For the past month, second and third grade students at Manhattan Day School have been working on engineering projects that tested their creativity and design skills. They were tasked with thinking not just about the project at hand but about what materials would be best for the item they were building, and what they would need to construct their project.

Second graders studied different elements of playgrounds and the purpose that playgrounds serve. They looked at different types of swings, slides and monkey bars in preparation for their own playground design challenge. The students got to work creating a blueprint on Seesaw, drawing their playground design and thinking about the materials they needed to complete their build.

With a plan in place, they began constructing. Armed with paper towel rolls, chopsticks, string, cups and paper plates, students turned their classrooms into construction zones. Slides were cut out of paper plates, tube slides from paper towel rolls, and monkey bars from chopsticks and pipe cleaners. Some playgrounds even had ziplines! With a little creativity, collaboration and hard work, second graders saw their creations come to life.

Third graders researched the different elements of arcade games and found that earning points or tickets was a key element for all. The students specifically looked at skee ball[1], ball-toss games and air hockey. With all the information they needed, students began brainstorming and creating a blueprint for their designs. They made supply lists and labeled their blueprints to ensure they would be ready to build. With tons of recyclable material at their fingertips, the students cut, glued and taped their games into fruition—covering cardboard in packing tape to create a smooth, ice-like hockey court, and cutting holes into the bottom of cups to replicate a skee ball game. There was no shortage of creativity happening in this arcade workshop.

Engineering begins before you ever pick up a tool, and both second and third graders learned the value in planning and brainstorming before constructing.

I’m assuming they meant the generic game, not the branded one?