Startling Structures is a book of design and technology challenges which focuses on the designing of structures. Each self-contained challenge has accompanying notes to assist teachers. The book is divided into three sections: warm-up activities; the challenges; and evaluation templates. The challenges are designed for small groups but can be easily adapted for whole classes by setting up more that one group or activity at once. Some challenges are also suitable for individual work. Each challenge poses a problem which needs to be solved through designing and building a model structure using technological principles and systems. The aim of the challenges is to help students develop aspects of their 'technological literacy' which they can then apply to problems which they come up with for themselves.