Build an absurdly complicated machine to do something simple. Kids design chain reactions using everyday materials like dominoes, ramps, balls, and levers. Each step teaches engineering principles, cause-and-effect, and creative problem-solving through the joy of building something gloriously over-engineered.
Ages 6–14 · Project guide · 3 skill levels
Your child builds a chain reaction machine out of household junk, and it will not work. Not at first, not at the tenth try. Each failure is a physics problem with a specific cause, and finding it is the entire activity.
Real creative thinking is not glittery crafts. It is the patience to design, build, fail, and rebuild. Every invention, every business, every solution starts here.
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Designed by a teacher with 15 years of classroom experience, now homeschooling her own kids.
