Fantastic toys that promote STEM skills!

As promised, Part 2 of 3 in our mini-series taking an insider look at last week's NYC Toy Fair 2015! Today's topic:

Toys designed to encourage girls to want to develop their science & technology skills! 
(Science Technology Engineering & Math = STEM skills)

My last post highlighted robots, magnetic trucks, and an electrics-kit for scientific experiments. The majority of the many robotics & building sets that I saw at the toy fair were geared towards traditionally male-oriented interests, and the predominant toy/package colors were blue, gray, black, green, white ... with a touch of orange or red here and there.

Product test-groups have shown that when a mixed group of children were given the choice between a gray robot or a pink robot, almost all of the boys chose to play with the former and the girls chose to play with the latter. Packaging & colors have an enormous impact on which toys children want to buy, and which toys the adult-buyer thinks their boy or girl will want to play with. And there are of course other fundamental characteristics that kids have which will influence their toy decisions too. For example, many children with traditionally feminine interests may be intrigued by the thought of making an electrically-engineered doll house more than they would be inspired to want to try to make a robot boxing-match. 

So I definitely want to highlight some incredible toys that are designed from the ground-up with feminine interests at heart, and are marketed to draw in these audiences  :)

If you've read my blog before, you know by now that I'm a fan of Shark Tank. So let's start with a company that had its big debut on their show: 
Roominate offers adorable building-kits designed by 2 female engineers from Stanford. They have a variety of doll houses, a helicopter kit, and other open-ended options that can be constructed. The kits include motor and light circuitry to integrate into the structures, making it fun for girls to develop STEM interests & skills through creative play.

A similar company was started by a prior Stanford graduate, Debbie Sterling, to help promote a wide range of STEM skill development among young girls. GoldieBlox offers a wider variety of activities, including different types of structural engineering projects, various types of play-sets, as well as experiments like the awesome "movie machine" shown to the left.
In their promotional materials they state: "Construction toys help develop an early interest in STEM, but for far too long they've been considered 'boys toys'. We believe there are millions of girls out there who are engineers. They just don't know it yet." Debbie has famously said that when she first told her mom that she wanted to be an engineer, her mom said "eww why?!" She hopes to help other girls become interested in this fabulous career path... to break the both stereotype as well as the statistic that 86% of the engineers in the world are men.

There is another neat product from Build & Imagine with a simpler construction framework. It is comprised of magnetic building-segments that piece together into an interchangeable and ever-changing doll house that leaves almost everything up to the imagination of the builder! The pieces themselves are stackable and magnetically connected... plus it comes with little magnetically-adherent accessories and decorations to really make the space your own, with a type of interactivity that feels almost like high-tech paper dolls or a felt-board set.

And have you heard of Hopscotch or tried it yet?
Not the game where you jump to on the sidewalk.... the coding program.
Hopscotch is an app that was created to help kids build their own apps through an easy-to-use interface that requires no coding-knowledge but which can teach rudimentary coding-skills along the way.
Hopscotch was started by 2 female co-founders who developed it to help direct young girls' interests & skills towards the field of technology. They say that from what they can tell, their app users are about 50/50 in male-to-female ratio. But during the Digital Kids Conference, the most interesting thing that they shared was their experience with the early user-acquisition process. They had started out by asking girls if they wanted to learn how to code - but it was hard to get much excitement going when they approached girls with this question. So they thought about what girls traditionally like to do... things like knitting, crafting, coloring, and other types of creating... so they shifted their approach. They started to ask girls instead, "Would you like to make your own app?" in order to appeal to their sense of creativity and baseline desire to make things. With this shift in perspective, they noticed many more girls signing on to create their own app than to "learn how to code" ... and Hopscotch has become wildly popular since the company was founded in 2011!

These are just a few examples of the wide shift that we are seeing in the toy industry, and it is expected to continue to expand in this direction as families demonstrate their desire to have more science, technology, math, and engineering toys that also have strong feminine appeal. 

Our next blog post in the series will explore the fascinating combination of traditional real-world play that can now be enhanced through integration with digital-play experiences - so stay tuned for more from Tiny Tastes World on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram or sign up to receive posts in the right side-bar of our blog!

Yours,
Tiny


Visit us at www.tinytastesworld.com


More about STEM:

Were any of these your favorite subject in school?

Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

There are some surprising facts about STEM careers that the toy industry is trying to help turn around....
According to surveys of teenagers entering college, only about 15% of females want to declare a STEM major compared to 40% of their male counterparts. 

