Persist and Learn Through Failure

Engineers understand that failure plays a prominent role in engineering, providing opportunities for learning and improving designs. They persist through failure and recognize that solutions can always be improved.

Why is persisting and learning through failure important for youth?

How does YES support persisting and learning through failure?

Intentionally build iteration into the design process.

YES explicitly includes “Improve” or “Iterate” as a core phase of engineering. From the start, students understand that they are expected to test, revise, and try again. This reinforces that engineering is an ongoing process and that strong designs are developed through multiple attempts over time.

Frame failure as part of learning.

When a design does not work as planned, students are guided to "Flip the Failure.” They analyze test results and apply what they learned to strengthen their next design.

Design challenges with multiple pathways to success.

YES activities are scaffolded so students can experience progress at different levels. In Engineering Sails, a design might successfully catch wind but not yet travel the full distance. In Engineering Rescue Shuttles, students set criteria and work toward different distance goals, refining their designs over multiple iterations.

Videos

View these classroom videos of students persisting and learning through failure.

I Didn’t Think It Would Be So Hard!

Here We Go—Testing!

What's One Thing You Might Want to Change?

Video Reflection Questions

Failure is normal. It is part of engineering and the Engineering Design Process; it happens all the time. Students try again when they don’t succeed the first time. They do not see failure as part of their identity—they are not the failure; the attempt failed. They focus on what parts of their design worked effectively, as well as what they should change.

The educators emphasize that engineers and scientists are always improving by using evidence from testing to make their designs better. They normalize iteration by showing that learning from failure and making changes is a key part of the engineering process, not just reaching a final outcome.

Let’s look at your design. Can you point out which parts of it worked well? Were there other ideas you imagined that you might try next? What did you observe when testing? What can we learn from this?

Other Resources

Bateman, K. M., & Cunningham, C. M. (2025). Turning Failure into Success: How Engineering Challenges Build Resilience and Problem Solving Across Contexts. Connected Science Learning, 1-9. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/24758779.2025.2484352

Johnson, M., Kelly, G., & Cunningham, C. (2021). Failure and Improvement in Elementary Engineering. Journal of Research in STEM Education, 7(2), 69–92. https://doi.org/10.51355/jstem.2021.101

What does persisting and learning through failure look like in your classroom?

"I saw them accepting failure in other aspects of our work throughout the year after they had had that experience of, ‘I'm gonna fail. That's part of this process. And that's okay.’"

– Elementary School Teacher

A study published in the Journal of STEM Education found that elementary students engaged in engineering design projects experienced productive failure, which enhanced their problem-solving skills and understanding of the engineering process. (Johnson et al., 2021)

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