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.

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

  1. Investigate & Define
    Students identify the problem - rubbish in the school playground - and play GridStrikers to explore how design thinking and iteration work in practice.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

The Engineering Challenge Is 100% Free

  • 5 Digital Lessons
  • Browser-based lessons including the embedded GridStrikers game
  • GridStrikers Game
  • Free digital puzzle game - no download, no accounts, no ads, no personal data
  • Engineering Challenge Slides
  • Team slide template (PowerPoint or Google Slides) for documenting each design stage

Questions teachers and parents ask us

  • What materials do students need for the physical prototype?+
  • What is GridStrikers?+
  • Does this challenge have a competition component?+
  • When should I play GridStrikers myself?+