I would suggest, at least as a partial alternative, ‘rube goldberg’ style toys like marble coasters (kugelbahn) or something like Boomtrix. These allow you to

I would suggest, at least as a partial alternative, ‘rube goldberg’ style toys like marble coasters (kugelbahn) or something like Boomtrix. These allow you to create relatively complex systems with emerging constraints and they often need to be debugged. In the case of Boomtrix, the system starts to degrade with use because the trampolines may move as the balls bounce. This need for adjustment and/or tolerance in design informs more physical sciences as well.