Tami's Tower

Tami's Tower: Let's Think About Engineering with the Smithsonian!

Tami's Tower is an engaging and educational engineering design game developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center. Designed specifically for kindergarten through second-grade students, it teaches basic engineering principles through hands-on problem solving. Players help Tami, a golden lion tamarin, build a stable tower to reach delicious fruit while navigating challenges posed by other animals.

This game supports emergent readers and aligns with educational science standards. It includes metacognitive prompts allowing students to assess their confidence and learn from previous attempts to improve their designs. Teachers can track student progress and responses via an in-game summary screen. Features such as an in-game tutorial, sandbox mode for level design, and psychology-grounded learning make it ideal for classroom use or at home. Tami’s Tower fosters creativity, critical thinking, and foundational engineering skills in young learners.