- [Narrator] "Make48" is funded by: - [Ad voiceover] Stanley Black & Decker provides tools and services around the globe to help turn great ideas into reality and to help us shape the world we live in.

We proudly support programming that inspires invention, innovation and hard work.

Together with "Make48," we're providing men and women the tools and resources to build a better world.

StanleyBlack&Decker: For those who make the world.

- [Narrator] Previously on "Make48."

- Sandpaper, add that to the list.

- Sandpaper.

- I love seeing like assortment of different things as they come together.

- [Narrator] The team's headed to a local hardware store to pick up supplies for their prototypes.

- [Leader] All right "Make48" teams your time is up, what you've got is what you've got.

Let's head back to the buses.

- [Narrator] Then the building continued.

Coming up, the teams present to a focus group of children and parents.

(soft music) This is "Make48", everyone's got a big idea.

- [Tom] With the focus group we had several kids and some mums to, um, give their opinion.

- A lot of the focus group in the toy industry is based around a user interface, like can a kid actually do this?

Can they read these rules?

Can they think about the gameplay in this way?

- [Tom] You know, who's gonna buy this product in the the day?

Is it the child that sees it on a TV screen to say, "Hey, I want that?"

Or is it mum and dad who has to actually pay the money?

So (laughs) you've got the perfect audience here that's gonna give hopefully, their honest opinion.

You do not want a false sense of security or someone saying, "Yeah, that's great, keep going, but I would never buy it, but I don't wanna say to your face."

So we try to make sure the focus groups are honest.

Um, it is really hard to pivot completely at this point of the game, but if three or four kids are telling you they're not gonna buy it, then I may consider starting from scratch.

- Have you ever heard about the Bridge Challenge in universities?

In the college for engineering, you normally have a challenge where you have a bridge, build a bridge with popsicle sticks and it has to withhold the maximum load possible.

So in the beginning of the challenge you set the timer, you pull a card with a challenge for example, oh, build a bridge that cannot go over this plane.

So you have to build from underground or only on top, or only with a certain amount of sticks, things like that.

You pull them and then you start a timer and you start playing.

But the objective of the game is to get the car to this side.

- So how small are the magnetic pieces gonna be?

- So the magnetic pieces, they're gonna be inside of this and will be locked there.

So they will not be able to swallow that.

- Anything they can they stick it up their nose?

(all laughing) - Well, yes.

- Yeah.

- [Child] No, not yet.

- As of now, yes.

Good point, we did not think about that.

- There was pretty much one question that we didn't know the answer at that time.

They were concerned about kids inhaling parts of the toy, we had to think a little bit more about the age cap for the toy and we decided, so far, for eight plus as the age.

So eight plus they should not inhale any part or, or swallow any part.

- What made you guys think of this game for kids and stuff like that?

- So as he mentioned, we kind of thought about the engineering project that we have and also there's one game on the phone that you need to build bridges for the train to go through and then most of the time it's gonna fail.

So you need to do a specific design to build that bridge.

So we kind of connect both of them to kind of create this game and also the cards game as well.

- The reaction in the focus group was really good.

Uh, we brought the first iteration of our design, so it's not the final design by any means, but we could portray what we are trying to achieve in this challenge, and all the kids had great feedback from what they saw and they all said that they would play so it's tough.

It's the first time that we do this focus group with kids so it's a little bit different to engage the feedback, but I would say that was very positive.

- Imagine if we could take this, right?

We take this right here instead of being a flat thing that you're playing with like that, we'll have a base, we'll lay that down and we'll have these cubes.

and you go ahead and put one down like this and then that would be your base, right?

- [Child] Uh-huh.

- Stack these up on top and instead of making beats that go this way in a flat linear way, we're gonna stack our beats up so you can play with them and you can play with every one of these and you can see the value of them and get the music value out of an upward structure, rather than a flat linear pattern.

So when you get done making your music, you can sit there and say, "Wow, that's what my music looks like."

I was very surprised to see that the kids were very interested in our product.

The three of them all agreed they would absolutely play with what we presented.

- So if you're making a beat can you, like, and if you play that beat can you save that beat into, like, a player zone like "Segway"?

- Um, you know, we haven't actually thought about that, but that's a great idea and I don't see why we couldn't because our microprocessors should be able to.

I guess we would have to research on how much space there would be.

