How it Works
Quick Start
Students work in teams to design and prototype a solution to a design challenge chosen by their teacher.
Team rolls a die, lands on a prompt, and discusses its provocations with facilitator in the allocated time.
They then gather limited materials and return to their workstation to begin/continue work on their prototype until their team’s turn next round.
At the end of a round, with 20-45 minutes remaining for play, a series of 5 prompts helps guide presentation prep
Game concludes with presentations by each team. Teams exhibit what they made, and discuss highlights and difficulties of their experience.
Click here to see a list of the prompts around the board along with sample audio clips of the discussions that happened along the way
Rules
The game officially starts when team 1 clicks "roll" and a timer starts counting down to the end of their turn. A random number is generated, the team's icon moves to a tile on the game board, and the prompt on the tile they land on appears in the middle of the board. The object is for the facilitator to have a quick discussion with the team about the prompt and how it relates to the challenge. To end their turn, the team is allowed to gather materials from the available supply. The facilitator is in control of the amount of materials each team can take after their turn (or they can give a pre-determined set of materials to each group). Once they have taken materials, the first team goes back to their workspace to start constructing their prototype and the second team comes up to start their turn.
At the end of each round (when each team has taken a turn), you will get the option to "Go to Presentations" or play the "Next Round". The game can end at any time. When there's 20-45 minutes left in the activity, the "Go to Presentations" button will guide groups through a series of prompts to help them prepare for their presentation as they finish up their prototypes. The game will always end with presentations by each team, sharing their solution to the design challenge and what they learned along the way.
Setup
The game is typically set up so that the screen with the board is on or near a table with the available materials for the activity and next to the "design committee" (facilitator of the activity). Each group of 2-4 students is set up at their own work space somewhere around the room and comes up to the "design committee" whenever it's their turn to roll. The only material that the students should start with is some paper and a pencil to start brainstorming, then they can start prototyping a design as they gather materials during their first couple of turns.
The Challenge
Before the game starts, the facilitator introduces a design challenge that the group is going to work on. The challenge can be any kind of open ended prompt that allows students to be creative as they make their solutions. A couple examples of challenges that have been used for the game are "create an amusement park ride for a LEGO mini-figure" and "design and prototype a refugee shelter". Any challenge will work, but the best ones have a "client" that students can think about as they design the solution (real engineers solve problems for people after all). Here are some resources for ideas and inspirations about design challenges: