Phone Lab
Every student has an opinion about phones, and almost none of them know why a phone is the shape it is. Phone Lab lets them design one: its size, what it is made of, its screen and its cameras, with a name on the back. Then it asks them to make it thinner. The battery shrinks, the cameras stick out, and the phone that looked best no longer lasts until dinner. Students open it up, see the layers, and find out that every choice is a trade.
Using this with a class? Make a free class and add your students yourself: each gets a username and password, with no email or Google account needed. Or give them one join code. Using Google Classroom? Post the link there; with a free class, the link also puts each student in your class, so you see their work. mytekDev is also available from the Google Workspace Marketplace, so your school's Google admin can install it for everyone.A first lesson: One period: design a phone, make it thin, read what that cost on the card, and open it up to see which layer gave way. A second period: pick one of six customers, meet the musts, run the tests, keep two designs and compare them on the sheet.
Set up a free class Share to Google ClassroomWhat a student actually does
There is one phone in 3D and a card beside it. The student picks a shape from four, or sets the width, height, thickness and corners in millimeters. They choose one or two colors for the back, a glossy or matte finish, up to four cameras and the raised island they sit on, and type a name that goes on the back. A short guide at the top of the panel walks them through the first minute.
The card answers every change: how long the battery lasts and how much it holds, the weight in grams, whether the cameras fit inside or how far they stick out, how the phone sits in one hand, and what it costs to make and to buy. When a number moves, the old value shows under it for a while. Then the guide asks them to make the phone thinner, and the card changes more than they expected.
Open it up slides the phone apart into seven layers, front to back: cover glass, screen, battery, board, cameras, frame, back. With it open, dragging Thickness shows what happens. The glass, the screen and the back keep their thickness and the battery gets the room that is left. There is more to choose: the frame and back materials, the front glass, an OLED or LCD screen, 60 or 120 Hz, a water seal, glue or screws, wireless charging.
Six customers give the design a purpose: a grandparent, a hiker, a photographer, a kid with small hands, a school buying 200, and the thinnest phone that lasts a day. Each has musts that cannot be broken and wants that are scored out of 100. Seven tests play out on the phone: a drop three ways, keys and sand in a pocket, a dunk in a sink, a wireless pad, a whole day, one hand, and a battery swap with a repair score. Students keep up to three designs and compare them side by side. A sheet shows the phone with written questions. Setup lets a teacher set the level, choose the customer, pick the questions, add their own and print an answer key.
Open it up, on a phone made 6.5 millimeters thick. The cover glass, the screen and the back are as thick as they were at 8 millimeters. The battery is the layer that gave way: 3.9 millimeters, down from 5.4, and 3,250 mAh, down from 4,500. With the phone open, dragging Thickness shows it happen.
Two designs kept for the hiker. Design 1 is thin and light, and it does not survive the creek or the rock, so it breaks a must and gets no score. For Design 2 the student added a dunk seal, a plastic back and a titanium frame and made it thicker: 36 grams heavier, and it meets the brief with 53 out of 100. The sheet asks which is better and which number shows it.
What they are learning while they work
Nothing here is presented as a lesson. This is what the activity is made of.
| What the student does | What it is |
|---|---|
| Pulls Thickness from 8 to 6 millimeters and reads the card: 4,500 mAh becomes 2,850, and about a day becomes runs out by dinner | A trade-off. Getting more of one thing costs some of another. Thin is paid for in battery, and the card shows the bill the moment the slider moves. |
| Opens the phone and drags Thickness while watching the layers | Using a model to explain a result. The glass, the screen and the back need the same thickness in any phone. The battery gets what is left, so it is the layer that shrinks. |
| Picks a customer and reads the musts and the wants | Criteria and constraints. A want is scored: lighter is better, a longer day is better. A must is a line that cannot be crossed: under a price, survives a dunk. They are different kinds of requirement and the app treats them differently. |
| Builds a thin, light phone for the hiker, and is told it breaks a must | A constraint beats a score. A design can do very well on a criterion and still fail. While a must is broken the card shows no score at all. |
| Runs the Drop test, changes the back, and finds the results cleared | A fair test. A result belongs to the design that was tested. Change the phone and it has to be tested again. |
| Adds a dunk seal to pass the water test and loses two points on the repair score | A fix has a cost somewhere else. Solving one failure often creates a weakness in another place. The useful question after any fix is what it cost. |
| Keeps two designs and presses Compare | Evaluating competing solutions. Two designs side by side with the same numbers and the same customer's score. Which is better has to be argued from a number or a test, not from how it looks. |
| Switches to the smaller hand and watches the thumb's reach fall | Designing for someone else. The person who designs a thing is not always the person who holds it. The same phone fits one hand and not another. |
How to tell whether it landed
Ask, and let them show you. A student who has understood it can answer these without help.
- You made your phone thinner and nobody touched the battery. Why did it get smaller?
- What is the difference between a must and a want? Give one of each for your customer.
