Design Squad

PBS Kids

Summary

Designed to show kids that engineering is active, fun, and collaborative, “Design Squad” brings together eight high schoolers, working together in two groups of four, to tackle engineering projects for actual clients. On each episode, the teams have two days to design, build, test and redesign their product before one team’s creation is declared best, and the teams are then reconfigured for the next task. In the finale, the top two scorers over the previous 12 episodes face one last challenge, with the winner awarded a $10,000 scholarship.

The website includes videos, design and building challenges, and online design games. Teacher resources include lesson plans on electricity, engineering design, simple machines, and structures as well as guides for launching local engineering clubs.