A parent's holiday shopping list to INSPIRE your wannabe astronaut or aerospace engineer
This year’s Engineering Gift Guide from Purdue University’s INSPIRE Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering features a variety of space-related toys, games, and activities that will capture their imaginations while teaching them lessons in engineering.
The annual gift guide boasts 140 toys, books and games this year for children as young as 1 year old up to 18-year-olds in categories ranging from building and circuits to logic and puzzles.
“These gifts may stimulate kids’ interest in the space field,” said Elizabeth Gajdzik, assistant director of INSPIRE. “A toy, game or book is a great way to provide kids with a fun learning experience that may stick with them for the rest of their lives. And who knows, the first person to set foot on Mars may very well be in elementary school right now.”
These space-themed gifts align with Purdue’s Giant Leaps Sesquicentennial Campaign and are part of the Ideas Festival, whose four themes include “Giant Leaps in Space: Earth, Exploration, Economics.”
Some of the gifts relating to space are:
Price: $99.99
Price: $134.95
Price: $14.99
Written and illustrated by Drew Brockington.
Price: $7.99 paperback / $16.99 hardcover
Written and illustrated by Markus Motum.
Price: $22.99 hardcover
Build Slingshot Powered Rockets, Rubber Band Rifles and Unconventional Catapults
Written by Lance Akiyama.
Price: $22.99 paperback
Price: $59.99
Price: $119.99
Price: $39.99
Toys, games and books included in the guide go through an extensive review process. From the engineering aspect, at least three faculty, staff or students conducted evaluations of each toy. Students with INSPIRE have an engineering background and are trained on how to review the submissions.
Those reviews are then used to develop ratings and descriptions of how the gifts promote engineering thinking and design, which are included on the INSPIRE’s gift guide website.
Events for parents and children to review the toys and games were held throughout August and September at Lafayette’s science center, Imagination Station, as well as the West Lafayette and Klondike Branch public libraries.
A PDF of the gift guide is available online.
Source: Purdue News Room