In late October, CAG began introducing Lower School students to Goldie Blox, an engineering toy built specifically for girls. The toy, which uses a story to teach girls about engineering, capitalizes on research that demonstrates girls’ strengths in written and spoken language. 

Two sets of Goldie Blox were purchased for each second and third grade classroom to encourage girls to "tinker." In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this tool in encouraging tinkering, we designed a survey to assess interest in building, fixing and planning. Girls in second and third grades completed this survey before the Goldie Blox were introduced in their classrooms, and they will take the survey again in the spring in order to see if their level of interest in building, fixing or planning has changed. We are also monitoring which girls play with the Goldie Blox and how often. Some teachers have incorporated the toy into the curriculum, and others offer the toy as an option during free-play.

While the research is still in the early stages, the girls were already demonstrating their tinkering skills during the Goldie Blox demonstration! After completing the survey, girls worked in pairs to try out the first Goldie Blox exercise - helping Goldie to build a spinning machine for her dog, Nacho. During this 12-minute exercise, the girls began to think of new and different ways to make Nacho spin. We are excited to see what they come up with next!