5
Review important engineering concepts with elementary students when you introduce the classic Rube Goldberg project. This resource uses a 10-step student pack to help teams understand energy transfer and force, as well as background information on Rube Goldberg himself.
5. Create a house of cards
Go beyond flashcards when you use index cards for a STEM structure challenge. Given a set base size and materials list, including cards, tape, paper, or anything else younger learners would need to create their structure, teams work together to build the highest (or strongest, depending on the challenge) tower of index cards. Older learners can try the activity with cards only, using only their center of gravity to balance the entire tower!
Elementary STEM Engineering Project: Index Card Tower (Elementary)
By Science Demo Guy STEM Challenges & Activities
Grades: K-2nd
Subjects: Engineering, General Science
When you’ve got a stack of index cards, the possibilities are endless! Use a kindergarten engineering resource to teach students STEM basics as they create towers using only index cards, masking tape, and teamwork. Bring the game to older students to try without using tape.
6. Make a snack pulley
We use pulleys every day in different jobs to get tasks done. One of those jobs is to deliver snacks. Using everyday materials such as shoelaces, yarn, popsicle sticks, and cardboard, students work together to devise a pulley system that can deliver snacks to each person’s bowl. Once they’ve created the pulley, they can play a game in which winners of study or trivia questions are rewarded with snacks delivered by their invention.
7. Clean up an oil spill
Combine chemistry, earth science, environmental science, and engineering as teams try to find a way to clean up an oil spill as efficiently as possible. This STEM project for kids can be as low-prep as you want, using only vegetable or olive oil, oil-cleaning soap, sponges, and materials for a scrubbing or bathing system, or you can encourage students to get creative with their materials and craftsmanship. Turn the system into a game by challenging students to create the clearing system that scrubs the most oil-covered rubber ducks in a set amount of time.
8. Craft an energizing greenhouse
A greenhouse is a popular engineering project for kids because it allows them to follow a plant’s germination all the way to blooms and blossoms. Using the power of the sun and their knowledge of engineering and earth science, elementary students must create a greenhouse for their potted seeds to grow in the most efficient way possible. Materials for the greenhouse can include cellophane, clear plastic, tape, or any other material they need to ensure sunlight makes it to their growing plants.
9. See music with a DIY tonoscope
One of the more engaging sound science projects for middle school engineering classes and elementary engineering classes is a tonoscope: a musical instrument that allows you to see sound vibrations as you play. Have students bring in materials from home, like recycled food containers and cardboard paper towel tubes, and supply them with rubber bands, balloons, and salt.
Guide them through the steps of cutting a tube-shaped hole into the food container, taping the tube into the hole, tightly covering the container with the balloon, and pouring salt onto the balloon. When students sing into the tube, they can observe how the salt reacts!
10. Catch engineering concepts with a marshmallow catapult
Equal parts engaging and delicious, a marshmallow catapult is a favorite team-building engineering game for kids. They follow the steps to make a catapult using classroom or household materials, including rubber bands, cardboard, index cards, or anything else they want to use, and see which team’s catapult can launch a marshmallow the farthest.
Turn the project into a game by marking the spots where marshmallows land (or giving extra points to teams whose marshmallows end up landing in students’ mouths) and handing out medals at the end of class for the award-winning catapult designs.
11. Set up a spaghetti house that doesn’t break
Teach students how the right engineering perspectives can turn fragile materials into strong foundations when they use dry spaghetti noodles to create a standing house. Older students can work with the noodles and minimal materials to design and build their house, while younger students can use additional materials for support (including cardboard foundations if needed). Decide if the challenge is to create a house that stays up or if it should bear weight, which could be an additional challenge for students testing tension.
Benefits of Team-Building Engineering Games for Kids
While it may seem like a jump for elementary students to try engineering projects and games, these activities are key parts of their scientific development and understanding.
They can benefit elementary scientists in numerous ways, including:
- Setting a foundational understanding of STEM concepts
- Giving students the chance to collaborate on team-building activities for kids
- Fostering independence and persistence in a creative setting
- Developing problem-solving skills needed across the curriculum
- Encouraging a growth mindset for both individuals and the class as a whole
- Introducing engineering careers and approaches as ways to solve problems
Engineer ways for students to collaborate creatively
When you bring team-building engineering games for kids into your elementary class, you’re empowering students to face problems with creativity and know-how. Finding elementary engineering resources doesn’t have to be difficult, either, especially when you get kids involved in choosing their own materials and projects!
For an extra challenge or additional inspiration, check out a list of class projects for high school engineering class that older elementary students may want to attempt when they’ve finished their own activities.