Students at NDSU create games for kids to engage them in STEM

Fargo, North Dakota – To encourage younger children to engage in STEM through hands-on learning, college students are creating toys and games.

To showcase their creations in front of their class, NDSU students build toys or games for young children.

One team created a board game that requires players to accomplish challenge card tasks on specific squares.

To keep kids interested, it functions similarly to ladders and chutes.

“First thing that came to mind for me was to have a board game with simple machines as obstacles in the way and Levers seemed to be the best way to incorporate it into a game,” said Thomas Bienek, a student at NDSU.

“Introducing STEM to kids early on will really help us increase our representation within STEM. It keeps kids interested longer. There’s a lot of research that shows kids lose interest relatively early on in life, kind of the end of elementary. So, if we keep them engaged in it and interested in it, they’re more likely to enter into those STEM fields,” said Jessica Vold, an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at NDSU.

She claims Engineering Unleashed is where she received the inspiration.

This group of engineers is dedicated to fostering engineering students’ entrepreneurial attitudes.