The Marble Run Challenge: Where Design Meets Discovery

In the Design & Technology Lab, a line of students lean over tracks of cardboard, plastic, and tape, watching marbles twist and glide through curves of their own making. What might look like a playful competition is, in fact, a profound exercise in creativity, reflection, and inquiry: the essence of learning by design.

The challenge is deceptively simple: build a marble run that takes exactly thirty seconds to complete its journey. But within that precise time frame lies a world of experimentation. Each team must question, test, and refine every detail, from the angle of a ramp to the friction of a surface, transforming theoretical knowledge into tangible insight. What begins as a game soon becomes a process of problem-solving, iteration, and communication.

“The main objective of this activity,” the professor explains, “is to help students experience design as a process of inquiry, reflection, and communication.”
For him, the Thirty-Second Marble Run Challenge is much more than a class exercise; it’s a bridge between thinking and making, between theory and experience. “It connects what we study in theory, from material properties to modelling, with the act of making, testing, and refining a tangible outcome.”

Framing the project as a competition was a deliberate choice. “Design, much like play, thrives on curiosity and challenge,” he says. “The goal of achieving exactly thirty seconds introduces a clear design constraint that encourages critical thinking, creativity, and perseverance.”
That constraint transforms the classroom into a space of exploration, one where students become thinkers and inquirers, collaborating to analyse, test, and communicate their ideas with purpose.

This blend of structure and freedom mirrors the professor’s own philosophy: one shaped by a deep fascination with the idea of journeying. “Whether it is a marble that runs along a carefully designed course, a rollercoaster that follows an intricate and aesthetically pleasing route, or a person walking across landscapes, I see movement as a form of discovery.”
That vision, rooted in his PhD research on walking as a creative process, now lives on in this project, where every rolling marble becomes a metaphor for exploration and meaning.

Beyond the technical challenge, the activity blurs the lines between disciplines. “Design does not exist in isolation; it extends beyond its own boundaries and enters the territory of other disciplines, such as physics.”
Through experimentation, students learn how “surface finish, structure, and form influence both function and experience,” discovering that design and science are not opposites, but partners in understanding the world.

Ultimately, what the professor hopes his students will carry with them is that design is not simply about finding answers, but about framing questions, testing possibilities, and responding creatively to challenges.”
What they build may be temporary, but the mindset they develop, one of curiosity, perseverance, and reflection, will last.
“If they leave this experience with the confidence to think critically, collaborate effectively, and see design as a meaningful way of understanding the world, then this activity will have achieved its goal.”