Keeping Teens Interested in STEM

There’s a reason we say our Brackitz toys are for ages 3-103 and it’s because age shouldn’t be an obstacle when it comes to creativity. We often associate construction play with children, but there’s no reason Brackitz toys can’t grow with your children to provide lifelong learning. In fact, many scientists argue keeping teens interested in STEM fields is important if we hope to have a society of scientists and engineers.

A recent study in Parenting Science claims first graders who engage in STEM activities like construction building on a daily basis have significantly higher mathematic abilities, spatial reasoning, and motor control than those who don’t. The author claims teens and adolescents also benefit from construction building. Children ages 8-14 who actively participate in block play and building exercises are shown to have superior performance in mathematics, science, and spatial skills.

Bill Nye the Science Guy is just one public advocate of how important STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) are for young children, but also preteens and teens. Bill Nye states that STEM exercises need to be included “every day in every grade. It’s as important a topic as reading and writing and arithmetic. If you want innovation, if you want to have the engineers of tomorrow, you have to have science.” Bill Nye also advocated for gender-quality in STEM fields, claiming “Half the humans are girls and women, so we want half the engineers and scientists to be girls and women.”

This image of Bill Nye in his 9th-grade science class reminds us of how young he was when his passion for science was sparked. To keep teenagers interested in STEM fields, Bill Nye suggests we implement these three things:

• Science every day in every grade.
• Hands-on science, with hands-on activities every week. That might include growing plants, observing fish, marking the motion of the sun on a sundial.
• Algebra for all. Algebra is the single most reliable indicator of whether or not a person will pursue a career in math and science. It’s not obvious or currently provable that it is cause and effect, but it is the most reliable indicator. It is reasoned that being able to think abstractly about numbers enables you to think abstractly about all sorts of things. And so what we want to do is start algebra earlier at lower stakes so that students are not under as much pressure.

Moreover, everyday experiences have taught us that humans are curious. Most people just need fuel for that curiosity. Our Brackitz construction toys are one way to fuel that desire. It’s no wonder children who love our Brackitz toys have to take turns when their parents or older brothers and sisters want to play with them too. We are all curious humans, we want to build and experiment because it’s fun!

About Brackitz: Brackitz is the only construction and building toy that actually lets kids design any structure they envision –anything! Our one-of-a-kind Brackitz enable connections at any angle, allowing kids to use real-life architectural and engineering principles to create large-scale, gravity-defying, 3-D structures –with no limitations!