LEGO Chicken Challenge AI Expansion

There’s a funny pattern I’ve noticed over the years.

Big ideas tend to get a lot of attention.
Small, useful ideas tend to get delayed.

This week, I finally shipped one of the small ones.

If you’ve been around GetMeCoding for a while, you probably know the Chicken Challenge. It’s a hands-on, team-based activity that looks simple on the surface but reveals a lot about communication, problem-solving, and leadership once people start building.

Over the years, thousands of educators and facilitators have downloaded it. And almost every time I talk with someone who’s used it, the same question comes up:

“How do I reuse this without it feeling repetitive?”

It’s a fair question.

The Real Challenge Isn’t the Chicken

The chicken itself isn’t the point.

The learning happens in the moments where:

Instructions aren’t as clear as people thought
Roles are assumed instead of discussed
Time pressure changes behavior
Teams realize they’re solving different versions of the same problem

Those moments are gold.
But they’re also easy to repeat in the same way if you’re not careful.

That’s where I kept getting stuck.

I didn’t want to turn the activity into something screen-heavy or overly complex. I also didn’t want to “gamify” it to the point where it lost its charm. The simplicity matters.

So I sat with the question longer than I probably needed to.

Using AI as a Thinking Partner (Not a Shortcut)

Eventually, I realized the problem wasn’t the activity.
It was the setup.

What facilitators really need isn’t a new chicken.
They need better ways to frame the experience.

That’s where AI came in…..not as a replacement for thinking, but as a thinking partner.

I started experimenting with structured prompts that helped me:

Reframe the challenge for different age groups
Emphasize communication over speed
Introduce leadership changes mid-build
Add story elements without adding rules
Draw parallels to coding and systems thinking

What surprised me most was this:
The better the context I gave the AI, the more useful the output became.

That observation lines up closely with what I teach through the CRAFT framework: Context, Role, Action, Format, Tone.

Good prompts don’t remove thinking.
They focus it.

Why I Built the AI Expansion Pack

The Chicken Challenge – AI Expansion Pack is the result of that exploration.

It’s not a course.
It’s not a platform.
It’s a short, practical PDF designed to help educators and facilitators reuse a familiar activity in thoughtful ways.

Every prompt in the pack is:

Copy-and-paste ready
Clear about what the user provides versus what the AI generates
Designed to work with ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and similar tools
Grounded in keeping the activity hands-on and screen-free

Most importantly, it respects the original spirit of the challenge.

Same chicken.
More ways to run it.

Why Shipping This Mattered to Me

This wasn’t a flashy launch.
There was no countdown timer or funnel gymnastics.

I built something useful, packaged it clearly, and shared it with the people who already cared about the problem it solves.

That’s a reminder I needed.

Progress doesn’t always look like big leaps.
Sometimes it looks like finally finishing the thing that’s been quietly tapping you on the shoulder for a while.

If you’re curious, you can find the expansion pack here:
https://pages.getmecoding.com/products/chicken-challenge-ai-expansion-pack

And if not, that’s okay too.

Either way, I’m glad this small thing is finally out in the world.