12 Engineering Activities for Kids

Jul 24, 2015

Your little engineers will really enjoy these 12 creative engineering activities.


On a recent trip to Sydney, Australia, I spent a lot of time admiring (and photographing) the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge which is the widest and one of the longest steel arch bridges in the world. Quite the engineering feat! 

Between that and the world famous Sydney Opera House, I came back buzzing from my little getaway with lots of thoughts about engineering and just how important it is for our children to have opportunities to experience it and to learn more about it.

What is engineering? 

Engineering is the application of science, technology and maths to develop solutions to problems. Put simply, engineers are creators

They take the above disciplines and combine these with creativity and ingenuity to make something new. 

Engineers see a problem and solve it. They create and re-create products, infrastructure and solutions that make our everyday life easier.


Architectural engineers play a huge role in the construction of buildings like the Sydney Opera House (pictured above) and civil engineers work on things like roads and bridges like the Sydney Harbour Bridge (see pictures below). 

There are also many other types of engineers that are heavily involved in so many different projects and areas of production. 

From technology and the engineering of the mobile phones we use, to robots, computer games, chemical engineering, medicine, renewable energy, aircraft and much more. 

There are so many different avenues that engineers can put their skills and passions towards in this modern day and age.

Why is it important for children to learn engineering?

Allowing children to experience different forms of engineering helps them to understand more about the processes that go into making up so much of the world around us. 

Engineering encourages creativity, problem solving and cooperation

It allows children to think outside the box and to come up with solutions to problems through experimentation and trial and error, whilst putting into practice so many of the skills they are acquiring as they grow.

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