Trends in girls' interest within the STEM careers have been plotted by STEMconnector:

I was interviewing a friend who is a developer to understand why he became interested in learning how to code. He said "I grew up playing computer games, was obsessed with video games, and was always curious about how these things were made even from a young age. When I got the opportunity to learn how to code, I had a real appreciation for it because I knew all of the incredible applications that could be developed from a code-base and I wanted to be a part of that creative process." 

Now take a look at the chart again - even within the STEM majors, the majority of these girls are interested in pursuing science careers (e.g. biology, chemistry) much more than technology, engineering, or mathematics. Science is absolutely fabulous, no doubt! But the question is, how can we also foster an appreciation for technology and these other STEM areas in young girls. Technology has been increasing in overall prevalence since 1997, but during that same time period surveys have shown a decrease in girls' interest to enter a technology career. Thoughts?

Top Toy Trends at the 2015 NYC Toy Fair

I had so much fun last week visiting all of the adorable booths at the NYC Toy Fair! We made lots of new friends and played with tons of toys ~ some are already available for sale... and others will be coming out soon!! 

As I browsed through the thousands of exhibitor booths, I noticed some clear trends in the toy industry:

1) Lots of toys incorporate play and learning
2) Toys are encouraging girls to develop science/technology skills
3) Toys incorporate real-world items along with digital play

Since there's so much to cover about all of these incredible toys, I will share about these topics one-by-one throughout the week, starting here:

Toys that are fun... and educational!

In both the Toy Fair and the Digital Kids Conference, there was a lot of discussion about the fact that from very early in life through about age 6 there is a great emphasis on toys that teach and promote learning through play. However, as kids get older, a division seems to form between learning & play such that it starts to become either one or the other for kids: many older children either spend their time learning and studying, or they spend other "free time" playing games & toys designed more for their entertainment than educational value. 

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with this, just an observation. But it leads us to think about why this may happen as children get older. And how traditional educational methods approach the learning process. Fortunately, there are definitely a lot of fun study-methods and games that are quite educational for older children too!

Check out this one from Magic Forest --  
You can make your own record player!
I didn't get to see it in action, but I wonder how it sounds??
It would be so fun to build one of these...

sound amplification principles + a good vinyl
= family dance party!

EV3RSTORM from lego

Lego is a classic brand that is well known for its emphasis on educational play with something that takes creativity to the next level. They've continued developing their Mindstorms robot line, with their latest bot on display. Lego even has software available to help kids code and bring their new creations to life after building them!

Another robotics building kit comes from IQ Key (click to visit their site for a cool demo video!) which is a more open-ended building kit that allows kids to really use their imagination to create different designs and cool robotics. They have a nice variety of pieces & inspiration to allow kids to develop something unique each time.

The "Innovative Toy of the Year" award actually went to a robot - a little guy named Mip whom you can train to do all kinds of things (check out Mip's site for a demo)! Instead of building this one, you focus more on the programming & training side of the experience. 
When I stopped by their booth, they gave us a peek at their upcoming next-generation of robots that were out to roam... this time they've newly designed the dino-bot!! Responsive dinosaurs that you can train to play with a smart-ball and do tricks with - scheduled to launch around May. 

A science kit makes a great gift for an inquisitive mind. 
I loved this Tronex 72+ Amazing Science Workshop kit!
Full of all kinds of electronic, radio, magnetic, and other science experiments....

:: disconnect ::
:: reconnect ::
:: wire ::
:: re-wire ::

... all of which produce different results that are delightfully seen and heard!

For younger children, there are also some simpler ways to build and explore --

I loved this building set from Magformers for little ones to construct & re-construct their trucks and toys. The ability to piece these vehicles together into almost any shape/size and to mix & match sets to create totally new shapes, brings a whole new level of excitement to "playing with trucks"!

As for educational games, I was really impressed by all of the cool options from Blue Orange games. One of my favorites is called Doodle Quest -- new in 2014! You are challenged to draw things from a unique angle/perspective to see only afterwards if it lines up with the challenge that's on the board. 
Blue Orange has a whole line-up of educational fun for the whole family!

You might have noticed that the majority of the toys above are more traditionally bro-oriented in nature. If your child wouldn't really be interested in building robots and trucks, don't worry, there are plenty of other fabulous ways to develop interest & skills in science and engineering!

