Continue adding sections of playdough to make a complete maze. You can also add balls of dough to make “bumpers.” Optional: Cut straws and press them into the dough or hot glue them in place. As you design your maze, be sure to test your design. This is part of the design process. If your marble cannot fit through a space or if the playdough walls are too short make adjustments to improve your maze!

When you design the marble maze you will need to test out the different locations of the playdough walls and bumpers to make sure a marble can roll through or be stopped. You also have a chance to design your own maze including the location of the walls, the colors you use and how easy or hard you want the maze to be. Also think about this project through the lens of a toy designer. Is there a theme to your design? Is the marble a character or is there a mission involved in solving this maze? What would you name your DIY marble maze game? Creating a story or imaginative elements is something toy designers often employ in their product designs. Here are images of the marbles mazes our students made!Labyrinths: These mazes have multiple paths and require the traveler to find the route which will lead them to their destination. These usually have either no dead ends or all dead ends at the same point for there not to be any confusion about which path is correct. Make sure that your z-axis is pointing up from the box if you don't the rest of the operations will not cut the correct part. The benefits of learning toys can be seen in the classroom as well. Studies have shown that students who use learning toys in the classroom perform better on tests than those who don’t.

A maze is a complex branching network of paths, typically from an entrance to a destination. Mazes are often designed as a puzzle that has only one path to the end. Take a small chunk of playdough and roll it into a “snake” shape. Repeat this to make a handful of playdough snakes. Find out how to make this impressive roller coaster run from a single 2×4 board. This one’s for the adults to make and requires some tools, but the step-by-step tutorial make it easier to follow along and the end result will be worth it.Marble mazes are one of the projects I like to do in our after school STEAM program at the beginning of the year as a way to introduce kids to design through play. Kids love to make and play with their own toys and this DIY marble maze is easy for kids of all ages to create and enjoy. This easy tutorial shows you two ways to make a mini and large marble run using nothing more than cardboard and tubes with colorful tape to make make it stand out. If you’ve got the space for it, go big with this peg board marble ramp which is easily constructed out paper tubes. Engineers and designers are people who use science, math and other information to solve a problem. They use a set of steps called the design process to solve the problem at hand. An important step in the design process is testing and changing things that don’t work. It doesn’t get any easier than this. Recycle an old cereal box and you’ve got yourself a playful toy that will keep the kids entertained for quite a while.

A super crafty and creative marble run that encourage kids to think about cause and effect to see how things turn and churn and follow along the marble’s path. A fun countertop marble game easily constructed out of a box that won’t take up too much space, but can be enjoyed multiple times.I originally created this project for my book STEAM Play & Learn and the project included in the book uses 3 only materials: a box lid, playdough, and a marble. More recently I also started including paper straws in the project as another way to add color and lines. You are welcome to use them too! Learning toys are a great way to introduce children to the world of STEM. Not only are they fun and engaging, but they also help kids learn skills like hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, problem-solving skills, and more. A marble maze is a type of game in which the player navigates a marble through a DIY maze by rolling it at different angles. The goal is to get the marble from the start point to the finish point without touching any of the walls. Children use their own creativity when creating obstacles. They work on math concepts and cause and effect when designing their layout to create a unique marble maze game using different-sized pieces. How to Make a Marble Maze from Drinking Straws Today we are going to create a simple DIY marble maze game using playdough “snakes” and a box lid. This is a great way to introduce kids to design and problem solving and a fun way to develop fine and gross motor skills.