Design Squad is an American reality competition television series targeted towards children ages 10–13. Contestants are high school students who design and build machines to compete for a $10,000 college scholarship from Intel. The series aired on PBS Kids and PBS Kids Go! from February 21, 2007 to December 9, 2009. It was produced by WGBH, a PBS member station in Boston.

Premise

In each episode, contestants are separated into two color-coded teams to complete engineering projects for real-life clients. These are the Red Team and Blue Team in season 1 and the Green Team and Purple Team in seasons 2 and 3. Engineers Nate Ball and Deanne Bell hosted season 1. After season 1, Bell departed for the Discovery Channel program Smash Lab, leaving Ball as the sole host of seasons 2 and 3.

Season 1 (2007)

Contestants

Episodes

Points

In most challenges, each person in the winning team would receive 100 points, the other team 0 points.

Season 2 (2008)

Contestants

Episodes

Points

In most challenges, each person in the winning team would receive 100 points, the other team 0 points.

Season 3 (2009)

Contestants

Episodes

Design Squad Nation

Design Squad Nation is a 10-episode spin-off television and web series. The series aired on PBS Kids Go! from January 26 to March 30, 2011 and was also streamed on the PBS Kids Go! website. It was hosted by engineers Judy Lee and Adam Vollmer. The hosts travel around the world and work with children on engineering projects to "make their wishes come true through engineering" and "inspire viewers to take on their own hands-on engineering activities."

Episodes

Design Squad Global

PBS Kids launched the Design Squad Global website to complement the series. Targeted towards middle school students, the website enables children to share engineering ideas and sketches with each other, devise solutions to global design challenges, play games, and watch a web series hosted by Ball and Season 2 contestant Deysi Melgar. In an initiative known as "DSG Clubs," the website also encourages middle school students to form engineering clubs and partner with clubs from other countries via the website. This initiative aims to encourage children to "use the design process to solve problems and discover that engineering is a powerful tool for making a difference in the world" and teach them "'global competence'—the ability to communicate and collaborate with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives."

Reception

Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the series four out of five stars, stating that it "proves that if it's done right, reality TV can be both fun and functional." Ashby gave Design Squad Nation the same rating, stating: "From the obvious benefits of exposing kids to useful applications of science to strong messages about creative thinking, teamwork, and problem solving, there’s no end to the positive takeaways available here." Design Squad Global received a four-star rating for parents from Susan Yudt of Common Sense Media and a five-star rating for teachers from Marianne Rogowski of Common Sense Media. The show is featured in the second episode of Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman's fourth season, where Blossom the Cat is a huge fan of Design Squad, and two of the season's contestants, Issac Bean and Liza Giangrande met Nate Ball to learn how to pole vault.

Awards

The series won a Peabody Award in 2007 "for 'designing' an outstanding program to interest young people in careers related to engineering." Producer/Director Dorothy Dickie won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series in 2008. Design Squad Nation won an Emmy Award in 2012 for “outstanding new approaches” in children’s daytime television.