There was a lot of talk at the Digital Kids conference about the content of "the blue aisle" compared to "the pink aisle" and how the industry typically creates & markets toys differently for boys and girls. Fortunately, there is a rising emphasis on quality educational toys that appeal to the feminine side for learning about science & technology....

Our next blog post this week will be about some amazing new toys and opportunities for the other kids in your life - so stay tuned for more from Tiny Tastes World on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram or sign up to receive posts in the right side-bar of our blog!

Yours,
Tiny


Visit us at www.tinytastesworld.com

Picky Eating Tool Gets Pitched to Shark Tank...

...and the Sharks Swirl!

Bobbie feeds FunBites to the Sharks
(photo from FunBites Facebook page)

On Friday night's episode of Shark Tank, Bobbie Rhoads pitched her company's product FunBites into the tank... and she got 3 bites!

If you aren't familiar with FunBites, they are a line of high-grade cookie-cutter style tools that parents can use to cut up their food into cute shapes in order to help children to have more fun eating healthy foods. They are also great for party-prep!

Bobbie pitched her product to the 5 sharks in hopes of obtaining a $75K investment in exchange for an equity stake in her company. 
By the end of her presentation, she had 3 out of 5 sharks eager to make the deal with her!

She got two competitive offers right away from Lori Greiner and Daymond John - they both presented compelling cases for why she should pick them: Lori was dangling her retail sales angle, whereas Daymond was touting his powerful connections to help make licensing deals. I can see how both could have strong appeal... but Bobbie went with her gut on this.

Lori demanded that Bobbie make an immediate decision after her offer: "If you want to partner with me, I'd like you to say 'yes' right now!" Lori's womanly instinct sensed that Bobbie knew already who she wanted to choose, and she capitalized on that moment.

I'm excited for Bobbie that she has a great partner moving forward! But I was just very disappointed that we didn't get to hear the offer from the 3rd shark who wanted to be in the race, Mark Cuban, since he always seems like the best shark on the show IMHO. The deal was made before he even got to make his case.

Mark is well known as a "tech mogul" so I think he might actually be very interested to learn how our own Tiny Tastes app can help picky eaters if he can relate to the importance of this topic. We recently applied to pitch Tiny Tastes to Mark Cuban and the judges at SXSW mid-March. 

Bonnie did a great job of raising awareness about the prevalence of feeding issues and the special needs that children have at mealtimes. Our companies have different tools for the same goal: to have fun with healthy eating and to help children overcome barriers to trying new foods!

And Mark: if we do get the chance to meet you at SXSW, I will definitely want to hear what you have to say.


Visit us at www.tinytastesworld.com to learn more

Coming Soon: The NYC Digital Kids Conference!

I am so excited!!

Next weekend I will be heading to the NYC Digital Kids Conference and Toy Expo - with presentations about Toys, Learning, and Play!

They have a great lineup of speakers planned, including experts and industry leaders in technology innovations to help children learn and grow through creative & intelligent play.

One of the sessions that looks the most interesting is called "Family Time: Finding the Natural Fit for Interactive Technology." Whenever a family invites me to eat along with them at a meal or snack, it is my privilege to join them at the table! But family meals are so important that I would never want to disrupt that with Tiny Tastes, only to help enhance their experience when I can. It will be great to be able to discuss our ideas for supporting family bonding through technology. 

They will also be having a speaker there from Disney who plans to share about the incredible potential for Transcendent Experiences. "Using the powerful combination of connected mobile devices and new & innovative physical toys, digital kids today have new possibilities in reading, play and learning"!

Another interesting topic will be the COPPA presentation - there we will learn more about the latest guidelines for keeping children's information private and safe. This is a responsibility that we take very seriously at Tiny Tastes, so I definitely look forward to staying up to date about this topic. We always want to demonstrate to families that we are earnest about maintaining their best interests.

In addition to attending conference sessions, I will also be hopping around to the different Toy Expo booths to see all kinds of toy displays full of fun things that will be coming to the market soon! So stay tuned by following Tiny Tastes World on either  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Instagram  so you can see all of the posts that I will be sending out during the conference to share a look at some of the coolest new toys and learning games!

Yours, 
Tiny

Stay Connected to get the inside-scoop on the Toy Expo!

Tiny's Blog Hop | Ideas for Staying Active!

This week we are looking forward to hearing some great ideas that our blogging friends may want to share about how they and their families are finding ways to stay active and have fun this winter!

