Children construct much of their knowledge through interaction with the environment and working with objects. Anything that captures their interest and is fun and engaging is a toy for children! Blocks, bricks, sticks, wooden planks, balls, cycle tyres are all physical objects that they put to varied uses to understand patterns and nature itself. An object that can be put to several uses, say a tin can, would be seen as a toy by them. There could be multiple tins with a hole (of varied diameters) at the bottom end and one could see the rate at which water falls through. They could remove the bottom and top lids of the tin, attach a transparent paper to one end and observe creatures under water.
Principles and concepts are best understood when they are observable, tangible, and imaginable.
The famous educational reformer Pestalozzi said that things came before words and concrete came before abstract[1] and it certainly applies in case of science learning in children.
How are toys and STEM related? It might surprise one, that most of the popular and engaging toys, were originally pieces of demonstration and apparatus used by scientists (during their lectures) in Europe. The inspiration for most of the toys came from such demonstrations, as they captured the imagination of children and adults alike. Some examples[2]:
- Demonstration of the gyroscope explains the dynamics behind a child’s spinning top’s motion (or earth’s motion)
- The famous yo-yo demonstrated that the winding-up of the string, attached to a reel, acts against the force of gravity through the rotational movement – a mechanical toy;
- Effect of buoyancy and gravity was shown through small figures encased in a jar of water, with a membrane tied over the jar. Pressure on the membrane would make the figures sink and come up;
- Optics provided a sense of magic; distorted drawings were viewed correctly through a conical mirror. Then came along the idea of Kaleidoscope;
- To make use of the brief time that an impression is left on the retina, the Thaumatrope uses a card disk with two different figures drawn on 2 sides, which become one when the disk is rotated rapidly
Toys that promote STEM learning can be a) regular objects, as demonstrated above; b) can be created afresh; c) can be re-created based on revisions to “existing toys from the market” or d) we could purchase such toys from the market. The two most important criteria would be: a) Does the child involve himself in scientific thinking and knowledge related to STEM and b) Is this engagement, fun for the child? To appreciate the importance of toys in learning science and technology, it is critical to understand what characteristics a toy must possess that enables it to strengthen our STEM learning[3]:
- Can the toy be used in a variety of ways (instead of one-established way); promoting critical thinking, problem-solving and imaginative skills in the child?
- Are there opportunities to fail and re-discover alternate ways of working with the toy?
- Is it related to the real-world or can be applied to real-world?
- Does it allow for Hands-on, tactile, sensory-related active experiences?
- Is it led by the child (as play is their domain)?
- Is it related to their curriculum or STEM study; otherwise, we are not leveraging both aspects (STEM + Toys) equally for complete development;
- Does it have ample guidance or instructions for Parents and children alike. Parents may not necessarily have required STEM knowledge to support children.
- Does it offer opportunities to collaborate and develop the creativity of the child?
What skills (related to STEM) can toys develop in a child? How do they benefit the child? These benefits are observable in various situations: a) When a child plays with a toy, b) When a child creates a toy, c) When a child takes apart a toy for closer examination (which can be encouraged, if it doesn’t prove too costly!)
- Science kits stimulate an early interest, curiosity, appreciation for science (affective behaviours).[4] It also aids imagination and a spirit of experimenting and trial and error. While these benefits are also observed in chemistry; simple electronics and coding; physics; engineering; life science kits as well, they lack the inter-disciplinary benefits of a STEM kit;
- Enables visualization of concepts (3D models of molecules and proteins)
- Toys of increasing level of complexity and variables can be used to introduce new topics or demonstrate how one topic is related to another (inter-disciplinary). It enables simplifying a concept and introducing advanced concepts (in degrees). Builds conceptual understanding –
For example, designing and building:
- A parachute (how to combine forces)
- A car and its propulsion (learn about forces and motion)
- A device to lift a heavy object (mechanics, work, simple machines)[5]
- Develops science and inter-disciplinary skills and engages one in the scientific process. For example, in creating toys, the children are involved in measurement of length, size, angle, space. Their work significantly involves estimation, prediction, observation, manipulation; classification, making inferences and comparisons;
- They develop cognitive skills such as spatial ability (memory of objects and their location and mentally generating and manipulating images[6]); problem-solving and reflective thinking (for example: when playing with blocks and lego)
- Psychomotor skills are similarly developed by manipulation of physical objects (toys). When working with ready-made science kits or creating a toy, it is about using your cognitive skills and working physically with materials simultaneously. Just like in an industrial factory, precision will be required in building a simple circuit, copper-plating a surface or building a tomato battery!
- Helps us design/construct a toy in a manner which replicates the real-life scenario (keeping costs, material, aesthetics, sustainability issues, safety and reliability in mind). We could also evaluate an existing toy on these parameters and improve them.
To summarize the benefits, it is useful to include a template, describing the toy on various parameters (As an example, we take construction of a hovercraft) and state a sample of parameters[7]:
- Brief Description of the toy: A hovercraft
- Science Concept: Air has pressure and can exert a force (will help link back to the curriculum)
- Process skills involved: observation, designing and construction; using materials effectively
We have already touched upon the importance of STEM in an earlier blog. Critical to STEM, is design (engineering). Toys engage children and carry many positive associations related to freedom, absence of “fear of failure” and pure joy. The popularity of “building” is evident in the innumerable toys which encourage such activities – building blocks, lego, 3-D puzzles and even rudimentary models at home. Children enjoying creating and using their imagination, a simple case being building sand castles on the beach.
