Roominate, designed by female engineers to help young girls get the engineering bug.

…is the opening statement on the Roominate Toy website. Not only is this original building kit designed for girls, the company was founded by two young women who both are engineers. Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen met and became friends in the master’s engineering program at Stanford. As two of the few women in the program, they compared stories on why they had pursued engineering. They were both inspired by their childhood toys. They also say in the US, less than 15% of women enter college intending to major in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) field. Alice and Bettina believe the gender gap starts young. Many girls’ toys lag behind in the development of spatial skills, hands-on problem solving skills, and confidence with technology. These are exactly the skills that Roominate aims to develop. (On the positive side, I bet that’s a way better ratio of women engineers than when I was a kid!) These two engineers also say that “Roominate empowers creative girl builders by letting them design, program and control their world. Every girl is an artist, engineer, architect and visionary!” And this isn’t idle talk. Alice and Bettina have had great success on Kickstarter, on Shark Tank and in the market place. Kits are available at most of the big box stores, and new higher tech Roominate kits are due in the fall, as you'll learn in the video. Prices range from about $20 to almost $100.00

Giz Wiz Video:  www.roominatetohttps://youtu.be/_zQm3efIvgMy.com 

See or hear this show: www.gizwiz.tv/episode/1517