2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Resource Exchange lesson is mainly designed for middle school-aged students, but can be adapted for learners of all ages. In a time when students are more digitally connected than ever, research shows they are also becoming more emotionally disconnected from each other and their own sense of self in the world. This lesson offers educators a fun, game-based activity that supports both social-emotional learning (SEL) and foundational engineering skills through a meaningful, metaphor-driven experience.

In the Field of Life Catapult Challenge, teams build catapults and launch ping pong balls into color-coded cups randomly arranged on a miniature tabletop turf field, where each color is assigned positive or negative point values. The goal for each team is to reach a specific score (e.g., exactly 100 points) by the end of a timed session. To succeed, students must collaborate to design, iterate, calculate, and make group decisions. While the facilitator (educator) sets core design constraints and instructions, student teams are empowered to negotiate additional gameplay rules before launching, such as whether ping pong balls can be retrieved and reused or whether balls may be removed from negative-point cups. After the challenge, students participate in a guided debrief that connects gameplay to real-world systems, equity, and personal responsibility.

A key feature of this activity is that each team’s “field of life” layout is randomized (i.e., no two fields are identical). A set number of color-coded cups is placed in different locations to highlight the reality that not everyone starts from the same place in life. Furthermore, while all teams receive basic resources, each team has a different total amount of resources. Throughout the activity, the facilitator may choose to add “life events” that adjust resource distribution, adjust different team members’ roles, or permit resource swapping to encourage students to adapt. As this activity requires the active participation of all team members, SEL themes such as self and social awareness, emotional regulation, problem-solving under unequal conditions, and how we use our advantages to support others are promoted.

Aligned with NGSS engineering practices, Common Core math standards, and 21st-century skills, this activity is suitable for classrooms, afterschool programs, or summer STEM camps. It also works effectively as an introductory team-building activity before a larger design project, especially when students are unfamiliar with one another. The lesson takes approximately 60–75 minutes, requires low-cost materials (popsicle sticks, spoons, cups, rubber bands, ping pong balls), and can be extended to reinforce algebraic reasoning, force and trajectory, or ethical design thinking. Team roles (builder, launcher, retriever, recorder) can be rotated to promote inclusive participation and leadership development.

Preliminary observations suggest that this challenge is highly engaging, inclusive, and effective at sparking meaningful discussions about design, failure, resilience, and collaboration. By combining hands-on engineering with emotional intelligence and reflection, the Field of Life Catapult Challenge lesson helps students develop core STEM skills alongside the CASEL core SEL competencies and teamwork skills essential for the future of engineering and society.