What better way to teach STEM other than through toys, and especially the creation of a toy, which we touch upon next. “Makerspaces” are spaces, where children can work on creating anything (example a toy), these spaces can be created by anyone (educational institution or even at home) and need to carry essential tools for completing any project. Some tools could be software tools such as AutoCAD or Mastercam; Play-Doh; LEGOs; circuits; free programming languages (such as “Scratch”); electronics platform (Arduino); basic fabrication and art tools. They may even have a prototyping laboratory and elaborate facilities for coding and programming or even 3D printers (to make the toy parts).
Simple steps to go about creating a toy could be:
- With support from mentors, decide on what toy to make (are we able to learn STEM through this toy?);
- What principles or concepts of science does it use? How is it demonstrated through the toy? Ensure student understanding of concept is clear and demonstratable through the toy;
- Conduct research and discuss on what could be various design options
- Discuss design with mentors or peers (if working in a group)
- Pick a design
- Evaluate materials, cost and processes involved (and areas of support)
- Prepare drawings of prototype
- Make the design and refine it based on test results
The above steps show the inter-disciplinary nature of engaging in such an activity leveraging the fun aspect through creating a toy and using art as a vehicle to generate excitement and appreciate aesthetics, amongst children.
There are several examples of such creations[8] by students. One such case is in a Middle-School classroom[9], where children learnt about Vehicles in Motion (physical sciences) by designing vehicles and their propulsion systems. They started by investigating toy vehicles from the market to evaluate them on a) ability to navigate on a track, b) which wheels provide traction, c) which forces slow some cars down, d) How does the construction of the car impede the movement?
They then explored simple concepts such as:
- Design and build a low-friction car, without a propulsion system (friction, gravity and Newton’s First Law)
- Next Design and build balloon-powered engine (Newton’s Second and Third Law)
- Finally design and build a Rubber-band powered car (Effects of how a force is delivered)
Finally, they went onto design a miniature vehicle that could work on a hilly terrain; learning from existing toys in the market and from their simpler versions prior to this main design. In the process they learnt a great deal about concepts such as friction, mass, gravity, inertia and speed.
While toys can be elaborate in their models and the extent of involvement in engineering design and technology depends on the availability of tools and resources, simple toys too can serve our purpose of learning STEM. Such as[10]:
- Making an electromagnetic crane – understanding electromagnetism, mechanics and application of levers, pivots, etc
- A simple periscope – understanding reflection of light by mirrors and effect of mirrors which are parallel to each other
Some other simple toy creations can be viewed in: NCERT’s handbook on Understanding Science through Activities, Games, Toys and Art Forms and arvindguptatoys.com
Certain types of toys afford tremendous opportunities for learning, such as STEM science kits or electronic blocks. Just like a makerspace (but maybe not as labour-intensive); the child could use a definite number of components within a STEM science kit and engage in varied experiments or model building with just that one kit.
Electronic blocks are an interesting example. They are like building blocks but contain electronic circuits. They enable learning through the use of sensor blocks (hearing, seeing and touch block), action blocks (produce a physical output – light block lights a bulb; sound block plays a tune and movement block is a car in motion) and logic blocks. The children are involved in design, construction, exploration and work with dynamic and programmable systems.[11] The advantage is to understand how individual systems (blocks) work together and create diverse outcomes based on combinations of different blocks. For example; placing a hearing block on a light block produces a structure that shines whenever one talks or placing a hearing block on movement block can create a vehicle which moves when one talks. Varied are the combinations that come up with such blocks laying the foundation for understanding programming. The possibilities for creativity and collaboration make toys one of the most preferred options for STEM learning. Whether it is creating toys out of everyday objects, using latest technologies to create more elaborate toys or buying ready-made toys and science kits; this is a very potent way to teach STEM to children. Creating positive associations and active learning make toys an absolute delight for the child. With the use of toys, the fun in a child’s playing hours is easily replicated in their learning time; eradicating the artificial boundary between play and science/STEM learning
[1] P.Wyeth, How Young Children Learn to Program with Sensor, Action and Logic Blocks, 2008
[2] G.L’E. Turner, Scientific Toys, 1987
[3] The Toy Association STEM/STEAM Formula for Success
[4] R.Rogosic et al; Modular Science Kit as a support platform for STEM Learning in primary and secondary
school, 2021
[5] J.L.Kolodner et al, Problem Based Learning Meets Case-Based Reasoning in the Middle-School Science
Classroom: Putting Learning by Design into Practice, 2003
[6] C.M.Ganley, M.Vasilyeva and A. Dulaney, Spatial Ability Mediates the Gender Difference in Middle School
Students’ Science Performance, 2014
[7] Games and Toys in the Teaching of Science and Technology, Division of Science Technical and Environmental
Education, UNESCO, 1988
[8] Toycathon, India and NASA Toy Challenge
[9] J.L.Kolodner et al, Problem Based Learning Meets Case-Based Reasoning in the Middle-School Science
Classroom: Putting Learning by Design into Practice, 2003
[10] Games and Toys in the Teaching of Science and Technology, Division of Science Technical and Environmental
Education, UNESCO, 1988
[11] P.Wyeth, How Young Children Learn to Program with Sensor, Action and Logic Blocks, 2008
