"Designing an effective educational toy" is a research project that emerged from a teaching and learning course designed to facilitate creative engagement both inside and outside the classroom at Wenzhou-Kean University in China. This research study examines the incorporation of design thinking concepts in the development of an…

Effective teamwork is a crucial transferrable skill for students' learning experience during their studies and future careers. Understanding the making of effective teams, how teams differ from mere groups of individuals, and the potential value and challenges of diversity for team performance is essential for students as current and future team…

A Slinky is a loose helical coil spring and is a well-known educational toy. In this paper a model for a Slinky is presented. The Slinky is represented as a sequence of rigid half coils connected by torsional springs. A range of Slinky configurations in static equilibrium are calculated. Where possible the torsion spring model is compared with the…

The early 20th century marked a number of transformational experimental and theoretical discoveries in physics. Among them is one that is often neglected in the introductory physics curriculum, which revolutionized our understanding of the molecular world. Evidence for the thermal motions of atoms was first observed by Perrin in 1909, which had…

Manual exploratory behaviors during object interaction that form the basis of tool use behavior, are mostly qualitatively characterized in terms of their frequency and duration of occurrence. To fully understand their functional and clinical significance, quantitative movement characterization is needed alongside their qualitative analysis.…

The importance of play is well established in early childhood development; however the importance of play appears to diminish in more advanced levels of education. Despite this, the demand for experiential, engaging learning experiences that seek to differentiate graduate-level programs in a fiercely competitive market continues to increase. This…

A Lego Serious Play (LSP) - based exercise was developed to support student engagement with learning consolidation at the end of a first-year undergraduate cell biology course. The exercise was offered in addition to a regular revision session in preparation for the summative exam. Students were studying four-year BSc (Hons) degrees in: Animal…

Purpose: This study explores one-to-one LEGO® Serious Play® in positive psychology coaching (1-1 LSP in PPC) as an intervention to help emerging adults (EAs) in higher education develop a growth mindset. Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative single-participant case study of an EA undergraduate student's experience with 1-1 LSP in PPC…

Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degrees (EMJMD) offer a unique opportunity to jointly design and deliver an integrated curriculum of excellence in an international context. This study analyses the case of a Master's Degree specialised in Education: PETaL "Play, Education, Toys and Languages". This is the first EMJMD obtained by the…

This article describes an assignment used in an undergraduate Advanced Exercise Physiology course for seniors. Students' backgrounds in chemistry varied from adequate to almost nonexistent. This presented several challenges for teaching and students' understanding of aerobic oxidation of a glucose molecule. This article presents an assignment for…

The purpose of this study was to examine the involvement of early childhood pre-service students (PSSs) in children's constructive play and highlight how this involvement supported children's play skills towards advanced play behaviours as seen by previous literature. Drawing from the conceptual framework of the Zone of Proximal Development, as…

Methods for teaching higher education students how to learn teamwork skills are constantly evolving. Over the last few years, serious games have become popular in business schools for stimulating teamwork among students by making them focus on the game while pursuing a team objective. Among these games, LEGO® Serious Play has shown enormous…

Interlocking toy building blocks (e.g., Lego) as chemistry teaching modules are presented. Interlocking building blocks were assembled on a baseplate to depict chemistry concepts of Lewis structures, chemical bonding, conjugate acid-base pairs, types of chemical reactions, irregularity in ionization energy trends, and the decay of a radioactive…

This paper investigates the impact of the LEGO® Serious Play simulation technique on accounting students' learning outcomes. Data is from a stratified random sample of undergraduate accounting students at a leading higher education institution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) emerging market. This paper uses parametric statistical analysis…

This program focused on exploring science and mathematics content and pedagogy for elementary and middle grades, pre-service teachers, including those students preparing to teach in regular and exceptional education classrooms. A total of 31 individuals participated in one or more workshops. The activities contained within the Lego BricQ Motion…