SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Just in time for the holidays ...
Faculty and staff in Purdue University's College of Engineering have come up with a holiday gift guide that can help engage children in engineering concepts.
The "Engineering Gift Guide" was developed through the INSPIRE Institute for Pre-College Engineering, a part of the School of Engineering Education.
It features toys, games, books, movies and apps for mobile devices for a variety of ages. In addition to the selected items, the guide includes suggestions on finding other engineering-themed gifts.
"It's important to introduce engineering to children at a very young age – even before they reach kindergarten," says Monica Cardella, associate professor of engineering education and INSPIRE director. "One way to achieve this is simply putting a puzzle together or playing with building blocks and talking with the child about what they want to design, what ways they can accomplish that, and who or what could use their creation.
http://phys.org/news/2014-11-gift-parents.html
http://inspire-purdue.org/parent-materials
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday December 01 2014, @03:00PM
My daughter just had her 4th birthday, and received a few sets of "big Lego" (which, ironically, is much smaller than the Duplo & Megablocks she had up until now) which is of course a great educational toy and worthy of any geek's wishlist. She was thrilled with them, and I was thrilled to see her playing with it. Sitting and playing Lego with her pretty much made my day. Lego is way cooler now than it was in my day. She was given the Lego Junior sets, which are designed with easier builds and instructions with young beginners in mind. (Only some of the sets were the pink princess/ domestic themed ones aimed at girls. I haven't yet decided if they are sexist and patronising, shrewd and empowering, or all of the above simultaneously. She seems to like them, but also liked the yellow digger.)
However, it seems my Lego nostalgia had allowed me to let something slip out of memory - frustration. More than once she ended up throwing down the Lego and getting upset, because it wouldn't do what she wanted it to do, or it would all fall apart as she tried to stick down a part on an unstable foundation. The moment it happened hundreds of similar experiences flooded back to me, when I'd spend ages building some ambitious project only to have it crumble to bits in my hands, or to discover I lacked the critical pieces to finish it. Now I understand why most Lego sets are aimed at ages 6 and up.
I don't want to discourage anyone from introducing their kids to Lego or other educational toys. Not even sure why I brought this up, except to say that toys like this can be very challenging, and kids may need support to use them. You also need to be careful that you don't over-reach, and end up turning your kid against the toys you'd like them to enjoy.
Of course I gave her some pointers, and gently encouraged her to try again. She'll come back to it, and hopefully she'll eventually develop the patience and skills required to really enjoy her Lego and learn from it.
(Score: 2) by tynin on Monday December 01 2014, @03:57PM
I'm in complete agreement with you. I have a 3 year old, and in my own exuberance in wanting to play with Lego again, I think I got it for him when he is still too young, as I'm with you on those break down moments. I like to think I've used it as way to teach him that failing is ok, and it is good to try again. But you can only push that so far at that age. He is now at a stage when he sometimes looks forward to a build failing and gets a laugh out of it, to the point I think he has been making things specifically to watch them fail, but sometimes emotion pushes through and disappointment gets the better of him.
Thanks for sharing, it is always good to hear others are running into similar struggles :)
(Score: 2) by tibman on Monday December 01 2014, @04:04PM
It seems like a lot of cool stuff is that way. I love programming but the reward must exceed the effort. Too much frustration and i'll move on to something that looks more rewarding. Not suggesting to quit when things get hard though. You can usually tell what the payoff will be. Being stubborn and just finishing something i am no longer enjoying is something reserved for work : )
Hope your daughter has some rewarding lego builds! Maybe posting pictures of her builds or something like that will increase her reward?
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday December 01 2014, @04:35PM
> Maybe posting pictures of her builds or something like that will increase her reward?
Nice idea, I'll bear that in mind. Thanks.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Monday December 01 2014, @08:26PM
My youngest one is 3 and with an older brother who he watched play with them didn't have that problem. I would think that seeing how things go together helps a lot when first starting out as my oldest one had way more problems with Legos initially than my youngest one did. They both understand how to make fairly structurally sound creations even if they aren't perfect they are good enough in most cases. The problem in my house is my wife doesn't like that the Legos are very rarely put together into their proper sets and instead exist in various states of diss-assembly and recreations. My big concern is with lost pieces since they end up everywhere and lots of the parts are small enough to be missed when picking up so are likely to get eaten by the vacuum.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone