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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2020-10-03 02:54, John Grigg via
extropy-chat wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAGSKFy22T4QSBbFGouk_pkJggHQ=pZo-u5re7LtRRaF7=pb=EA@mail.gmail.com">
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<div>"With a rocky year of pandemic-related educational
disruptions ahead, many parents are looking for ways to help
their kids learn at home. Toys advertised as teaching <a
href="https://www.livescience.com/43296-what-is-stem-education.html"
target="_blank" class="gmail-hawk-link-parsed"
moz-do-not-send="true"><u>STEM</u></a> might seem like one
way to fill the gap. But do they really work?
<p>The answer is yes, research shows that toys can indeed
teach science, technology, engineering and <a
href="https://www.livescience.com/38936-mathematics.html"
target="_blank" class="gmail-hawk-link-parsed"
moz-do-not-send="true"><u>math</u></a> concepts — but
don't focus on advertising or fancy labels to find the best
bets. There's no minimum educational requirement that toys
must reach to label themselves a "STEM toy," so almost
everything on the market is untested. Instead, experts say,
look for toys that encourage open-ended, active play and
problem-solving. Some proven winners? <a
href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=74387&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FTINKERTOY-Model-Super-Building-Set%2Fdp%2FB00JRGVEG2%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dlivescience-ph-7892809415931558000-20"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"
class="gmail-hawk-link-parsed" moz-do-not-send="true"><u>Tinkertoys</u></a>,
board games, decks of cards and <a
href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=74387&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FMelissa-Doug-Wooden-Building-Blocks%2Fdp%2FB000068CKY%2F%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-20%26ascsubtag%3Dlivescience-ph-1804693012485567700-20"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"
class="gmail-hawk-link-parsed" moz-do-not-send="true"><u>building
blocks</u></a>." <br>
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<div>I'm curious what list members think are among the best toys
and games for developing young minds. I have a little one on
the way, so this really matters to me...<br>
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<div><a
href="https://www.livescience.com/how-stem-toys-teach-math-science.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.livescience.com/how-stem-toys-teach-math-science.html</a>
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</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>I was homeschooled for a fair chunk of early childhood and, other
issues aside, I got a solid STEM education for that level. The
proven winners in the list were all present, no argument to any of
those. We had one game involving a pair of dice and a deck of
cards, using the cards to generate target numbers where we had to
choose the right operations to reach the target using the numbers
on the dice. In terms of STEM toys per se, the big one was
Capsela. I learned things from those sets about that my
engineering school classmates were learning 20 years later.
Mechanical, electrical, color theory, enough for a solid
grounding. I don't know if they're still a thing, but if they are
then that would be a good way to go. Outside of that, and maybe a
couple years further on, just a lot of cheap appliances from yard
sales, taken apart and put back together.<br>
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