Game System Science Kit

Inspire real-world engineering thinking through hands-on game design!

With the Game System Science kit, your student will design and build their own tabletop arcade games—like shuffleboard, Plinko, wobble mazes, and Skee-Ball—while exploring key physics and engineering concepts.

Each challenge guides students through the engineering cycle: design, test, evaluate, and improve. Along the way, they’ll discover the science behind force, motion, energy transfer, balance, gravity, and angles—all while having fun.

This Accelerate-level STEM kit is perfect for students in grades 3–7 and includes over nine hours of guided instruction through a full-color Student Workbook and Teacher Guide.

What they'll do:

• Build and play arcade-inspired games: shuffleboard, Plinko, wobble maze, and Skee-Ball
• Learn about motion, energy, balance, and gravity through hands-on play
• Apply the engineering cycle to design and test their own creations

Students will explore questions like:

• How are arcade games engineered?
• How can science make games more fun?
• What makes a design successful?

The Game System Science Kit blends creativity with real science, helping kids develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and a deep understanding of engineering. It's part of the Science Unlocked Accelerate series by Home Science Tools, designed to build confidence and curiosity in STEM.

• 1 ball, foam
• 1 ball, golf
• 20 cardboard sheets
• 1 counting chips, pack
• 1 cutting board
• 1 hot glue gun
• 12 hot glue sticks
• 1 marble
• 1 marker
• 1 scalpel
• 1 shuffleboard puck set
• 6 straws
• 1 tape
• 1 tape measure

• NGSS science standards alignment

  • MS-ETS1-1: Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions. 

  • MS-ETS1-2: Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. 

  • MS-ETS1-3: Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success. 

  • MS-ETS1-4: Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.