Raising Innovators
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Unlock Her Potential: Understanding Spatial Reasoning
Understanding Spatial Reasoning: Spatial reasoning is all about imagining and manipulating objects in space. It's like mental gymnastics for the brain! From packing a suitcase efficiently to building furniture from a diagram, spatial skills are super handy in everyday life. Plus, they can improve problem-solving abilities and set the stage for success in subjects like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). -
Breaking Gender Stereotypes in Toy Choices
Research indicates that boys' toys, often associated with construction sets, building blocks, and vehicles, promote spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and engineering skills. These activities enhance their visual-spatial abilities, critical thinking, and mathematical aptitude. On the other hand, toys marketed towards girls, such as dolls, play kitchen sets, and makeup kits, tend to focus more on nurturing and social role-playing. While these toys have their merits in fostering empathy and communication skills, they may not offer the same cognitive challenges and opportunities for scientific exploration and logical thinking.
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Can Lego, Blocks, and Puzzles Improve your Child’s Math Skills?
The results of the study found that spatial ability greatly influenced their ability to solve math word problems (by about 32%); meaning that there is a direct relationship between those who engage in more constructive play and those who performed better on math word problems. By encouraging construction play at home and in the classroom can greatly lead to improvements in spatial ability as well as increased performance in various school subjects. -
10 Tips to Encourage an Innovation Mindset
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Provide strong role models: Introduce your daughter to female role models who are successful innovators and leaders in various fields. Help her understand that women can excel in any domain and inspire her to pursue her passions fearlessly.
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The Impact of Stereotypes on Children's Career Aspirations
At age 5, both boys and girls associated brilliance with their own gender to a similar extent. However, by ages 6 and 7, girls were significantly less likely than boys to link brilliance to their own gender. This suggests that the stereotype begins to influence children as young as 6, impacting their self-perception and aspirations. -
Girls Need Female STEM Role Models
Research has shown that exposure to female role models in STEM can have a significant impact on girls' attitudes and career aspirations. In fact, a study by Microsoft found that girls who knew a woman in a STEM job were 60% more likely to consider a STEM career themselves
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Girls Just Wanna Innovate
So why is STEM so important for girls? For starters, it opens up a world of opportunities. STEM jobs are some of the fastest-growing and highest-paying in the world, with many exciting and challenging career paths to explore.But even beyond the job market, STEM skills are increasingly important in our everyday lives, from understanding how our smartphones work to solving complex problems in our communities. -
How to improve your child's math skills?
Researchers found that sixth-graders who engage in more constructive play activities (like building with blocks or playing with LEGO) had better spatial ability and improved their mathematical problem-solving skills by a whopping 50%. This is a big deal, because these skills are crucial for success in subjects like math and science, and could even lay the foundation for a career in a STEM field. -
Breaking the Stereotype: Why 'Boys' Toys' Can Help Your Daughter Excel in STEM
Playing with building blocks and puzzles, traditional "boys' toys," can have a big impact on your daughter's future success in STEM fields. These toys have been shown to develop critical skills such as spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and creativity - essential for success in science, technology, engineering, and math. Encouraging your daughter to play with these types of toys can give her a head start in the exciting world of STEM and nurture her inner scientist or engineer. -
Kids & Chess: Why it's important and how to teach them to Play
When introduced at a young age, chess has been proven to have numerous benefits in a child’s life and developing brain. With ties to academic, social and emotional benefits, there is very little reason why chess shouldn’t be introduced to children at all.
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Gender Bias in Mothers’ Expectations About Infant Crawling
In the study, Mothers were asked to estimate their infants’ crawling ability and crawling attempts
- “What is the steepest slope your baby can really crawl down successfully, without any help and without falling or sliding?”
- “What is the steepest slope your baby will attempt to crawl down, regardless of whether he/she will fall or require assistance?”
Mothers estimated that girls could only crawl up a slope of 14 degrees and that boys could crawl up a slope of 19 degrees. However, the study found that there were no significant differences in crawling abilities, crawling attempts, or accuracy of motor decisions between girls and boys. (i.e., girls could crawl up the same slope that boys could).
Overall, mother’s expectations were inaccurate on every measure, overestimating all the abilities of the boys and underestimating all the abilities of the girls.
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“Boys Can Be Anything”: Effect of Barbie Play on Girls’ Career Cognitions
"Playing with either type of Barbie reduced the number of careers that girls saw as possibilities for themselves compared to the number they perceived as possible for boys. This is one of the first experiments to look at the effect of fashion dolls on girls' career cognitions and the results are sobering"
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