This article intrigued me from the title alone. I have always liked engineering and seeing 5 toys that would help kids understand it made me very happy. After clicking on the article and seeing that it was five short bullets with one or two sentences each, I was very disappointed. With that being said of my initial reaction, lets get into this analysis. "1. XYZprinting da Vinci miniMakerYou don’t need to be a fab-lab rat to work this simple 3-D printer. Kids can design their own objects using free software or print a redesigned trinket. | $250 (Ages 14+)" This first bullet point is the very first one and corresponds with the picture(to the side). First of all a 3-D printer is A LOT of money, even the "kid-friendly" printer is a lot of money. "2. Kano Pixel Kit It’s no Retina display, but Kano’s 16x8-pixel grid still dazzles. Make the LEDs glow using Kano’s simple web coding app. Program the screen to display weather and stock data, or just create pixel art. | $80 (Ages 6+)" This is just silly, a six year old isn't going to know how to code. All they will think of the toy is pretty lights. Yes,the toy is partially for that, but it is mainly about web coding which kids wont know how to do. "3. CubettoThis nifty kit works like a physical command line. Each colorful plastic block represents an action; string multiple actions together on the board to make a program that the little mobile bot obeys. | $225 (Ages 3+)" This toy is a little less insane but not completely sane. For one, the price. No parent is going to buy there kid this simply because of the price. And two, i am almost positive that there is another toy out there for a cheap price that would work just as well. "4. Lego Boost Boost combines regular blocks with motors, lights, and sensors so kids can construct robots (like guitars and kitty cats) that come to life. It doesn’t work like magic, though. Making the bots move requires some basic programming, which Lego stealthily disguises as playtime using a fun, interactive mobile app. | $160 (Ages 7–12)" Just by the picture alone, I couldn't tell what it was, so i looked it up and found another, clearer, picture (shown below). Its looks like a small cat toy. Now what it does, I'm not totally sure. Even the description isn't very helpful and it would take a lot of time to construct, even the most basic item. "5. Tech Will Save Us Dough Universe Electrical engineering is hard ... unless it involves malleable play dough. Kids can build basic circuits out of the squishy stuff using this kit’s controllers and connectors. A dinosaur with flashing eyes? A piano that plays a tune when you touch it? Sure—and through it all, the dough still tastes the same. | $135 (Ages 4+)"
This another more reasonable one yet still insanely expensive. Its basically play dough with attachments. i think its a neat idea but not for $135. So I know that this article is to teach kids the basics of engineering but, a kid isn't going to know how to use the item properly and it is so much money for something they might break. I would love to get kids into engineering but not for this much money. I would also love for the article to have more detail about either the products or why she, the author, choose these five. Other than that, I enjoyed the article.
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