Review: Goldieblox – The Dunk Tank

Out of the total number of engineers worldwide, only 14% are women. That is a fact. A fact that doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to me as a woman. Women are, in my opinion, logical, meticulous and frankly, experts at problem solving and getting s**t done – especially when you become a parent! Not saying that men aren’t too, but short of a bit of occasional heavy lifting, we are on an even playing field.

Engineering and technology are two of the fastest growing fields today. Most importantly, engineers are literally building our world. Gender equality will provide the balance and innovation we all need. The female perspective is not only valuable, it’s critical. These are the words of the founder of Goldieblox, Debbie Sterling.

GoldieBlox is a range of toys for girls aged 4 – 7 designed to introduce them to the concepts of engineering. I think this is a wonderful idea. Lead by Sterling, Goldieblox is a company on a mission to simply, “help girls stay interested in engineering and technology past that big drop off at age 8”.

When offered the opportunity to review one of the Goldieblox range, we were keen.  Now we have a 3 year old boy, so he was not a suitable tester for this particular product. Therefore, we turned to the Up All Hours family of testers and 5 year-old Alice was perfect for the job. Alice is a girls girl, into princesses, pink and all things Frozen: an ideal candidate.

We decided to try The Dunk Tank, which introduces the concept of a hinge. The aim is to build the structure, on which the dog balances, you then throw a ball at the hinge, which then drops the suspecting dog into the cup (or iron filler-upper in our case) full of water.

The instructions are clear and concise, very visual and easy to follow, which makes the whole process simple. Alice at 5 was able to understand the stages.

Alice found it slightly tough to fix the bars together, and it did require an adult to push them firmly into place. Children by their very nature can be a tad heavy handed at times, so the structure wasn’t always safe whilst the higher sections were being built, but this is all part and parcel of learning to build.

Parental assistance was required throughout with a couple of the more delicate bits. At times it took both myself and Sally (Alice’s mum) to read the instructions and consult the picture to check we were doing it right.

The finished structure was a masterpiece. Then, of course, the fun bit begins with the throwing of the ball to test the hinge! Poor old Nacho the dog!

Overall, Alice enjoyed the process, didn’t loose interest and was excited about the finished result. We all came to the conclusion that we would recommend the Goldieblox range to friends. It is creative, different and ultimately, an educational toy which is teaching important concepts of engineering. Personally, I love the whole ethos of Goldieblox. The idea of ‘disrupting the pink aisle’ in toy shops is brilliantly radical and I appreciate a movement which fights to make change!

Thanks Goldieblox! Having mastered the hinge we are onto The Parade Float which introduces the concept of a wheel and axle.

The Dunk Tank and other toys from GoldieBlox are available at Amazon UK.

Related posts:

Review: Bank holiday, Morrisons and a health drive Review: Orchard Toys Farm Snap Review – Wedding Invitations. Traditional, vintage, modern…..