- Can the phone with the highest score fail the brief? How?
- Name one thing you changed to pass a test. What did it cost you somewhere else?
- Why do the cameras stick out of a thin phone?
- Which of your two designs is better for your customer, and which number shows it?
Use it in your subject
Not a technology class? Then the app is how students show what they learned in your unit. More projects for every subject.
Engineering design, grades 6 to 8
NGSS MS-ETS1-1: define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution. The customers' musts and wants are exactly these. MS-ETS1-2: evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem, through Keep, Compare and the customer's score. MS-ETS1-3, analyzing data from tests across several designs, fits the sheet's comparison. For MS-ETS1-4, students test and modify with a model; they do not develop the model themselves.
Engineering design, grade 5
NGSS 3-5-ETS1-1: define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost. 3-5-ETS1-2: generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Computer science and technology, grades 6 to 8
CSTA 2017 2-CS-01: recommend improvements to the design of computing devices, based on an analysis of how users interact with the devices. The Hand test and the brief for a kid with small hands are this standard in one activity.
What this page does not claim
It is not a physical science lesson on batteries or materials, so it claims no energy or matter standard. It does not model a phone's effect on the environment beyond how easy it is to repair. And it is not a buying guide: there are no brands or real models in it.
Practical notes
- AgesGrades 5 to 8. The words are plain: thickness, layers, grams, millimeters. A high school level adds one question to the sheet about why a bigger battery does not always last longer.
- TimeOne period to design a phone, make it thin and open it up. A second for a customer, the tests, Compare and the sheet. The sheet takes about fifteen minutes.
- EquipmentA computer or Chromebook with a modern browser. Nothing to install. A mouse helps for turning the phone, and a trackpad works.
- CostFree. The app has no paid tier.
- PrepAbout fifteen minutes: make a phone thinner and open it up yourself, meet one customer's musts, then open Setup and print the answer key.
- In a groupOpen Setup in the app's header to set the level, give the whole class one customer or let each student pick, choose which questions are on the sheet, add up to ten of your own, and print the answer key.
For co-ops, microschools, and classrooms
Set the sheet up once in Setup and hand the project out as the starter; the setup travels with it. The model has no luck in it, so every student who builds the same phone gets the same card and the same test results, and a class can argue from the same numbers. Give the whole room one customer and the designs can be compared across students: the phones will differ, and the reasons are the lesson. With mixed ages, the younger ones can stop after Open it up and the older ones go on to a customer.
Common questions
Is it free?
Yes. Phone Lab has no paid tier, and it can be tried right on this page without an account.
Are these real phones?
No. There are no brands, logos or real models in the app, and nothing is for sale. The phone is a generic one a student designs from a blank gray start.
Are the numbers real?
Some are and some are estimates, and the app says which. How much a battery holds for its size, how heavy each material is, and what one real phone's screen and cameras cost come from published figures. How deep each camera is, how thick each layer is, how many hours a charge lasts, the drop scores, the hand sizes and most of the costs are our own estimates, set so a normal phone comes out normal. A real phone will differ.
Does a thinner phone really have a smaller battery?
Yes, when everything else stays the same. Real phone makers soften it by making the battery wider and by fitting the parts together more cleverly than a simple stack, so real thin phones hold more than ours do. The app says so in How it works.
Why do the tests give the same result every time?
A real drop is partly luck. The app leaves the luck out so that a result belongs to the design, and a class can compare designs fairly. Changing the phone clears its results.
Do keys really not scratch a screen?
Keys are softer than cover glass and do not mark it. The grains in most sand are quartz, which is harder than glass and does. A hardened steel tool can be harder than a key.
Why does the phone cost so much more in a shop than its parts?
The shop price in the app is about two and a half times the parts, which is what one real phone's numbers came to. The rest is not all profit. It also pays for designing the phone, its software, shipping and the store. The processor, memory and radios are one fixed amount, because students do not choose them.
Can students save and share what they make?
With a free account a phone saves as a project, with a picture of it from the back, and can be handed in or shared like any other project. Names typed on the phone go through the same text filter as the rest of the platform.
Still have a question? Ask us, and a person will write back.
Where to go next
Badge kits and learning kits
Step-by-step projects in Phone Lab that end with a certificate: for a scout badge, or for homeschool families and classes.
- Design a phone for someone: Learning kit badge, or the learning kit for grades 5-8
Lesson plans
4 ready-to-teach class periods with a teacher plan, a student worksheet, an exit ticket with answers, and the standards it meets.
Start with Phone Lab
Trying it costs nothing and takes about five minutes. An account is what makes the work last.
Phone Lab is one of the making apps on the platform. The phone is drawn in code from its own measurements and every number on the card comes from the phone as designed, so the same design gives the same result on a fast laptop and a slow Chromebook. An independent accuracy review checked the model's numbers, the help text and the answer key against sources before it went live.
Page last reviewed November 2026.
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