Toy Metal
Educational Toys By Nguang Nguek-fluek
Making schooling or learning a chore or something boring is a crime worst than murder. The future lies in the hands of our future generation and if we stick to the old ways of constipated learning, we will all be living in the past and not be able to make any progress. One of the methods to help children learn and have fun is to give them educational toys.
An educational toy is something different from an ordinary toy. A toy is something used in play by children, adults or pets. A toy differs from a game in that toy play does not have clearly defined goals. Many items are manufactured to serve as toys, but items produced for other purposes can also be used as toys. Therefore, educational toys are toys created with a purpose to help children learn and have fun at the same time. Let’s look at a few examples of educational toys.
There have been many educational toys which hit the market lately and these are the few that have gotten great reception. Ever heard of the Speak and Spell? The Speak and Spell was created by Texas Instruments during the late 1970s. Speak & Spell was the first of a three-part talking educational toy series that also included Speak & Read and Speak & Math. The Speak & Spell was sold in the United States, Canada, and in Europe; it was originally advertised as a tool for helping young children to become literate, learn to spell and learn the alphabet. The Speak & Spell had a distinct orangish-red with yellow color scheme with a light blue border around the membrane keyboard. The early Speak & Spell units were sold in 1978. Variants included the Speak & Read, which was yellow with blue and green accents and focused on reading comprehension, and the Speak and Math (Maths in the UK), grey with blue and orange and centered on mathematics. A French Speak & Spell, La Dictee Magique, was sold primarily in Canada.
Another educational toy we see is the Geniac. Geniac was an educational toy billed as a “computer” designed and marketed by Edmund Berkeley from 1955 through the sixties. The name stood for “Genius Almost-automatic Computer.”
Basically a rotary switch construction set, the Geniac contained six perforated hardboard wheels, into which brass jumpers could be inserted. It had no active elements at all; no relays, tubes, or transistors. All sequencing was performed manually by the operator, sometimes following fairly complicated printed directions (turn this wheel in this direction if this light lights, etc.)
The instruction book gave jumper positions and wiring diagrams for building a number of “computers.” Electric current from a dry cell was routed through the rotary switches to light one or more flashlight bulbs. The kit allowed for the realization of fairly complicated Boolean equations, so the behavior of the “computer” could sometimes be interesting.
A typical project was a “masculinity-feminity tester.” The user was instructed to answer ten questions, such as “Which makes a better toy for a child: a) a doll, b) a Toy Truck.” For each “a” answer, one wheel was turned one position clockwise; for each “b” answer, another wheel was turned one position clockwise. The circuit wiring effectively compared the two wheel positions, and lit up a “more masculine” or “more feminine” bulb depending on which wheel had been turned further.
Widely advertised in science and electronics magazines, the Geniac provided many youths with their first hands-on introduction to computer concepts and Boolean logic.
A similar product, called Brainiac was introduced later; it was essentially a reduced-cost version of the Geniac with provision for only three rotary switches.
The best that I like however is the Denshi Block. Denshi blocks are basically toys that come in blocks. The size and shape of denshi blocks depend on the kit they are from. The blocks of a particular kit will have the same height, usually a few centimetres, and cover a rectangular area a few centimetres on either side. They are designed to fit into a grid of squares, so blocks always occupy some rectangular area of these squares, with the majority of blocks occupying just one square.
Several denshi blocks from the Gakken EX-150. Most blocks contain either a single electronic component, for example a resistor, or just some wiring. Some unusual blocks contain complex circuitry, for example, a sound synthesiser in the Gakken EX-System or a microcomputer in the Gakken FX-System. Usually, a schematic representation of the block’s contents is printed on its top.
On the sides of each block are conductive metal strips, so that when two blocks are placed side-by-side, their metal strips touch allowing electricity to flow between them.
A circuit is built by placing a configuration of denshi blocks in a two dimensional grid. The instructions for building the circuit need only illustrate where to place the blocks in the grid. Because of the two dimensional layout and the labels on the blocks, a configuration of blocks resembles a schematic of the circuit.
These are the toys that kids would find fun and intriguing to play with. As parents, we should let our kids enjoy the process of learning with educational toys.
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