Roominate Kits, Great STEM Investments!

When I was a little girl I often allowed my imagination to run wild. Like many children, I had imaginary friends, played dress up and invited my neighborhood friends over to take part in games of pretend and make-believe. One thing I really loved doing during the days when my creative juices flowed relentless was building. If a friend had Lincoln Logs or Lego’s, I was designing something or other; still to this day design has been a skill I’ve kept with me and passed on to my own daughter. When I was approached with an opportunity to work with Roominate to review their innovative engineering products for girls, I couldn’t have been more pleased with at the chance!

Most girls are discouraged in science by fourth grade. That is why I less than 5 percent of professional scientists around the world, are women. If you ask me, that is pretty pathetic. It is also a reson that groups like Girl Scouts, has created a lot of sly curriculum based off of STEM principles.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math.

If you have been following along with me over the last few years, you know that I expose Miss Sarah to that as often as I can. That is just 1 of the reasons that our local school system cannot keep up with her and she will be taking a course at the University of Wisconsin this fall. But more on that later…

If you are on a mission to improve STEM learning in your family, then this is a kit I can’t help but get behind!

Roominate was first invented by classmates, Bettina Chen and Alice Brooks, who were in school for their masters degree’s in engineering at Stanford. Both women fondly recall a childhood that was spent engineering things out of lego’s, wood, and other building materials and both Alice and Bettina remember being inspired by their childhood toys. Believing that the gap between genders, Alice and Bettina wanted to create a product that would help encourage young girls to embrace the development of skills such as spacial skills, hands-on problem solving skills and confidence with technology. These skills are among those that the two women wanted Roominate to embody.

For my review I was sent the Roominate Studio and the Roominate Chateau.

The Roominate Studio comes complete with 70 pieces that will help encourage your daughter or loved one to engage in creative play. The kit includes:

• 4 wall/floor panels
• 24 furniture building pieces
• 16 connectors
• 1 motor
• 1 switch
• 1 battery pack
• 1 screw driver
• 1 doll 1 pet
• 20 sheets of craft paper
• paper cutouts