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Structures are found all around us and can range from being natural to manmade structures. Structures are designed to serve a specific purpose and each structure has certain requirements for it to successfully serve its purpose. Below are some engineering challenges you can do at home to understand what criterias you must meet as engineers or architects to design structures and the creative thinking you must have to be successful with limited number of materials and under a time constraint.

  Crane Scaffolding                Bridge                                   Theater Interior           Natural Structure (Coral Reef)          Skyscraper

For a greater challenge, all experiments can use limited number of materials under a certain time constraint

Marshmallow Tower

For this engineering challenge you will be building a structure out of spaghetti sticks and marshmallows. The goal of this challenge is that you build a freestanding structure that is atleast one foot tall and is able to withstand the weight of atleast 10 pennies.

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You can approach this challenge in many ways! Experiment with different base shapes, doubling the spaghetti sticks, using multiple marshmallows, etc.

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If you need some hints or ideas, click on the button on the right!

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By the end of this challenge see how many pennies your structure can hold! 

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You can also try other variations of this challenge:

  • building the tallest, freestanding tower with limited number of spaghetti sticks and marshmallows.

  • Use toothpicks instead of spaghetti sticks (though using spaghetti sticks does add more of a challenge!)

  • experiment with various sizes of marshmallows

  • increase/decrease the height requirement, increase/decrease the limited number of spaghetti sticks, increase/decrease time constraint, increase/decrease required number of pennies structure must hold

Balancing Textbooks

The next challenge involves a single piece of copy paper, three pieces of tape, and many textbooks/books!

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The challenge is to create a standing 3D shape using just the materials above to balance as many textbooks it possibly can. The structure must be atleast 8.5 inches.

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Be creative with your structure! You can cut the paper, fold it into various shapes, etc.

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Some examples are creating 3D shapes such as cylinders, prisms, etc.

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Click on the button to see our (Sun Ray) structures and how many books they balanced!

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You can also try other variations of this challenge:

  • use 1 piece of construction paper instead

  • increase the height requirement(definitely makes it more challenging!)

  • increase/decrease # of pieces of tape

  • use two pieces of paper but increase height requirement

  • add a time constraint

Building Straw Bridges

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In this challenge, you will be building a bridge out of straws!

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Requirements: The bridge must be atleast 1.5 feet wide with a base in the center to hold a cup of pennies. Only other materials you are allowed to use are a pair of scissors and 4 pieces of tape. The bridge cannot be supported by external components.

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When the bridge is ready for testing, you may use 1 pieces of tape on both ends of the bridge to hold it in place. The bridge can be balanced across two piles of textbooks or chairs as long  as both are at the same level.

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Hint: To connect the straws together try squeezing one end of a straw and inserting it into the end of another straw. Also use ideas or concepts that worked from the challenges above to strengthen your bridge!

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Other Variations you can Try:

  • Increase width of Bridge

  • reduce number of straws

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See our bridges and how many pennies they held! (Sun Ray)
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