Qubits® - An Educational Experience

On occasions, Mark and Lisa Burginger of Bend, start their day, playing with toys. Yes, instead of normally sitting at their desks, toiling 9 to 5, today they are going to an elementary school with toys in their arms.  Not just any toy, but a construction toy that Mark has invented.

As they approach the classroom, the student's faces immediately light up.  Today Mark is entering the room with an oversized Qubits® structure that resembles a triangulated bridge.  You can see the excitement in the children's eyes.

The teacher introduces Mark and Lisa to the class. Mark explains to the class, playing with educational construction toys like Lincoln Logs influenced him to become an architect.  He tells the class his dream is to someday design a log cabin in Central Oregon.

He then dims the lights to present a custom power point presentation for about fifteen minutes. The presentation teaches the children about the history of inventors, architects and construction toys. Even the teacher is amazed at some of the information.  Mark then touches upon nano-technology, structures, architecture, and engineering, and how Qubits relates to all of these.

After the presentation questions and answers dominate the next 10 minutes, then the fun begins as the Burginger's hand out piles of Qubits® to the kids. They cluster into groups of 3 or 4 as they form team building clusters to brainstorm together. This type of classroom activity fosters creative and innovative problem-solving skills and motivation.

The Burgingers do classes like these a few times a month in Central Oregon.  The classes they visit range from Elementary school to High school.  


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Fun Quote:
"Qubits is an excellent construction toy which will develop not only hands-on expertise in small children but also a keen awareness of shapes, patterns as well as engineering structures.  These are essential abilities that children must learn if they are to have an intimate awareness of the devices that abound in this highly technical age"
harry
Sir Harold (Harry) Kroto - 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry - Discovery of Buckyball C60 molecule