Intention

The reason I created this game was to teach children about electromagnetism. I noticed that many children's toys are depictions of archaic things, and I wanted to give them something more complex to play with.

Process

For this design, I started with the idea of magnetism. As a child, magnets always intrigued and excited me so I wanted to replicate those feelings in my design. Originally this design was going to be one train and one track. After observing some other products I decided to add extra tracks (separately) and another train to make it a racing game.

Product

This design is a two player game that teaches children about magnetism. You play by alternating the current in the track with a button that each player controls. The objective is to beat your friends to the finish line.

Reflection

I learned that the fabrication process for this design is very intense. I think next time I would try to maintain the idea of this design, but present it in a simpler way.

Intention

The reason I created this rocket was to teach children about aerodynamics. The main theme for all of my designs is to provide children with simple representations of hot-topic issues in technology today.

Process

I began with the idea of reusable rockets . Recently, there have been some companies who are demonstrating their capacity to send a rocket to orbit and land it back on the earth without damaging it. As an engineer, this capability is wildly exciting to me, and I wanted to do something with my toy that related to this. I settled on a two stage rocket that is fun to play with, but gets children used to (some components of) rocket science!

Product

The rocket you see above is a two stage rocket. It operates on chemical propellants (B/SV, Coke/mentos) that can be loaded into the fuel tank. It has a setting so that at the apex of the flight, an inner stage of the rocket shoots out of the top. This way, kids can experiment and see if the one stage rocket goes higher than the two stage one.

Reflection

I learned that actually designing this rocket so that something shoots out at the apex of its flight is difficult. The problem with this is that if it shoots out at the wrong time, kids won't see a big difference between the two types of rocket. I would consider designing a more accurate system for this release.

Intention

I created this music box to teach children about the effects of various materials on solar power.

Process

Solar power was the the driving idea behind this design. As our global society trends towards one that depends on reusable resources, a generation of children that are familiar with this idea becomes a priority to create. I know that children like to try new things, which is something I really wanted to encourage with my design. The idea of it playing music at a speed proportional to the amount of sunlight just seemed like something that would be intuitive to children.

Product

This design is a music box that plays music at a speed based on how much sunlight the solar panel in the bottom receives. Children have to experiment by putting different materials in the bottom to see if they can get the song to play faster.

Reflection

The biggest issue with this design is that the materials at the bottom cover the panel, rather than acting as the panel. If I were to take this design further, I would include solar panels made of different materials that children can experiment with in the product.