High School And College Students Participate In Toy Design Competition

High school and college students are competing against each other to design toys.

They are focused on toys kids can use in the classroom.

A piece of paper, paints, and a little bit of creativity is all you need to play with Art in a Box.

Toys were designed and created by students from Vanguard Academy---like Avery Taylor.

"My group decided we wanted to do art, which a lot of us sort of grew up around. When you are in public school, Art class is that class you are so excited to go to during your week. We wanted to do something that sort of brought all of our childhood activities together, which an art kit was one of those," she said.

Avery and the other students brought their prototypes to Leisure Park to test the toys.

It's fun for the elementary students, but for Avery and her other team members, it's a toy design competition against students at the University of Tulsa, where the kids will later vote on their favorite toy.

"You would never expect that in high school that you would be going against a college that does stuff like this on the daily, but I don't know; let the best group win," Avery said.

The competition was made possible not by Avery's teacher but by her peer, Lexie Randall, who connected with TU.

"We are trying to design it for the students, but teachers' input is really needed because the teachers are going to be here for a few more years, while the students, this is going to be the only year they are going to be in the class,” Lexie said. “We want this to be used for the next ten years."

To make sure it's ready for ten years of use, Kaylee Morris says seeing the kids mix colors and use the prompts inside the box will help their team make adjustments to their prototype.

"We know what we need to improve, we know what worked and what didn't work, and we are really excited to make our final design," she said.

The Vanguard and TU students will head back to Leisure Park at the end of April with the final product of their toys.