The Light Blocks work like any typical children's building blocks, save they light up when connected together. These blocks would introduce children to the concepts of circuits and electricity. This toy would follow the same guild lines as traditional legos, which means it would be suitable for children approximately 5+. This toy came from my love of Light-Brite as well as legos. These might be able to be made with a laser printer, or maybe moulding?
At first I felt a little disappointed in this design, thinking it would be too simple and not very exciting or original. However, taking into account that we have to actually build one of our toys, I became delighted again by my original fascination with glowing building blocks. I also decided to take this class since I have never built anything for myself before and would like to have at least some novice knowledge at how to build products. The most important thing I learnt was to not give on your design ideas, even if they don't seem impressive at the time. Also, children are much more imaginative than adults – I do believe that children really would enjoy playing with these building blocks.
The Fit It Cube is an exciting toy for young children that can introduce them to geometry and colour. Like the game Operation, children must place the pieces into their respective holes. If the appropriate piece have been placed in the correct hole, the piece will glow. The child has a designated amount of time to complete the game. If the child fails, the cube will glow red and a small squirt of water will shoot from the top. If the child succeeds, the cube will glow green and a little melody will play. This toy is meant to engage as many senses as possible. This toy could be for children ages 6-9, however more complex models could be made for older audiences.
Unlike my first toy, I felt that this one was a bit complex. I think during the design process I was trying to make the toy as exciting as possible, and by doing so I think I ended up making the toy a bit strange. I think I would remove the water engagement, it feels awkward and forced in a sense. I feel like an audible timer, getting faster and faster as the timer goes on would create the stress and reaction desired from the user. In terms of actually building it, I assume a 3d printer or laser cutter would work, however I'm not sure how the internal structure would be created
The Fish To Go looks like any exciting wind up toy, with the exception that this game will try to teach children about energy. The small silicone fish are swimming inside a thick wall of insulation, when the toy has no energy the fish are "dead" and sink to the bottom. When the toy is wound up and released, the toy with drive in circles and the liquid will begin to heat up. As the toy is used more, the liquid will eventually simmer and the fish will swim and "cook" (change colour). The toy will be slightly warm, but not hot, to the touch. Rather than water the liquid would be a substance that heats relatively quickly. Additionally there would be a temperature indicator, with both metric and imperial measurements.
In retrospect I feel like this toy could be more successful if it were simplified. I think that the temperature gage is important, I think understanding temperature can be a difficult topic because it is hard to see precision. As children we can generally identify cold to cool to room temperature to warm to hot, but no more specific than that. I think that this toy would be better at teaching temperature rather energy conversion. I'm not exactly sure how this piece would be built, especially in terms of safety and containing the liquid.
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