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These days my kids are all about making. They love visiting our local maker space where they’re only limited by their imagination. The two hours a week they spend at the open workshops has transformed the way they think and problem solve and it’s always fun to see them bring home their newest creations and then head to the basement to use their skills for projects at home.
Kids are naturals when it comes to the maker movement. They have a natural curiosity, endless imagination, and love the combination of using digital tools, like computers and open source software, along with physical ones, like 3D printers and laser cutters, as part of the creation process. Combine this with the hands-on nature plus the gratification of being able to hold something that you dreamed of and you can see why this movement has taken off.
With endless points of entry to a world of possibilities, there is no one way that kids become a maker. Maybe they’re enthralled with 3D printing, programming lights through a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, soldering, laser cutting, sewing soft circuits. Or maybe they just love candy.
About Cubenizer
For the child (or parent) who dreams of being the next Willy Wonka, Cubenizer is your dream come true! Making its debut on Indiegogo today, this internet-connected game and candy printer lets you develop, refine, and mix all sorts of crazy candy flavors to create your own candy empire.
Invented in Denmark, the Cubenizer brings gaming to real life as kids ages six and older develop, refine, and mix all sorts of flavors to turn them into outrageous candy creations that you can make at home through a part-game, part-lab experience.
Think of the Cubenizer game as a Minecraft-like world where the candy empire kingdom being created is a floating world in the sky. With the goal of making the world succeed, kids are tasked with mastering tasks, becoming known in other worlds, finding, extracting, and developing materials, and learning how to refine them to make candy flavors.
Skills are learned by visiting other worlds and put into practice in your candy factory.
From the digital world, kids enter into the real world using the Candynavia app. Kids use the Candynavia app to refine their candy flavors, and with the help of a parent, order the flavor sticks.
Flavor sticks (plastic cylinders containing flavor gels) are loaded into the Cubenizer’s detonator along with hollow candy cubes.
Using the connection between Cubenizer and Candynavia, the Cubenizer then prints the custom flavor combinations that kids have created in the app by combining the flavor gel with the candy cubes to produce four little cylindrical shapes that are popped out and eaten.
For parents concerned about their child’s ability to endlessly create and binge, the Cubenizer does put creation above consumption, feeding kids’ creativity before feeding their stomach.
One comforting thing that parents of candy-holics should note about the platform is that new candy flavors need to be ordered when kids exhaust their supply. Parents in charge of managing orders, subscriptions, and shipments can slow down candy creation until a new set of flavors arrives and they can binge-create again.
Summary
While I haven’t personally tested the Cubenizer to let my kids loose in creating whatever flavor combinations they can imagine, I love the idea of imagining crazy flavors and then having the satisfaction of consuming your creation. This interactive platform combines the best of digital and physical worlds for today’s young makers, STEM enthusiasts, and candy lovers.
The campaign to bring Cubenizer to market has just launched on Indiegogo and early backers funding this project will receive a Cubenizer Detonator and starter kit containing 20 cubes and 40 flavor sticks for $39. With an estimated shipping date of December 2017, this makes a fun holiday gift with hands-on learning during winter break — likely to make you the popular house in the neighborhood and among your kids’ friends.
I received compensation for this post and all opinions are based on my review of the Cubenizer Indiegogo campaign materials since the product is not yet available for testing.
I didn’t know about this, it’s awesome! I think games can have a really positive on children as it helps them develop fourth dimensional thinking and coordination, and this just takes it to the next level basically.