Challenge Cards

Add structure to play and learning with ExaPlex. Each card connects building activities to STEAM concepts, historical context, and practical applications.

Build Animals & Creatures

Build models of animals and creatures with character and personality.

Build Archimedean Solids

Build regular convex polyhedra with faces that are regular polygons.

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 (connector) can only be connected to certain other vertex types.

Build Crystals & Frameworks

Build models of natural and synthetic crystal and lattice structures.

Build Cubes & Polycubes

Build shapes only with square faces.

Build Cupolas & Rotundas

Build shapes with parallel polygonal faces connected with triangles, squares and/or pentagons.

Build Deltahedra

Build polyhedra where every face is an equilateral triangle.

Build Diamond Lattices

Build a tetrahedral network modeling the atomic structure of diamond.

Build Domes

Build a hemispherical structure that creates a roof above a space.

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 Fractals

Build branching trees and shapes that repeat at different scales.

Build Helices & Chiral Shapes

Build spirals and shapes with left and right handed versions.

Build Foams & Honeycombs

Build models of cellular structures that mimic naturally occurring structural forms.

Build Johnson Solids

Build convex polyhedra with regular polygonal faces.

Build Mobiles & Hangings

Build decorative sculptures incorporating tension and balance.

Build Molecular Models

Build models of simple and complex naturally occurring and man-made molecules.

Build Nanostructures

Build models of naturally occurring and engineered nanoscale structures.

Build Pavilions

Build a scale model of an architectural design with people and flow in mind.

Build Platonic Solids

Build regular convex polyhedra with only one type of regular polygon.

Build Polygons

Build closed shapes that lie in a plane.

Build Prisms & Antiprisms

Build pairs of equal polygonal faces connected with squares or triangles.

Build Pyramids & Bipyramids

Build shapes with polygonal bases and triangular sides converging at a point.

Build Rings & Toroids

Build shapes with holes in the middle like a donut.

Build Sculptures

Build abstract structural forms that explore space and balance.

Build Snarks

Build connected networks and graphs with only 3-way connectors.

Build Snubs

Build snubbed geometries by transforming 2d and 3d shapes.

Build Space-filling Polyhedra

Build polyhedral models that fill 3d space with no gaps or overlaps.

Build Stacks & Chains

Build repeated units connected together.

Build Tetrahedra

Build the simplest polyhedron with 4 3-way connectors.

Build Tilings & Tessellations

Build connected shapes that fill the plane with no gaps or overlaps.

Build Totems

Build vertically stacked pieces that tell stories or have symbolic meaning.

Build Towers

Build models of multi-story buildings, support structures or transmission towers.

Build Trees & Graphs

Build connected nodes and vertices.

Build Trusses & Spaceframes

Build models of practical load bearing structures.