Hasbro Announces 2nd Annual Toy Design Challenge for Children

Hasbro and Sally Ride recently announced the launch of the second annual TOYchallenge, a toy and game design competition created to motivate and encourage middle-school girls and boys to use their science, engineering and design skills.

TOYchallenge was developed by Sally Ride, founder of Imaginary Lines, Inc. and the Sally Ride Science Club, Domenico Grasso, director of Smith College's Picker Engineering Program, and Hasbro as an outreach activity to engage middle school-age students, especially girls, in science and engineering and to inspire them to pursue careers in those fields.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women comprise only 9 percent of the engineering workforce. However, studies show that, in elementary school, equal numbers of girls and boys are interested in -- and good at -- math, science and technology.

Unfortunately, beginning around the sixth grade, more girls than boys drift away from these subjects. While open to all U.S. students in grades five through eight, TOYchallenge focuses on catching girls' attention in these subjects in an effort to keep them in the engineering "pipeline."

"We exceeded all of our goals last year with the first TOYchallenge and were thrilled to have inspired 243 teams of girls and boys around the country to have fun with science. We were so impressed by the level of creativity, communication, and sophistication that each team exhibited, and are really looking forward to making many more face-to-face connections via the addition of our regional showcase events," said Sally Ride, founder of the Sally Ride Science Club, in a press release.

To enter the challenge, design teams must: find an adult coach and register before January 30, 2004 (registration fee is $25 per team); choose a theme from seven toy categories such as "Build It!," "Get out and Play," and "Remarkable Robots"; and create and submit by February 15, 2004, their Regional Showcase entry, consisting of a visual presentation, written description and early version of their original toy or game concept.

In order to participate in the National Showcase, teams must then construct a working prototype or model of their design.

Regional Showcases will be held in March and April at venues including Smith College in Northampton, Mass., the new Sigma Xi Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and TOYchallenge partner COSI Columbus in Columbus, Ohio. The winners of the contest, which is sponsored by Hasbro and Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, will be announced at a National Showcase to be held at the San Diego Aerospace Museum in July.

TOYchallenge guidelines and registration forms are available at www.TOYchallenge.com.

Both boys and girls may participate, but at least half of the members of each team must be girls. All submissions will be judged on originality, creativity, engineering elegance, feasibility, design process description, team participation and clarity of communication.

Five teams at each regional event will be awarded $250 development grants to go toward presenting their toy or game at the National Showcase. Category and grand prize winners will be announced at the July finals. There will also be special awards for team spirit, originality and engineering design at each event.

Toy makers from Hasbro will answer questions on the contest's Web site to help the kids turn their creativity into reality. They will also serve as judges at the events.