The impulse to buy STEM toys seems much like the drive to get a child into a
competitive preschool. Parents want to give their children every advantage, and
that means planning their career development from a young age.
“They want to make sure they’re giving their children the best guidance and the
best background and support that they can so they can compete in, really, a
global world,” Seiter says.
BUILDING BLOCKS
Another toy giant releasing STEM products is Lego, which
has found huge success with its Mindstorms line of
engineering and robotics toys. Mindstorms debuted in
1998, well before the STEM trend, but the company has
been quick to adopt the acronym.
Marianne Nytoft Bach led the team that created
Lego Education Spike Prime, a new product for
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STEAM: “I think it should always combine
science, technology, engineering, art, and math.
So it should always be something that is
broader than just one subject area, you could
say. And then it should be challenging the kid
or the student in a way that makes them use all
their senses or all their skills.” STEAM toys
should be open-ended, she adds, posing a
challenge but also letting children create their
own answers.
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cross-functional teams—which include teachers, concept designers, digital
experience managers, and model builders—brainstorm on it. When it’s time to
create school lesson plans (many Mindstorm kits are sold to schools), the
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Science Standards) and CSTA (Computer Science Teachers Association). Lego is
one of the companies that promote STEAM rather than STEM, so how does it
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encourage storytelling. And you thought they were just for fun.