Each class organised themselves into teams of 3 three and came down to the Learning Hub to design a toy and complete a business plan. We covered market research, design fundamentals, marketing, and finance. I saw some amazing toy designs, and I can quite honestly say that I’d buy each & every toy/product I saw if they were available for sale. I've seen innovation, imagination, cooperation and entrepreneurship in bucket-loads in the Learning Hub - it has been a real pleasure to work with the children on this segment of their inquiry!
The icing on the cake however, was a visit from Toy Designer Helen Andreae last Tuesday. Helen is a lecturer in Industrial Design at Victoria University, and holds degrees in both Industrial Design and Psychology. Helen is the creator and designer of a very special toy called Auti. Auti is a fluffy, interactive toy designed to help children on the Autistic spectrum to develop positive play skills. Helen very kindly took an hour out of her busy schedule to deliver a one hour presentation to the children about her toy design process, the importance of market research, prototype development, testing, and her plans for the future - it was fascinating!
For the second part of the day, the children came down to the hall in their teams of three to help Helen design a face for Auti using paper templates. Helen also took a look at the children's toy designs and provided them with some really useful & constructive feedback. The overwhelming consensus was that there is a lot more involved in getting a toy to market than most of can fully appreciate!
This inquiry has been so much fun, I’ve really had a ball!
Karin : )
Learning Hub Coordinator