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Project challenge:

Maker Mini Golf

Suggested Ages: 3rd – 5th Grades

Get teed up for this challenge, where you’ll construct a themed mini golf hole with at least 2 special features. You’ll need to BE VISIONARY by imagining what you can do to make your hole extra-special and exciting!

Engaging Design-It-Yourself projects to inspire young innovators

This is no ordinary DIY project for kids: It’s a step toward becoming an innovator.

 

Every Galileo Design-It-Yourself Challenge teaches the same techniques and mindsets that professional designers an engineers, artists and chefs use in their work. With skills like these, we believe you can change the world.

Get Involved—For Grown Ups

Materials list:

Help your child find these materials or a close substitute: 

 

  • A small ball (like a golf ball or ping pong ball)
  • 1 small cardboard box for the hole
  • Scissors
  • Masking tape or painters tape
  • Thin cardboard (like from a cereal box)
  • Something to hit the ball with (an actual or toy golf club or other long club-like object like two wooden spoons taped together)
  • Solid objects to use as barriers (like books, cans, or more boxes)
  • Paper
  • Coloring tools (like markers or crayons)
  • Adult use only: A box cutter for cutting the golf hole

 

Activity GUIDE:

Refer to these steps to keep young innovators on track as they create:

 

 

1. Pick a theme and brainstorm your hole.

  • Support being visionary—If kids are struggling to come up with themes or features for their hole ask guiding questions to help jumpstart their ideation.
  • Ask: What are some of your favorite things or characters?
  • Ask: What is the silliest/most surprising/most unusual theme you can think of? 
  • Ask: What features do you think would make your hole more fun? What kinds of things do mini golf courses you know of have?

 

2. Create boundaries. Mark the start and end.

 

3. Build at least 2 special features like tunnels, ramps, obstacles, or decorations.

 

4. Design your hole using the small box—Support kids to cut holes out of their box. (3:22)

  • Continue to support being visionary by asking guiding questions.
  • Ask: How can you transform your box to bring your theme to life?

 

5. Play to test! Redesign as necessary.

 

More Ideas:

Every project presents opportunities to add your own twists or extensions. Here are some ideas to get you started:

 

  • Innovate On! Why stop at just one hole? Make more for an entire maker mini golf course!
  • Share your creation by inviting others to play. Ask them for feedback and modify or add to your hole to make it even more fun.

 

Wrap Up Questions:

Lock in the learning by asking your child these questions about their project and how they practiced the featured Innovator’s Mindset element: 

 

  • What part of your hole are you most proud about?
  • What visionary ideas did you come up with to make your hole extra-special?

Share!

Great learning can come from sharing successes and failures—to solidify your own experience as an innovator and to inspire others.

 

SHARE WITH galileo

 

Share a photo or video of you playing your Maker Mini Golf Hole with the Camp Galileo Anywhere Facebook Community.

 

Share with family and friends

 

Your innovation doesn’t stop with you. Inspire someone else by sharing your project challenge—maybe they’ll try it themselves or maybe your project will give them a new idea.

 

  • Who: someone in your house, a family member, a friend
  • How: in person, on the phone, online
  • When: anytime, starting now!