Design a future-ready wildlife bridge that helps animals travel safely across human-made obstacles.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how animals have moved across landscapes in the past, how modern roads and cities create challenges, and how today’s wildlife crossings help protect migrating species. They examine early solutions like fish ladders and compare them to present-day bridges and tunnels used around the world. Finally, students imagine future wildlife crossings that blend ecological needs, emerging materials, and creative engineering.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design and build a model wildlife crossing that helps a chosen species safely travel across a busy human-made barrier.
Students investigate how cities have changed over time and use that knowledge to imagine and build a cloud city of the future.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how cities have evolved from ancient civic spaces and infrastructure to today’s innovative global examples. They examine how modern cities address housing, transportation, and nature. Finally, they imagine future possibilities by designing a city that floats above the clouds.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design and build a model of their own cloud city, incorporating housing, transportation, and nature-based elements.
Students explore how everyday objects tell stories across time and design a wearable artifact of tomorrow.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how artifacts from the past help us understand people and cultures, then consider which everyday objects from today might become future artifacts. They examine the relationship between technology, design, and storytelling across time. Finally, students imagine and prototype wearable gadgets that could be discovered by future archaeologists.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Design and build a model of a futuristic wearable gadget that people in the year 3050 might one day uncover as an artifact of our time.
Students explore the past, present, and future of sound to design their own smart headphones of tomorrow.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how humans have created tools to hear, share, and understand sound across time—from early instruments to modern headphones. They examine how today’s audio technologies expand our senses and support communication, safety, and well-being. Finally, they imagine future headphone innovations that could enhance health, connection, and everyday life.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design and build a model of future smart headphones that includes at least one innovative feature to support health, communication, or everyday life.
Students investigate past and present housing innovations to inspire the design of a future-ready micro-home that fits a crowded world.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how people have solved housing challenges in the past, examine present-day innovations for limited space, and imagine future micro-home solutions that blend creativity and sustainability. The lesson moves from historical space-saving strategies to modern tiny homes and 3D-printed housing, preparing students to design their own future-ready micro-home.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design and build a creative micro-home prototype that solves a future space or housing constraint.
Students examine how glasses have changed over time and design their own innovative pair of future-ready eyewear.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how glasses have evolved from early protective tools to modern technologies that support vision, safety, style, and digital interaction. They examine key innovations across time and consider how emerging ideas could shape the future of eyewear.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design and build a model of futuristic glasses for the year 2053, selecting materials, design elements, and technological features that address a meaningful need or opportunity.
Students explore how humans find comfort across time, then design their own future-ready emotional-support companion.
Lesson Synopsis:
This lesson introduces students to how humans have understood and managed emotions across time—from early calming practices and historical comfort objects to today’s sensory tools and emotional-support technologies. Students explore current strategies for emotional self-regulation and consider emerging innovations like AI-enabled plush companions. Finally, they imagine future scenarios where smart comfort companions support emotional well-being in creative and adaptive ways.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design and create a prototype of a futuristic comfort companion—selecting its form, sensory elements, and technological features—and explain how each design choice helps support emotional regulation in challenging environments.
Imagine, explore, and design a rooftop greenhouse that helps future cities grow food and flourish.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how greenhouses began on the ground in early civilizations, moved into widespread use across Europe, and eventually expanded into modern rooftop agriculture. They examine how urban spaces today use rooftop greenhouses to grow food sustainably. Finally, students imagine future rooftop systems that generate their own energy, support communities, and help cities thrive.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design a model of a future rooftop greenhouse that grows food efficiently and supports a vibrant space for city residents.
Explore how garbage trucks have evolved—and design a cleaner, smarter, and more joyful waste-collecting vehicle for the future.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how garbage trucks have evolved from simple waste-collection carts to today’s high-tech, energy-smart machines. They examine past, present, and emerging innovations—from hydraulic arms to electric engines and even air-cleaning filters—while considering how cities manage waste sustainably.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students design and construct their own next-generation garbage truck model. Their build should improve environmental impact, reduce bad smells, and showcase a fun, community-inspiring design.
Students explore the evolution of play spaces and design a future-ready playground rooted in creativity, inclusion, and sustainability.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how playgrounds have evolved from early sand gardens and rotating equipment to today’s inclusive, sensory-friendly, and adventure-based play spaces. They examine how design choices reflect changing ideas about safety, creativity, and community. Finally, they imagine future playgrounds powered by renewable energy and shaped by the needs of diverse users.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design and build a model of a future playground that is imaginative, inclusive, and environmentally responsive.
