I'm a K-5 STEM teacher in Eagan, MN, and I wanted to teach my students engineering design through hands-on activities. I combined my love for Pinball with teaching, and this is our first year trying out a Pinball Arcade day ran by the 4th and 5th graders.
5th Graders are creating their own Pinball Machine made from cardboard, Maker Space supplies, and our 3D printer. 4th graders are making their own arcade machine (similar to "Caine's Arcade"). So far, we're just in the beginning phase of planning, designing, and testing. Students are coming up with a theme for their game, painting it in Art, while they build the playfield and flippers in my STEM class. Some of the themes I've seen so far are Minecraft, Mario, Basketball, Nature themes, PacMan, and football. It's been a blast so far, and they seem to really enjoy it. I prepped them for what a Pinball Machine is and does by bringing in an old Doodle Bug to school, fixing it, and letting them all play it as an activity station. Many are hooked! Only a hand full of kids actually have ever played a pin before. A lot of them didn't know how to use the plunger or the flippers.
I'll update here as this project continues to document their journey. They have until about mid-April to finish and show them off for our school-wide Arcade Day where Pre-k through 3rd grade will come to play 4th and 5th grader's games.
If there is anyone out there that works for a pinball manufacturing company (Stern, American Pinball, Spooky, Jersey Jack 
), and wants to create a short video with words of encouragement or playfield creation tips for my your engineers, please send those my way! 
Mr. Walters
STEM Specialist
Oak Ridge Elementary School
Eagan, MN
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Belleville, MI
Newmarket, ON
