Inside the Design is where we pull back the curtain on how an EMC² Learning idea comes together, from the first spark to the final classroom-ready experience. For Duct Tape Derby, that started with a simple problem: a pile of old binders, some rougher than others, and a desire to make the first days of class feel more creative, collaborative, and intentional. What emerged was a fast team challenge that turns leftovers into ownership, color-codes materials for easier organization, gives students an early chance to express themselves, and creates a low-stakes win for new teams right out of the gate.
The best part? None of it requires fancy supplies or a perfect setup. Just use what you have, build from the scraps, and make the design your own. That’s the whole point of Inside the Design: showing how the magic gets made so you can steal the thinking, remix the pieces, and get in the game.
Duct Tape Derby is a fast, creative team challenge that works especially well near the beginning of the year. Instead of handing students old binders or folders and treating them like leftovers, turn them into the raw materials for a game. Students work with their table crews to reclaim, repair, and redesign them using color-coded duct tape, stickers, markers, and whatever other scraps you have on hand.
Every student creates their own binder or folder, but each crew shares one duct-tape color that must be clearly visible. That gives students room for personality and self-expression while also creating an easy visual system for finding, sorting, and returning materials later. It is also an easy early win for teamwork: students borrow supplies, share ideas, help one another, and create something together before the stakes of the year get very high.
This is also a practical way to reuse what you already have. Donated binders, leftover folders, half-used stickers, old craft supplies, and mismatched materials all work. In fact, the more worn and random the materials are, the better the transformation feels.
How to Play
1. COLOR
Each student must use their crew’s duct-tape color somewhere clearly visible on their own binder or folder. They can cover the spine, wrap the edges, reinforce the corners, create stripes, make letters, build a pattern, or go completely overboard. The design is up to them, but the crew color should be easy to spot from across the room.
2. CREATE
Now students make the binder their own. Add stickers, doodles, symbols, patterns, drawings, and repairs. Encourage them to go bold, weird, clean, artistic, simple, or detailed. There is no single right design. The goal is to take something old and anonymous and turn it into something that feels like theirs.
While they work, this is your chance to float. Check in with each crew, celebrate smart ideas, help with stubborn tape, and talk with individual students about what they are creating. The activity gives you an easy reason to have a quick, low-pressure interaction with everyone in the room while they are busy doing something they enjoy.
3. CLASH
When time is up, bring the crews together for the Color Clash. Compare the finished binders or folders for creativity, style, use of team color, biggest glow-up, best repair, or whatever categories fit your group. You can name one winning crew, give out several awards, or tie the result to a secret advantage in a larger class game.
Finish with a quick gallery walk. Have students leave their work at their tables and rotate around the room to see what the other crews created. Encourage them to notice clever uses of color, strong designs, unexpected repairs, and ideas they wish they had thought of themselves. Then celebrate the standouts and move on knowing that a pile of old classroom materials has become something students actually want to use.
The activities featured in this blog post are just a handful of the 1,100+ resources available and on their way to arrive shortly in the EMC² Learning library. This entire library is available to all members with an active Engagement Engineer or Engagement Engineer PLUS account, and is included with your annual site membership. We hope you’ll consider joining us as an Engagement Engineer to unlock a full year of site access. For complete details including our exclusive limited time offer for annual site membership, click here.