On October 1st, TAP held a workshop with 20 AEP employees and OSU engineering students. The group was able to network with each other and adapt 18 toys in the process. Thanks to AEP for their constant support and to all those who participated!

TAP held a workshop with 30 teachers, speech language pathologists, and occupational therapists from the Olentangy Local School District on September 16th as part of their Staff Professional Development Day. Over 25 toys were adapted and added to the district’s toy libraries!

We have not posted in a while so this post will serve as a summary of our activity throughout the summer. On May 13th, TAP held a workshop with new collaborators from AEP, the CHARGE employee group. The TAP interns attended the SciAccess conference on June 29th to learn about incorporating accessibility into the sciences. The Office of Diversity, Outreach, and Inclusion and TAP hosted a day camp at OSU for rising high school juniors and seniors called TAP Into Engineering. One camp was held on June 28th and one on July 11th with a total of about 50 students participating. On July 26th, the College of Engineering hosted its annual Grandparent’s Day event for alumni and their grandchildren. A toy adaptation workshop was one of the activities they could do together. Thanks to all of these organizations for making it a summer full of learning about toy adaptation!

On March 2nd, the TAP team took a trip to the Hilliard Branch to walk through the toy adaptation program with around 12 students between grades 6-9.  The students successfully adapted 5 toys for TAP and the students learned a lot about engineering and Ohio State.  Thanks, Columbus Metropolitan Libraries!

Recently, Hofstra University collaborated with the Society of Women’s Engineering and FIRST Robotics Competition to run its own toy adaptation program.  The group took volunteers from the community and used it as an opportunity to teach practical applications of reverse engineering, and as a community engagement event to get young girls and boys interested in engineering.  The Department of Engineering at Hofstra plans to make this an annual event.

The Toy Adaptation Program traveled to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus to collaborate in the annual Toys for All Tots.  Families were invited to come to a session to adapt up to two toys and were given 3 more toys for the holidays.  Along with these toys, each family who adapted a toy were given a kit to adapt toys at home.  The event allowed for the training of over 20 families and the donation of over 175 toys to families in need.

At the annual Toys for All Tots Event at Nationwide Children’s Hospital on December 2, 2018, TAP was publicised on local television. Family’s of children with disabilities were interviewed about the adaptation process and the effect’s the toys had on their own child. Thank’s ABC6!

Earlier this month, team members from the Toy Adaptation Program traveled to iSpace in Cincinnati to work with girls interested in STEM fields. The team worked with about 40 girls with ages ranging from 10-17  years old and adapted 20 toys for kids with special needs. iSpace will be donating the toys locally. TAP loves working with community partners as well as getting students interested in science and engineering, so this was an exciting workshop!

The OSU Toy Adaptation Program is looking to hire two new interns starting mid-November (or sooner, if possible)! The application along with a position description can be found here. Applications are due by midnight on 10/19/18. We hope you’ll consider joining our team!

This month, TAP is taking on a new adventure! We’re partnering with BuckeyeFunder to raise $10,000 that will help us give the gift of play to children in our community. These funds will be used to support our program for the upcoming school year and will allow us to keep running workshops with families, students, and community partners.

To learn more and donate, please visit our BuckeyeFunder page.

Thank you for your support and Go Bucks!