TOYchallenge
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About TOYchallenge

  • A national toy design challenge for 5th-8th graders.
  • A chance for teams of imaginative kids to create a new toy or game.
Toys are a great way to learn about science, engineering, and the design process! As girls and boys create a toy or game, they experience engineering as a fun, creative, collaborative process, relevant to everyday life.


TOYchallenge follows the National Standards.


Kids grow through engaging in TOYchallenge in many other ways, too: from developing a sense of teamwork, to becoming familiar with the engineering design process and building self-confidence.

Each TOYchallenge team needs an adult coach to support the team as they work together to brainstorm, research, design, and test their creation. The coach is not there to tell the kids what to do, but to support and guide a team from brainstorming to building and exhibiting a working prototype (and we give the coaches lots of advice and support, too).

The competition results in a lot of "self-learning" - students learn things that they need to know on their own, skills that they don't always learn in school. When they form their own plans and come to their own conclusions, students not only retain what they've learned better, but they also feel more empowered, motivated and fulfilled. They learn skills they will use for the rest of their lives, whatever they choose to do as a career: imagination and collaboration skills are as important as engineering ideas. This is a competition where everybody wins!

We honestly believe that TOYchallenge can help change kids' lives and encourage you to join the fun and participate!

Contest Organizers

Sally Ride Science is an innovative science education company. Dr. Sally Ride, best known as the first American woman to fly in space, started the company to create programs and publications that bring science to life and show girls and boys (and their parents and teachers) that science is creative, collaborative, fascinating, and fun. Our programs include Sally Ride Science Festivals, Sally Ride Science Academy brought to you by ExxonMobil, and TOYchallenge. Our publications include supplemental science and science career books for upper elementary and middle school classrooms.

In Partnership With

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an agency of the Department of Commerce fosters innovation and competitiveness by: Providing high quality and timely examination of patent and trademark applications, guiding domestic and international intellectual property policy and delivering intellectual property information and education worldwide.

The USPTO participates in a number of programs, like the Sally Ride TOYchallenge, that seek to ensure that America's spirit of invention and invention will continue to thrive.

For more information on inventing, visit InventNow.org.

Official Airline of TOYchallenge

Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.

Founding Sponsors

Hasbro (NYSE:HAS) is a worldwide leader in children's and family leisure time entertainment products and services, including the design, manufacture and marketing of games and toys ranging from traditional to high-tech. Both internationally and in the U.S., its PLAYSKOOL, TONKA, MILTON BRADLEY, PARKER BROTHERS, TIGER, and WIZARDS OF THE COAST brands and products provide the highest quality and most recognizable play experiences in the world.
Smith College is consistently ranked among the nation’s foremost liberal arts colleges. Enrolling 2,800 students from every state and 55 other countries, Smith is the largest undergraduate women’s college in the country. Established in February 1999, Smith's engineering program, the first and only engineering program at a U.S. women’s college, is focused on developing broadly educated, well-rounded engineers capable of assuming leadership roles in corporations, non-profit organizations and technology-related fields.
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