In Franklin County

Ten-year-old Emily Boyce and 12-year-old Neil Chapman are helping toy companies decide which new products to put on the market. 

They and their Clearview School classmates also give advice on which toys they think are the most fun. They also test for educational value. 

The results of their research is then distributed free through a national magazine, Kid Tips, and on the website, www.toytips.com. Kids and their parents can use this advice in making decisions on which toys and games to buy. 

Clearview School is an elementary school in Franklin County, southwest of St. Louis. It is part of a network of  75 metro St. Louis-area schools that test new toys and games. 

Clearview School kids last fall received the first shipment of toys and games for testing. It included 11 different toys and games from eight different manufacturers. 

The products ranged from a new Crayola coloring kit for kids 3-and-older to a scientific microscope by Mattel/Intel for kids 7-and-older. 

Emily and Neil are in teacher Sharon Seely’s combination 5th-6th class. Their class got four of the toys for testing. 

Emily said she liked University Games’ Wow Science set. She said, “You could take things and do experiments by yourself.” 

Neil said he liked Mattel/Intel’s digital microscope which allowed kids to project the slides onto a computer screen. “I liked it because you can have more people taking part.” With an old-style microscope, only one person at a time could look at a slide.

But, the game that got most votes in Ms. Seely’s class was Blurt!, a card game by Patch. 

In this vocabulary-building game, the dealer gives word clues to other players. The first to “blurt out” the right answer gets to keep the card. A typical question: A small horse with spots. The answer: A pinto pony. The winner is the one who collects the most cards.

Twelve-year-old Dustyn Ferree tested all four of the toys and games in Ms. Seely’s class. His favorite: “Probably Blurt! because it’s so challenging.” 

Another toy tested in that class were Knex’s Ferris Wheel. This toy has multiple pieces that can be put together to build three different models of carnival rides such as the ferris wheel, rotating swing and a two-headed “boom ride.” 

Ms. Seely said, “Not many of the girls liked the Knex Ferris Wheel.”

However, twelve-year-old Alison Marchetto and 12-year-old Laycie Graves were exceptions. Laycie said, “I liked Kenx because it was so complicated.”

The Clearview students have completed their research on the first group of toys and games. Each of the kids completed a questionnaire about each toy he or she tested. Then, teachers also complete a questionnaire on the class choices.

After sending in results, the school waits for the next batch of toys for testing. Schools that return completed questionnaires get more toys about every three months. 

In the meantime, they get to keep the toys for continued use in the classroom. 

Blurt! is used regularly in English. The digital microscope has been used for science classes. Ms. Seely said, “We used it for our study of cells.”

Also, Principal Karen Smith said fourth graders used the microscope for a health lesson. The students used cotton swabs to collect germs from surfaces at the school. They then let the germs grow and multiply in petri dishes. 

“After the cultures had grown, we looked at them under the microscope. That was a good health lesson after the kids saw what the germs looked like up close,” she said. 

But, some of Ms. Seely’s class found other uses for the microscope. You can take the digital camera piece out of the microscope’s holder and point it around at other people. 

During a recent class, close-ups of students’ eyeballs and noses got the biggest reaction when they were projected onto the computer screen.