Moorpark students 'toy' around in a national competition

Two teams of Moorpark students were recently selected to advance to the TOYchallenge 2007 Nationals at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, Balboa Park on April 21 and 22.

TOYchallenge is a toy- and game-design competition that gives middle school-age children across the country the chance to develop their engineering and design skills by creating their dream toy.

The students are Ashleigh MacLean, Cameron Eastland and Addy Graves on team Santa's Elves, and Xandrie Martinez, Ellen Veta, Sarah Morningred and Erin Morningred on team The No. 4 Pencils. Their coach is Duane Morningred.

Six of the participants are in the fifth-grade GATE program at Walnut Canyon Elementary School. Erin is a seventh-grader at Chaparral Middle School.

Santa's Elves designed "Rock 'N Roll," a panning-for-minerals outdoor game for elementary school-age children that teaches rock identification.

The No. 4 Pencils designed "Sammy the Singing Penguin," a stuffed animal for teaching toddlers the alphabet and numbers. Sammy comes with a temperature-sensitive "scribble pad" and heat pen so the toddlers can't write on the walls or eat the chalk.

The teams each spent up to $200 to build their prototype for demonstration at Nationals and are looking for local sponsors.

For the competition's preliminary round, the teams, comprised of at least 50 percent girls, submitted written descriptions and visual presentations of their original toy or game concepts based on themed categories, including Games for the Family, Get Out and Play, and Toys that Teach.

The submissions were judged on originality, creativity, feasibility, design process description, team participation and clarity of communication.

At the Nationals, the grand prize winners will be awarded a trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala. Category prize winners will receive a Vex robot.

TOYchallenge is created and run by Sally Ride Science, a company that creates innovative science experiences for girls that engage them and encourage their interests.

For information about the competition or sponsorships, call Morningred at (805) 393-4390 or e-mail jdm2@netzero.net.