It's called GoldieBlox, and is a new engineering toy marketed to 5-9 year old girls, developed by Debbie Sterling, a female engineer from Stanford. It's meant to inspire girls in the same way legos and erector sets inspire boys, and uses storytelling to do it. (Reminds me a little of Computational Fairy Tails, actually :-))
I think it's brilliant. I always hated the "pink aisle" at the toy store, and agree that we definitely need more toys geared toward girls that engage their spatial and problem solving abilities.
She has a KickStarter campaign to get her toy into production, and is 25% toward her goal. So go watch the video, then donate some money if you are able. Even $5 could go a long way.
And, Debbie - kudos for a great idea. I wish you lots of luck!
This is horrible. This encourages females to view themselves as "different" to males. Instead of focusing on getting females attracted to engineering we need to focus on getting *people* attracted to engineering. The best way to get females into engineering jobs is by getting *everyone* into engineering jobs.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Debbie trying to increase the gender divide?
TO continue: legos and erector sets should not "inspire boys" - they should inspire everyone. By treating legos as a "boy toy" you are causing the very problem you seek to solve
ReplyDeleteI agree - I think legos and erector sets should stop with all their uber-boy marketing and be made more accessible. (Beyond just making things pink). But in the meantime, this project is good because it leverages things many little girls like - story telling while building stuff.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a girly girl by any stretch of the imagination, but would have loved something like this as a small child.
Story telling while building stuff? Isn't that what every kid does? My son does. I did. And I used erector sets (and Meccano, as some stuff was bought in Canada) and legos to build things, despite being female.
ReplyDeleteLately, I've been not really feeling the love with females who need to be attracted to something interesting by putting frills on it.
I wanted to like this when an engineer friend shared the link. But it just seems dumb to me. Beyond what others have mentioned (i.e. that Legos are toys for everyone, not just boys), this toy doesn't look very interesting. Unless I'm missing something major, once Goldie figures out how to get all of her friends twirling, what do you do? It appears that kids would lose interest in this toy very quickly (as opposed to Legos, which you can use to make whatever you want, whenever you want). Intriguing concept, execution misses the mark.
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