Explore how insects evolved across time and design a future-ready giant insect with imaginative new adaptations.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore how insects evolved from ancient giants to the diverse species we see today, examining key adaptations that shaped their survival. They investigate present-day insect behaviors and interactions within modern environments, including urban ecosystems. Finally, learners consider how insects might rapidly adapt in the future and use those insights to inform a creative design challenge.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students will design and build a model of a future giant insect with adaptations suited to a changing environment.
Students imagine the future of space entrepreneurship by designing a startup that could one day thrive beyond Earth.
Lesson Synopsis:
Students explore the evolution of space exploration from early missions to modern commercial ventures and future innovations. They examine how space travel has shifted from government-led projects to private entrepreneurship. The lesson concludes by imagining how future businesses might thrive in space—from Moon habitats to orbiting hotels and asteroid mining stations.
Learning Objectives:
Build Challenge:
Students design and prototype a model for a space startup—such as a floating space hotel, a lunar habitat, or a robotic asteroid-mining station—that solves a real-world problem in an imaginative way.
Interactive “choose-your-own-future” books where every decision leads to a different possibility. This set includes You Choose 1 and You Choose 2, giving kids even more paths to explore. Across topics like space, food, health, and technology, kids imagine different futures, make choices, and discover how their decisions shape what comes next—building creativity, curiosity, and futures thinking skills.
Activity cards packed with playful challenges, prompts, and experiments for each Wonder Widget. Designed to spark imagination, guide exploration, and encourage kids to build, test, and iterate on their ideas.
A collection of uniquely shaped 3D-printed fidgets designed for hands-on exploration and focus. Twist, spin, and transform each object while noticing patterns, movement, and mechanical design. Encourages tactile learning and creative play.
Magnetic building blocks that snap together to create 2D pixel art or 3D structures. Kids can design anything from characters to tiny houses while exploring geometry, balance, and creative construction.
Kaleidoscope lenses that transform how kids see the world by splitting light into colorful patterns and repeating shapes. Inspired by trilobites—some of the first successful animals in Earth’s history—these glasses invite kids to imagine how early creatures may have experienced their environment. Explore perception through drawing, guessing games, and pattern discovery while learning how vision shapes understanding.
A surprising physics toy that helps kids explore balance and center of gravity. Test your skills by balancing the bird on different surfaces—even your body—and invent new tricks and challenges. Great for hands-on experimentation with motion and stability.
Flexible magnetic figures that stick, connect, and move to bring stories to life. Kids can create stop-motion animations, build structures like bridges, and explore how magnet strength and balance work in real-world systems.
Small magnetic spheres that connect to form shapes, chains, and moving systems. Experiment with forces like magnetism and gravity while building structures, racing magnets, or testing how long a chain can hold together.
Magnetic-friendly surfaces that turn any space into a build-and-play zone. Use them as a base for magnetic tools to test strength, balance, and structure in vertical and horizontal builds.
A visual exploration tool that helps kids investigate invisible magnetic forces. Test which materials attract magnets and discover how magnetic fields work through guided experimentation.
Explore our School Bundles: project-based lesson kits that bring imagination, futures thinking, and creative building into your classroom—ready to spark agency in every learner.
Browse School Bundle contents below.
With any School Bundle purchase, get a box of fidgets, magnets, and other select toys designed to encourage self-directed exploration and invite kids in with play, helping them feel safe, curious, and ready to learn.
Browse our Wonder Widgets Catalog for a closer look at the fun within the box!
Learn joyfully with our FutureTime curriculum, exploring future possibilities such as Cloud Cities or Comfort Companions through their historical predecessors and modern-day iterations.
Each FutureTime module includes a lesson, a Design Challenge, a Design Worksheet, and a Sharing Worksheet.
Explore our learning outcomes from our library of 12 FutureTime modules across content categories like Architecture, Health & Well-being, Food & Farming, Nature & Animals, Transport & Tech, and more. For our learning framework and approach, visit About Us.
After the lesson, kids will complete a Design Challenge, using their newfound knowledge to build their own version of the future.
Teachers will receive a Starter Box containing over 20 kinds of build materials—from foam core to googly eyes—to use across lessons. Each FutureTime module also comes with its own themed Builder Box with uniquely curated materials.
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Still have questions?
For each lesson purchased, gain access to a FutureTime lesson, design and sharing worksheets, and corresponding specialized build materials. Each bundle also includes one box of Wonder Widgets and a starter box full of basic build materials shipped to your classroom.
