Jun 6, 2014

Oppenheim & Creative Child Tinker With Four S.T.E.M. Kits From Math Explosion To Food Science Then Award Them Eight Honors

Every year The Young Scientists Club rolls out amazing new science experiment kits that get tykes as young as 3 years intrigued by science, technology, engineering and math — known collectively as S.T.E.M. And every year judges from the toy industry are impressed with the clever kits that have kids doing kitchen table experiments from math explosions to electrical engineering! This summer an impressive eight honors — including two Product of the Year nods– have been awarded by Oppenheim Toy Portfolio and Creative Child magazine to The Young Scientists Club’s four new ensembles.

The Magic School BusTM Math Explosion ($29.99) with its bursting volcano took home double honors — Oppenheim Toy Portfolio’s 2014 Gold Seal and Creative Child’s 2014 Game Of The Year Award in the Educational Science Games category. Fictional science teacher Ms. Frizzle leads the way in The Magic School BusTM Engineering Kit ($39.99) which placed tops as an Oppenheim Gold Seal and Creative Child’s 2014 Kids Product Of The Year Award winner in its Educational Science Products category.

Preschoolers were fascinated by Clifford The Big Red Dog® Food Science Kit ($19.99). Experimenting with items already in the pantry wowed Oppenheim judges with a double prize of 2014 Gold Seal and 2014 SNAP – Special Needs Adaptable Product – Seal. Then Creative Child reviewers gave it two paws up as a 2014 Preferred Choice Award in its Educational Science Products category. Another preschool favorite, Clifford the Big Red Dog® Animal Science Kit ($19.99) earned Creative Child’s 2014 Preferred Choice Award in its Educational Science Products category. Woof!

Winning an Oppenheim seal is rare and having The Young Scientists Club earn four in one season is cause for celebration! The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio was founded in 1989 as the only independent consumer review of children’s media by child development experts Joanne and her daughter Stephanie Oppenheim. Their Oppenheim Toy Portfolio awards have become a benchmark of excellence with consumers, toy makers and the media. They have appeared on OPRAH, CNN, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, MSNBC, Lifetime, and both are contributors to NBC’s TODAY Show.

Winning top honors from Creative Child is especially newsworthy since the judges are the very folks who purchase these products! According to the Creative Child website, the magazine’s awards program is unique in that all products submitted are reviewed by moms, music educators and early education professionals. Look for the winning products in the 2014 holiday issue of Creative Child Magazine.

The eight 2014 awards (and judges comments) given to The Young Scientist Club kits include:

Magic School Bus Math Explosion • Ages 6+ • $29.99

2014 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio’s 2014 Gold Seal

2014 Creative Child 2014 Game Of The Year • Educational Science Games category

“Math Explosion makes math a blast! Basically, this is a flashcard game, except it does not come with premade cards. You get to select the ones that match your child’s individual

needs,” begins the Oppenheim review. “Here’s how it works. Players take turns answering math facts and if they get the right answer they advance on the board… with a chance to add a

spoonful of baking soda to the playing piece cup. The first to reach the volcano gets to pour the baking soda into the volcano. You could say this game is a blast, with kids racing to be the one to set off the explosion, which, by the way collects neatly in a tray provided. Science and math, a fun combo for kids at various grade levels.”

Magic School Bus Engineering Kit • Ages 5+ • $39.99

2014 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal

2014 Creative Child 2014 Kids Product Of The Year • Educational Science Products category

“Our 7 & 9-year old testers had good fun exploring Ms. Frizzles wonderful world of engineering,” reports the Oppenheim review. “Their mom wrote the kit was ‘high on educational value, high on adult participation.’ There are experiments that involve designing a car, constructing a bridge, building a solar oven, a submarine, and an electric game and many other activities. Our testers liked the balloon jet experiment best. An active way to introduce them to the world of chemical, electrical, mechanical and civil engineering. The bus-shaped kit comes with 33 easy-to-understand and follow experiment cards, a notebook for recording experiments, and is chock full of science components: a solar panel, motor, buzzer, electric wires, and lots more. Another good choice for playful and engaging STEM learning.”

Clifford The Big Red Dog Food Science Kit • Ages 3+ • $19.99

2014 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal

2014 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio SNAP Seal

2014 Creative Child Preferred Choice • Educational Science Products

“One of the award-winning Young Scientist Club kits designed for preschoolers. These are age appropriate experiments for parent & child projects,” starts the Oppenheim report. “An interesting way to introduce preschoolers to some fundamental science experiences. The kit contains a paper booklet with recipes for each experiment and some minimal plastic pieces: a funnel, tray, test tubes, two so-called cups, a lab tray, pipette, spoon, clothespin, special papers, and sticks for rock candy making.” The reviewer concludes, “the ideas here are going to be appealing to kids and promote the world of STEM right from the start.”



Clifford the Big Red Dog Animal Science Kit • Ages 3+ • $19.99

2014 Creative Child Preferred Choice • Educational Science Products

Emily Elizabeth, the narrator in the colorful 20-page manual, guides youngsters through versatile experiments with catchy titles such as animal habitats, edible play dough, animal track cast, animal scavenger hunt and camouflaged animals. Young Scientists will feel like real scientists when they use the included colorful lab tray, measuring cup and magnifying glass to perform their experiments on animal science. The kit comes with reusable habitat stickers, scavenger hunt chart with stickers, a bug house, 12 miniature animals and much more.

Visit the award-winning The Young Scientists Club at www.theyoungscientistsclub.com for more information.

ABOUT CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG

For 52 years, Clifford the Big Red Dog has been entertaining children, parents and teachers with his BIG adventures. In his beloved dog, Norman Bridwell created a literary classic embraced by generations around the world. Since the first Clifford® book was published in 1963, the property has grown to include 126 million books in print and an Emmy® Award-winning television series –currently in its twelfth consecutive season on PBS KIDS; the show has been sold to 30 countries in 12 languages worldwide. For more info about Clifford, visit www.scholastic.com/clifford.

ABOUT THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS

Based on the best-selling Scholastic book series The Magic School Bus is an award-winning animated TV series sold to more than 30 countries in 15 languages. With 58 million books in print, the brand has won many industry awards, including two Emmys for Lily Tomlin’s portrayal of Ms. Frizzle in the TV series, five CINE Golden Eagles, a Parents Choice Gold Medal, a National Conservation Achievement Award, an Environmental Media Association Award, and an Annenberg Public Policy Center Award. In celebration of its 25th Anniversary, Scholastic debuted two new iPad apps and a new game for Nintendo DS. For more info about The Magic School Bus, visit www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus.

ABOUT SCHOLASTIC

Scholastic Corporation is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and a leader in educational technology and children’s media. Since 1920, Scholastic has been creating quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home. Today they include children’s books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys. Scholastic distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs and school-based book fairs, retail stores, schools, libraries, television networks and www.scholastic.com.

ABOUT THE YOUNG SCIENTISTS CLUB

Esther Novis, a mother of five and a former Harvard-trained biologist, started The Young Scientists Club as a summer science camp for her then 5-year-old son. Friends from other parts of the country told Novis they wanted to duplicate her concept and the idea for a science subscription service was born! The subscription kits are now mailed monthly to thousands of children around the world and the company’s retail kits are sold in hundreds of specialty stores. In addition to developing new products for The Young Scientists Club, this wise mom has many years of experience teaching at Phillips Academy, Andover and has written the science column for Parents Magazine plus wrote science experiments for the new science curriculum by McGraw-Hill Publishing.