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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Überstix--Legos for MacGyver's Kids

Today I learned about an interesting, unique construction toy called Überstix. I initially read about this on the Eco Child's Play blog in a post by Jennifer Lance. Überstix are made to be compatible with other construction toys, such as Legos, Erector sets, etc., and according to the web site are "engineered to work with recycled materials, i.e....straws...paper cups, paper clips, water bottles, etc." This is supposed to be true of all their products, not just the Scavenger series mentioned in Lance's post--that series is meant to be used with reused materials to create specific working models, like the Dragster and the Landshark (I'd love to link directly to the page illustrating those items on the Überstix site, but it's set up in an annoying Flash format and I can't; check them out on Amazon instead). Very nifty idea to encourage kids to use the materials around them to create their own toys. I've never seen an actual set of these and have no personal experience with how well they work, but Lance reports that they have been a hit with her seven-year-old daughter. This sounds like a great idea for a school science fair or class.

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