Citing stats from a Common Sense Media report, Dave
Sharp, senior product design manager at LittleBits,
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during the day, but only 3 percent of their time on
digital devices is devoted to creating content. “We’re
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empowering them to also be creators and inventors and
problem solvers using technology,” he says.
The company has kits for kids in grade school and
middle school and has scored hits with licensing
partnerships. It created a Star Wars kit that let kids
build their own droid and an Avengers kit that helped
them make a power glove.
As with Lego, toy creation at LittleBits starts by
determining learning goals. Relying on standards set by
the NGSS and the CSTA, team members decide what
they want children to learn, then think of activities to
teach those lessons. They bring kids into their
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with an advisory panel of teachers.
Working directly with children taught LittleBits a lot
about how to appeal to young minds. For example, they
didn’t want to build the company’s hot-potato project
because it didn’t sound like fun, although they enjoyed
the game when it was presented to them. But when the
company turned that hot potato into a large spider
with an ominously ticking heartbeat, kids were
suddenly interested.
The company has also learned how to make concepts
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versions and give them to kids because we don’t want
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out how a bit works,” Sharp says. “Because adults don’t
read the instruction manuals, let alone kids.”
Team members
decide what
they want
children to
learn, then
think of
activities to
teach those
lessons.