
There’s more to creating block towers than it may seem. When young children start to stack and build, they’re learning about stability, balance, and measurement — and when the blocks topple over we have the opportunity to talk about problem-solving and persistence. We can inspire young architects and engineers by encouraging a natural curiosity about how things work, observing sizes, shapes, and colors, and setting up investigations by asking questions like “what might happen if…?”
Tips for Building STEM Skills

Practicing Computer Science Skills Anytime
Build your child's computational skills to increase her confidence and better prepare her for the road ahead.

“Break It Down” and Other Ways Preschoolers Can Practice Computational Thinking
Computational thinking is a creative and organized way to solve problems using a toolbox of skills from computer science. Try these three ways to support this type of thinking with your preschooler.
Questions to Ask Your Child
- I’m excited to see you build with the cups/blocks/toys. How will you build with them?
- When building with blocks, use measurement words to get your child thinking like an engineer. What might happen if we build a thin, tall tower? What if we build a wide, short tower? Which tower will be sturdier? How might we build a tall, sturdy tower?
- Talk about what to do if a project or build doesn’t go as planned. What might happen if our tower falls over or our paper plane doesn’t fly? What should we do?
Activities to Build Engineering and Problem-Solving Skills

Play Ball Obstacle Course
30 min activityCelebrate the fun of gravity, height, and motion while you create a recyclable-materials obstacle course.

Step It Out
Help Malik, Zadie, and Zeke put the steps in order to make sandwiches, serve snacks, get ready for the beach, and build sand castles.

Build and Test Paper Bridges
Construct paper bridges and investigate how much weight they can hold.

10 Early Learning Books About Forces and Motion
This booklist for ages 4-8 includes both fiction and non-fiction books that focus on the physical science concepts of motion and forces such as pushes and pulls, gravity, and friction.

Build a Bridge With Paper, Paper Clips, and Blocks
Build a bridge that can hold rocks with your child.

Road Repair
Zeke and Snout are decorating the Treeborhood! Use shapes to fill holes in the road so they can get across and complete their mission.

Hamster Run
In this game, your child can help Ruff Ruffman use blocks, wedges, and tubes to build a structure that will allow hamsters to reach the carrot.

Bridge-a-rama
In this game, your child can practice math and engineering skills by identifying the length of materials needed to complete a series of bridges.

14 PBS KIDS Games for Learning Science and Engineering
Here is a list of our favorite PBS KIDS games that all center around learning different science and engineering concepts, and build upon children's natural curiosity.

Build an Aqueduct
30 min activityFind out how to build a homemade aqueduct using cereal boxes and other recyclable materials.

Jamming on the Job: Robotics Engineer
Spot the differences! Can you find and circle the 6 things that are different in the pictures?