Thanks to ubiquitous advertising, children of the 1990s likely remember the Skip-It. A small plastic ball attached to the ankle, the toy spun around the leg, forcing a skip with the opposite leg while a ticker counted each revolution.
This August, a group of Wentworth students took on the challenge of restoring the toy to its former glory, offering an update suitable for the modern kid: an iPhone app that counts the skips.
Their proposal was one of several class projects displayed in Wentworth’s Casella Gallery in August as part of a final project for the summer course Toys are U.S.: America at Play, offered for the first time this year. Taught by Assistant Professor Ronald R. Bernier, Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Management, the class examined toys and games from a cultural and social-historical perspective. For their final projects, students were given one of four options: invent a new game or toy; modernize an old one; imagine the future of “play” for a posthuman age; or examine marketing strategies employed by the toy companies.
In addition to the Skip-It iPhone app, student projects included a modern upgrade to the Tonka Truck and a Lego– and Erector Set–inspired product called Constructems, complete with a working prototype, advertisements, and a TV commercial.
“The group that updated the good old-fashioned Tonka Truck gave me a glimpse into how they played as kids,” says Bernier. “Fittingly, a lot of engineering students happened to have loved Legos as children.”
