Tami's Tower

Engineering Play for Young Learners

Tami's Tower is an educational app for children who are beginning to explore engineering and problem-solving. Created by the Smithsonian Institution, it uses tower-building challenges to show how the shape and arrangement of objects affect stability and function. It is suited to early elementary learners, parents, and educators looking for a practical introduction to STEM ideas.

Build, Test, and Improve

Children work through design problems by choosing shapes and arranging them to create a stable tower. If a structure falls, the result gives them a chance to consider what went wrong and try a different approach. This repeated cycle of planning, testing, and revising reflects the way engineers solve problems in the real world.

The app also includes a free-form sandbox for open-ended experimentation. In this mode, children can test their own ideas without following a fixed challenge, making it easier to explore how different designs behave.

Designed for Thinking and Discussion

Tami's Tower encourages children to reflect on their choices, including how confident they feel about an answer. These prompts help turn each challenge into more than a building exercise by encouraging learners to explain their reasoning and think about their own problem-solving process.

Educators can use the in-app summary screen to review student responses and connect digital activities with classroom learning. The visual interface and character-led presentation are designed to support young children, including learners who may not yet be comfortable reading large amounts of text.

App Details

• Category: Educational
• Developer: Smithsonian Institution
• Installs: 10,000+
• Rating: 0 from 0 reviews