Challenge Cards
Add structure to play and learning with ExaPlex. Each card connects building activities to STEAM concepts, historical context, and practical applications.
Build Polygons
Build closed shapes that lie in a plane.
Build Tetrahedra
Build the simplest polyhedron with 4 3-way connectors.
Build Prisms & Antiprisms
Build pairs of equal polygonal faces connected with squares or triangles.
Build Cubes & Polycubes
Build shapes only with square faces.
Build Totems
Build vertically stacked pieces that tell stories or have symbolic meaning.
Build Rings & Toroids
Build shapes with holes in the middle like a donut.
Build Tilings & Tessellations
Build connected shapes that fill the plane with no gaps or overlaps.
Build Trusses & Spaceframes
Build models of practical load bearing structures.
Build Towers
Build models of multi-story buildings, support structures or transmission towers.
Build Sculptures
Build abstract structural forms that explore space, mass and balance.
Build Mobiles & Hangings
Build decorative sculptures incorporating mass, tension and balance.
Build Pavilions
Build a scale model of an architectural design with people and flow in mind.
Build Space-filling Polyhedra
Build polyhedral models that fill 3D space with no gaps or overlaps.
Build by Face Adjacency
Build shapes where the edges of triangular faces can only touch square faces and vice versa.
Build by Vertex Valency
Build shapes where each vertex can only be connected to certain other vertex types.
Build Snarks
Build connected networks and graphs with only 3-way connectors.
Build Platonic Solids
Build regular convex polyhedra with only one type of regular polygon.
Build Pyramids & Bipyramids
Build shapes with polygonal bases and triangular sides converging at a point.
Build Deltahedra
Build polyhedra where every face is an equilateral triangle.
Build Cupolas & Rotundas
Build shapes with parallel polygonal faces connected with triangles, squares and/or pentagons.
Build Snubs
Build snubbed geometries by transforming 2D and 3D shapes.
Build Dual Pairs
Build pairs of shapes where vertices of one correspond to the faces of the other.
Build Elevated Polyhedra
Build shapes with regular pyramids added to the faces of polyhedra.
Build Diamond Lattices
Build a tetrahedral network modeling the atomic structure of diamond.
Build Archimedean Solids
Build regular convex polyhedra with faces that are regular polygons.
Build Animals & Creatures
Build models of animals and creatures with character and personality.
Build Stacks & Chains
Build repeated units connected together.
Build Johnson Solids
Build convex polyhedra with regular polygonal faces.
Build Crystals & Frameworks
Build models of natural and synthetic crystal and lattice structures.
Build Helices & Chiral Shapes
Build spirals and shapes with left and right handed versions.
Build Domes
Build a hemispherical structure that creates a roof above a space.
Build Fractals
Build branching trees and shapes that repeat at different scales.
Build Molecular Models
Build models of simple and complex naturally occurring and man-made molecules.
Build Foams & Honeycombs
Build models of cellular structures that mimic naturally occurring structural forms.
Build Trees & Graphs
Build connected nodes and vertices.
Build Nanostructures
Build models of naturally occurring and engineered nanoscale structures.
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