So there might be a limit for how much, if it's all data, how much data you can save before you have to wipe that clean or maybe export those beats to something else and then have that clean again.

- Have an SD card slot outside of game to download.

- There you go.

- How many do you envision having for the starter pack or whatever?

- We're thinking 12, we're thinking 12 blocks.

It's a nice round number there's also- - Up to 20.

- 12 to 20 and we also think that the starter kit would be strictly beats.

- And we've even had the conversations about, I mean, we haven't came to consensus about it, but like, you know, we're stacking blocks.

There's some way we could incorporate a game to that.

Like this structure goes like this to try to build it, or, you know, something flashes and try to take it off or, you know, blocks you could play with.

- It'd be really cool.

And I don't know if you guys can do this, but timing, so timing the young people to make music, and then if you don't hit the timer in a certain way that the structure shakes in your stack falls down.

- Oh, there you go.

- Oh yeah.

- That's a good idea.

- We couldn't figure out how to gamify it.

And it was like right off the bat, they were like, "Oh, well, what if you have to recreate this song for your, you know."

and you have to do it in a, in a set amount of time against your buddy.

You, you can't make it a certain amount of time and the thing falls over or something.

So they had a lot of other good ideas like that that were absolutely, absolutely going to incorporate.

- So with this challenge, we focused on the kids in hospital is our focus.

We used other places, but that's our main focus.

We did a lot of research in understanding that light and a feeling of control in art really helps PE kids who are in the hospital, help them feel in control.

And it actually has been proven to help them feel less pain, less anxious, and less depressed while they're in the hospital.

And light has the same effect, which is why we have this light board.

So our main idea is that we'll have some kind of a transition for like this, where you can take it outta the stand and you guys can play with it and you can use these shapes to learn about how, you know, shapes and patterns and colors, overlay.

You can create art.

- One of the boys at the focus group, he grabbed it didn't seem super interested, but we gave him shapes and the board, no explanation, no instructions, and I bet in three minutes he had a a robotic man that he had built out of these shapes.

And so he, he shared how cool that was.

- Just a little bit more pieces in, I'll probably use this because usually, um, when I'm like 20 minutes until bed or something, I can't be on technology sometimes.

(chuckles) Sometimes, and she says, "Go do something that's not on technology and quiet."

And this would be like the perfect thing to do.

- So what he shared was "Mom says, I can't use technology at the end of the night, my last 20 minutes.

And so this would be perfect, 'cause this isn't technology, I can do this at night before I go to bed."

So, - Kind of create a, you know, create a new landscape and use as a nightlight.

- Another extension we've been talking about is things like license Pixar packs, where you get colors and shapes from movies like the colors from "The Incredibles" or colors from "Monsters" and allows you to start to play with, in addition to color, with form and shape and how you can put those colors together.

It went better than we thought.

- Yeah.

- I think.

- I think it means a little more after meeting with them.

- Hi everyone.

So we're the Stainless Steel Badgers Um, this is toy that we created for you guys today.

We call it the Trib-bee-che.

So, although it looks like a catapult, it's actually a superior siege weapon known as the Trebuchet with a Bee theme to it.

So it's part of a collection of toys within this one box that you can build yourself.

So the idea is that not only can you build this Treb-bee-che, there's also a ballista or what we call a Bee-lista.

It's kind of like a crossbow; it shoots, uh, these flower darts as well as a Stingshot.

So that's a Slingshot.

So the idea is that when you get the box, you've got all these parts need instructions and how to put it together.

The great thing about this toy is that you can, you can change it.

So a lot of this is sort of trial and error and like, how do you learn how to make the target from the settings that you have?

You can adjust the, the release, the height and the length of the string and other things.

Would you guys see playing with this more on your own or with like, with a friend and have a competition?

- Definitely like with a friend or like family, I think like that would be like a good audience, I guess.

Cause you know, you could go against each other, got the most points and stuff like that, so.

- Okay.

- [Child] Um, I would play it with a friend because I would like it to be a competition, because if I were doing, like, if I were to do it for points, I would wanna do a competition with like my friends or my family.

- For building this toy.

What's more important to you the active building the toy or using the toy with your friends or by yourself?

- I think it'll be like using the toy, 'cause like when you use the toy, it's like, you know, the whole game.

So I think it'll be like funner using it than building it, in my opinion.

- Definitely learned a lot in the focus group.

