Weekly assignment 3: Project1 Documentation

link to our slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zOSc_ZYksz5ZaOCgRIJbWjNCd7yMuHzlGkjDw_vEXws/edit?ts=5e5b4dfb#slide=id.g80dd142cda_15_3

 

for my research: Since my focus is on science toys and there are not so many academic (or even opinion) articles about spacifically this kind, I will only summary what I have found on the internet here.

Science toys have many variations that could cover some aspects of the fundamental science, like chemistry simulation toys, electric circuit building toys and magnetic experiment toys. There are another kind that simulate some real scenarios like fossil digging and microscopic experiments. 

Science toys has a long history that dates back to the early 20th century, and as a result it arries the same debate of genderization as most other toys (with similarly long history) do. At first, it was designed to prepare young boys for their possible future profession (of a scientist). This was the primary purpose of toys as a whole at that time, but it came a long way till nowadays and have changed a lot. Various advertistment nowadays are using words like “education” and “gain knowledge” often to seemingly emphasize the educational value of the toys. Other advertistments focus on “developing the interest” of real science. While these may not be appealing to the user themselves (i.e. the kids), it may seem more so to the parents who want their children well educated. Another big word in the ads is “creative”. This as a spplementry means, adds upon to the “education” point, just to make the idea of “gaining knowledge while playing” sound less boring. 

Question: Are these types of toys more centered on the objective of education or play?

I think it is neither of them. Firstly for those who don’t enjoy science stuff, there are no joy or excitement in playing those toys. And for those kids who are actually enjoying the science experiments, they usually won’t have enough patience to finish the instructions because it is written in languages of (inevitably,) science, which they would find boring and nerdy, which may lead to them goofing around with no achievement and subsequently quitting. So even if the intention for this kind of toy maybe for fun and play, the real affects may well not be it. It acts more like a introduction to the science world and shows the kids what’s out there for you to learn.

 

sketch for my character:

Lost Airpod