Play Matters: Engineering with Goldie Blox

Posted by aMuse Toys on July 30, 2013 0 Comments

Goldie Blox is an innovative building set designed with little girls in mind. Historically, as girls grow up they gravitate towards play that involves creating, imagining, pretending and reading. Little boys are typically more interested in the mechanics of their toys. They want to know how things work. What makes cars go? How do buildings get so tall? Naturally, there is a divide in the workplace once all of these little girls and little boys grow up to find themselves selecting a career field.

 

The creator of Goldie Blox is Debbie Sterling. Sterling was one of few graduating females in her class of engineers at Stanford University. Her mission is to close the gender gap in the fields of STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics] and she's doing that with Goldie Blox. When Sterling began her work on prototypes, she wanted to make something that would encourage girls to explore basic building and engineering concepts without giving up their love of stories and pretend play. The culmination of her research and hours of play is Goldie Blox and the Spinning Machine, a story and building set that follows a girl who loves to read and build. 

 

Goldie Blox is designed to be an addition to the ever-growing collection of princess outfits, baby dolls and all things pink. In fact, in its latest media advertisement, Goldie Blox proclaims a disruption of "the pink aisle." Don't get us wrong, there's nothing wrong with a little pink. Goldie Blox is simply an engaging way to encourage high-level thinking and promote all areas of the STEM initiative without taking away the comforts and familiarity of reading and pretending. 

 

Just Some Smart Young Ladies Causing Disruption

 

This story begins by introducing Goldie Blox as a girl who likes to solve problems by building simple machines. Then, Goldie asks you to build a machine with her to help out her friends. As the story progresses, so does the building. By the end of the story, Goldie and her friends are happy and your little one has just built a working machine. And, she doesn't have to stop there. She can take apart the finished machine and see what else she can build on her own.

 

A Look into Goldie's Story

 

When your little one follows along with Goldie's story, she's working on her reading and verbal skills. When she adds pieces to the machine, she's fine tuning her spatial reasoning and problem solving skills. Goldie Blox will eventually expand into a complete series of books and building sets. Readers will be introduced to more friends, like Ruby Goldberg and Axl Rosie (We love it!). There will be more machines and engineering concepts to explore, like force and friction!

 

  

Goldie and Her Motley Crew

 

Goldie Blox is suggested for ages 4 to 9 years old. If you would like to learn more about Goldie Blox and the Spinning Machine or ways to include STEM learning in your everyday playplease visit us at our Fells Point or Quarry Lake location.

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