Engineering Design Challenge
Five hands-on lessons that take students through every stage of the Engineering Design Process. Teams identify a problem, generate and design a solution, build a physical prototype, and evaluate their work - supported by GridStrikers, Arludo's free digital puzzle game.
Year levels
Years 3–6
Duration
5 lessons (!45 min each)
Submissions
What students do
- Play GridStrikers – a free digital puzzle game that builds design thinking and problem-solving skills
- Investigate a real problem: rubbish in the school playground
- Work as a team to brainstorm, sketch, and communicate a design solution using labels and technical terms
- Build a physical prototype using classroom materials (no specific materials needed – use what you have)
- Reflect and evaluate: does the prototype solve the problem? What would you change next time?
- Document the entire process using the Engineering Challenge Slides
The science behind it
The Engineering Design Challenge is grounded in the Design and Technologies strand of the Australian Curriculum. Students experience each stage of the Engineering Design Process (EDP) – Investigating and Defining, Generating and Designing, Producing and Implementing, and Evaluating – in an authentic, hands-on context.
GridStrikers provides a digital scaffolding experience: students test and refine solutions in a puzzle game before applying the same thinking to a physical design challenge. This bridges digital and physical making in a natural, purposeful way.
Access Lessons via the Arludo Science Portal
After registering, create your free teacher account to access all five Engineering Challenge lessons, download the teacher resource pack, and access the embedded GridStrikers puzzle game.
Get started free
GridStrikers: Design Thinking in a Game
GridStrikers is a free browser-based puzzle game designed by Arludo. Players score goals by placing, rotating and bouncing characters to guide a ball into the target - building design thinking and problem-solving skills in exactly the same way engineers work through a real challenge.
- Free to play: Runs in any web browser, no downloads or accounts required
- No personal data collected: Completely safe for classroom use
- Mirrors the Engineering Design Process: Test, revise, improve
- Used in Lessons 1 and 2 to build problem-solving confidence before the physical build
The Engineering Design Process
Investigate & Define
Students identify the problem - rubbish in the school playground - and play GridStrikers to explore how design thinking and iteration work in practice.
Generate & Design
Teams brainstorm solutions, sketch their design, and communicate it using labels and technical terms. They use GridStrikers Sandbox to explore ideas digitally before designing the real thing.
Build & Evaluate
Teams construct a physical prototype using classroom materials, then evaluate how well it solves the problem and what they would change in the next design iteration.
Australian Curriculum and NSW Syllabus Links
YEARS 3 & 4 DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES
AC9TDE4P01 investigate needs or opportunities for designing and test materials, components, tools, equipment and processes needed to create designed solutions.
AC9TDE4P02 generate and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate attributions, technical terms and graphical representation techniques, including using digital tools.
AC9TDE4P03 select and use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to safely make designed solutions.
AC9TDE4P04 use given or co-developed design criteria including sustainability to evaluate design ideas and solutions.
AC9TDE4P05 sequence steps to individually and collaboratively make designed solutions.
YEARS 5 & 6 DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES
AC9TDE6P01 investigate needs or opportunities for designing, and the materials, components, tools, equipment and processes needed to create designed solutions
AC9TDE6P02 generate, iterate and communicate design ideas, decisions and processes using technical terms and graphical representation techniques, including using digital tools
AC9TDE6P03 select and use suitable materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to safely make designed solutions
AC9TDE6P04 negotiate design criteria including sustainability to evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions
AC9TDE6P05 develop project plans that include consideration of resources to individually and collaboratively make designed solutions