Northwest Territories / Yukon / Nunavut STEM standards: hands-on mechanical engineering activities

Northwest Territories, Yukon & Nunavut Standards Mapping

Teachers can use Toyineer projects to address selected current learning standards and curriculum priorities across Northern Canada through hands-on mechanical construction.

Alignment reviewed October 2026.

Executive summary

Toyineer projects provide especially direct curriculum connections in Yukon and Nunavut. Yukon's K–3 Applied Design, Skills and Technologies curriculum asks learners to make products using known procedures or by modelling others, solve problems through trial and error, use tools and materials safely, and explore simple technologies that extend human capabilities. Nunavut's new curriculum connects Toyineer directly to Grade 1 learning about pushes, pulls and the relationship between force and movement (1.P.1.1; 1.P.1.2), while its mathematics curriculum asks learners to build and describe three-dimensional objects (K.SS.2.3) and compose and decompose composite three-dimensional objects and two-dimensional shapes (2.SS.2.3). These hands-on outcomes make Toyineer a practical context for making, tool use, force, motion, geometry and spatial reasoning. Toyineer projects are hands-on engineering activities that teach mechanics, geometry, spatial reasoning and technical problem solving through the construction of working mechanical toys. Video instruction and clear assembly guides support independent and classroom use while keeping educator preparation minimal.

Standards and evidence.

These alignments use only the ordinary Toyineer construction process. They do not depend on a separate extension activity.

I. Yukon / B.C. Curriculum: Applied Design, Skills and Technologies K–3

K–3Making

Make a product using known procedures or through modelling of others.

This describes the ordinary Toyineer build directly: learners produce a functioning mechanical toy by following a blueprint and modelling the demonstrated assembly process.

K–3Making · Trial and Error

Use trial and error to make changes and solve problems during making.

Physical assembly naturally exposes fit, alignment and movement problems. Learners notice when a part does not behave as intended, adjust the assembly and test it again.

K–3Applied Skills

Use materials, tools and technologies safely in physical and digital environments.

Toyineer learners use carton board, scissors, rulers, glue and illustrated assembly instructions as part of the ordinary build, giving educators a practical context for safe and accurate tool use.

K–3Applied Technologies

Explore simple, available tools and technologies that extend human capabilities.

Hand tools extend what learners can make, while the completed mechanism demonstrates how a designed technology transforms human input into controlled mechanical movement.

II. Nunavut Curriculum: Physics and Shape & Space

Grade 11.P.1.1

Identify the role or effect that force plays in daily life.

Operating a Toyineer toy makes force visible and purposeful: a learner's push or pull causes connected components to move and changes the position of parts.

Grade 11.P.1.2

Recognize and understand different types of forces encountered in everyday activities.

Learners directly experience pushes and pulls while assembling and operating Toyineer mechanisms and can connect those forces with the movement they produce.

KindergartenK.SS.2.3

Build and describe three-dimensional objects.

Toyineer begins with flat printed components and turns them into three-dimensional structures that learners can handle, compare and describe.

Grade 22.SS.2.3

Compose and decompose composite three-dimensional objects and two-dimensional shapes.

Toyineer construction is a direct composition process: learners combine flat shapes, folded components and subassemblies into one composite three-dimensional mechanical object.

Official standards sources: Northwest Territories JK–12 Curriculum Renewal, Yukon Kindergarten to Grade 12 Curriculum, B.C. Applied Design, Skills and Technologies K–3, Nunavut Curriculum Release Schedule and Nunavut Kindergarten–Grade 6 Curriculum.

Hands-on evidence for standards-aligned learning.

Teachers can use Toyineer projects to address these standards. Students also gain skill in their use of tools and appreciate the importance of accuracy in engineering.

All standards pages