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Toy gift guide carries Purdue name, promotes engineering gains

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – The Engineering Gift Guide from Purdue University is in its fourth year this holiday season.

This year’s guide offers many different play gadgets for children of all ages. The guide continues to inspire children of all ages to get involved with their engineering side. WLFI caught up with the Inspire Research Institute to learn more.

Toys featured in this year’s guide offer more technical features than years past. The list is designed for children of all interests.

The director of the Inspire Research Institute, Monica Cardella said the list helps develop cognitive discipline in all areas.

“So that kids can understand that they don’t have to be super-, superenthused about math to do engineering, but also kids who are creative and good problem solvers can be interested in engineering too,” Cardella said.

As children get their hands on the games from the guide, they can distinguish what toys they like best.

Their interest in the toys can help develop certain engineering-related skills.

“Identify toys and games that can help kids get excited about engineering or engineering-related concepts, and also practice some of the skills and become better problem solvers,” Cardella said.

Assistant Director Elizabeth Gajdzik said that while they compile the list, the Purdue name assists them in getting the word out to the local community and beyond.

“The Purdue brand and name, that really helps us out because we do do research behind our testing, there’s not a lot of other guides that do a thorough research and review process behind the toys,” Gajdzik said.

As the guide reaches the community, Gajdzik and Cardella have the opportunity to give back.

Toys from previous years are distributed for young students to learn from.

“What we do instead is we have a lot of partners around town and so when we’re done with the toys rather than just keep them here, we donate them so that they can be played with by a wide range of kids, and that they get utilized we don’t want to sit on our shelf and get dusty,” Gajdzik said.

While more students and young children from around the community are exposed to the gift guide, many of them can expect changes in the toys.

“In the past couple of years, we’ve seen a lot more in the way of things related to coding and computational thinking,” Cardella said.

Cardella said engineering can be found in many different forms.

“Whether it’s music or animals or sports, all those things can also connect to engineering,” Cardella said.