Research On Toy Design Based On Youth Maker Education

In recent years,the rapid rise of maker culture in the world provides a new opportunity for reform and innovation of youth education,and gradual integration of the Internet in education also presents an excellent platform for this.Maker education as a product of the maker culture begins to emerge and gets popularized in China quickly.Maker education is an education mode characterized by learning in playing and making with the help of information tools,the aim of which is cultivating children’s innovation with mind,creativity with hand and comprehensive qualities,and enabling them to make their own original ideas come true through Internet and DIY with new tools.As young people constitute the main participants of maker education,it’s thus very important for designers,taking the youth’s characteristics into consideration,to come up with products that suit the young and empower them to sharpen their innovation and creation power in the process of "learning in making".When used as the main product carrier of maker education for young people,toys are endowed with new educational meaning.As to the design of toy products for youth maker education,the Internet,3D printing,open source and other key elements featured in this great era all have to be made good use of to change the design methods and modes of traditional toys.This paper,mainly through analysis of the development,characteristics and role of youth maker education,studies how to design suitable toy products for promotion of youth maker education,proposes a systematic guiding theory covering new design principles,key factors,design methods,etc.and finally puts products into practice.Maker education in future needs not only support from schools and the general society,but also diversified maker-education-oriented toy products.