Yours,
Tiny

*viewpoints expressed in these posts are those of the individual bloggers and not necessarily of Tiny Tastes

An InLinkz Link-up

Staying active... even when it's 19 degrees in NY (Blog Hop Week 5)

I have to be real with you - this is one of the biggest things that I struggle with whenever I'm living in the northeast. I've never liked the cold and I can't wait to live somewhere warm again! But regardless of what temperature it is outside, I know that I need to stay active. The body was made to move and it's so important for health on various levels.

The big question that I find myself asking regularly is: 
How do I make time for activity in my life, especially here in this "concrete jungle" of a city, while my favorite activities would ideally involve sun, warm water, sand, trails, courts, balls, bikes, or really any combination of the above.... 

Clearly I can't enjoy those right now in NY. 

And I'm not like my friends in Seattle who would say, "Hey, you just have to learn to like doing your favorite activities in the bad weather, or else you won't get to do them!" (yeah, seriously -- my co-workers would bike to work in the rain... people would be out golfing in the rain... jogging in the rain... playing soccer in the rain... nothing stopped them, it was amazing!) But I don't have that kind of fortitude for all-weather athletics. I need to find alternative activities that don't involve being uncomfortable out in the elements!

So what is it that is going to motivate me to leave my warm apartment and go outside to do anything at all this winter? Most of the time lately I don't want to even walk up the block to pick up food, that's how cold it is here!

I've found a few things to be helpful to stay active during the winter:

1) Pick something to do that I enjoy enough to motivate me to leave the comfort of my home to go do it often!

Since most outdoor activities are off the table at the moment, I got a membership to a climbing gym around late-fall so that I could stay active indoors this way. I've always enjoyed the challenge of this fantastic form of exercise, and I can see skill improvement week over week -- that's the type of activity that really keeps me coming back for more! 

It's very important for me to enjoy what I'm doing so that I will want to stay consistent on a regular basis. I already know that I would be set to fail if I made a plan to go out for a jog every morning, since my lungs can't stand running in the cold weather. So instead of setting an unrealistic goal that would be awful to have to try and do, I set this goal which has been a pleasure to stick to!

2) Build activity into my everyday routine so that I can exercise with a purpose.

Of course I do still have to leave the house sometimes - errands and such - food and friends - like it or not there is a lot to do in life that requires me to confront winter in the face. Living in NYC allows a lot of flexibility in how we commute, so I get loads of exercise just walking from point A to point B in this city. Especially around the lower east side where there aren't many train stops, walking 10 blocks to get somewhere (both ways) is normal. So fortunately or unfortunately, I find myself walking a LOT in this city in all types of weather. 

The good thing about this type of exercise is that because it is in-route to where I'm going anyway, it doesn't really feel like I'm losing time from my busy day to "go exercise" and I can rationalize spending a little extra time (even if I don't have that much extra time) to go out of my way to walk somewhere instead of ride the whole way there. 

3) When it's too cold to go outside at all, have an indoor Plan B in place!

For me, staying active every day helps keep my mind sharp and I have way more energy overall. Whenever I go a whole week without exercise I start to feel tired and down. So even if I can't (*won't*) go outside every day, there are still some things I can do inside the apartment. I use resistance bands and do some other calisthenics, even just for 10-20 minutes to keep up my circulation and energy levels.

I'm a big multi-tasker, so I will often do this while talking on the phone or while catching up on a TV show, so that I can entertain myself while getting a little bit of exercise in just to help maintain my energy.

That has been one of the most important things that I have noticed has made a difference for me - sticking with something, even if I'm not seeing an immediate result or even if I'm questioning its worth, I remember the big picture and what I know about myself and what I need to do in order to stay focused and feel good. 

So if you're wondering how YOU can stay active -- I'd suggest this:

Listen to all of the arguments that may pop into your head against exercising, really think about all the good reasons why you cannot be active regularly, and pay close attention to them.

Next, take a different voice - not your own voice, but perhaps the voice of a pleasant yoga-instructor or coach that you'd like to imagine - and give yourself advice about how you can work around those barriers. 

Once you identify your personal barriers to exercising and embrace them as the legitimate hurdles they may be, you can start to problem-solve and let that coach within you tell yourself how you could work around those challenges and start making some type of enjoyable physical activity a regular part of your life. If the experience of others has anything to say about it -- after a few weeks of sticking with it you will feel better than you do today!