Got some good feedback, got some bad feedback, things to update.

- One thing we're trying to make it easier for kids to actually adjust our toy, to use it, I guess trying to make it more, yeah, I guess kid-friendly.

(soft music) - You always have to figure out how to, you know, extend the play and you do have to, you do have to think like a kid, like when kids play cops and robbers, like once they catch the robber, they don't stop playing.

And the game isn't over, kids are always trying to figure out how to extend the fun.

And if you can figure out how to help them extend the fun, you've got something.

You have to throw out most reason and remember kids have imaginations.

And I think a lot of adults, when they think about a toy, they, for some reason, they take out the imagination part and they're just like "It's rules and we have to follow this dynamic."

and it's not true.

They're like "Kids will make a stick into a toy in a heartbeat.

- Welcome to "Don't wet your pants."

A head to head water splash challenge.

In this game, one player or team is on one side.

The other player team is on the other side.

And your goal is to wet the pants of your opponent.

Each turn you pick up one of these and you turn the valve to have the water flow from the middle.

The focus group affirmed a decision we made earlier today.

Originally it was going to be a four-player game.

Our mentors recommended that it be a two-player game, just so it's more accessible for a smaller group of people.

And what the focus group uncovered is that there's a large value to the collaboration, the strategizing around what your group's move is going to be, but then you also have to be ready to act quick in case that water comes towards you.

- Yeah, they weren't sure what to think at first, but you could tell within three or four moves, they started developing strategy and understanding like how the water was gonna flow and it was, it was fun watching them figure it out as quickly as they did.

- Go for the wind tube?

- Yep.

- Yep.

- Wow.

- We just wet your pants.

- Oh boy.

(chuckles) - We walked right into that one.

- And the final version as it fills up your cup, it would weight they would weight the cup to, (overlapping conversations) - Go and turn it off too.

You can move real quick and stop it because as long as your cup hasn't overflown, we can keep playing.

- Woo.

- We think that this really connects to the "T" area of STEM with the logical reasoning, the bullion, binary, but we'd love your feedback, thoughts, questions, and answers.

- Is this gonna be like what it looks like?

Or would it be like a smaller version?

- Be smaller.

- Okay.

- This is just what we could buy at the hardware store.

- Good question.

- And, uh, what age group would it be?

- We're thinking from the five to 10, although what's interesting is we had a blast playing it outside, we've play tested with other adults.

So we think there may be a secondary market actually with adults as a backyard outdoor game sort thing.

- [Parent] I'm 49 and I like it, so.

(chuckles) - How much would this be?

- Fantastic question.

How much would you pay?

- Probably 50 to 60 bucks.

- Cool.

- Okay and that's what we'll sell it for.

- We were thinking 29.

- Oh wow, that's good.

(overlapping conversations) - Thank you all for taking time to share with us all on today.

We're gonna turn over to the youngest members of our team to present The Plastic Panda.

- So what we're building is, so we were given a challenge to make a STEAM toy that had to do with either age range, five to 15 or sick kids in the hospital.

We chose sick kids in the hospital because originally when we built our team, it was for the Indie competition, which was all about health at home.

And that's what we are truly passionate about helping others.

And so that's how we came up with this, I mean, this is obviously not full of what we're done with, but this is an example of it, and it's uh, we're gonna put a phone or a camera, a computer in here that can give you messages from your loved ones, as well as play educational STEAM-related games that will have something to do with whatever's happened to you right?

You broke a bone and it'll explain how an x-ray works, how stuff like that works, while playing fun, intuitive games.

And then we have, and it will have sensors on the arms that will tell you your temperature, blood pressure and oxygen levels as well as your heart rate.

And that will be able to give, send right to the doctors so you can make those things a lot less intrusive into your own personal time.

And you can also, you know, feel a lot more comfort and relaxed with the plastic panda instead of getting your temperature from the, nurse.

- Um, so like the machine that's gonna be inside the bear, like how heavy would it be if it's supposed to be like a comfort toy?

Like would if like, would you be able to feel it, would you not?

- You would be able to feel it, if you squeezed as hard as you could obviously like trying to destroy the panda, but you would not be able to really tell anything.

Computers these days are getting so small and so much smaller and more, so much more compact that it would not add any meaningful weight, especially with all the stuffing that's gonna be in it.

So you wouldn't be able to feel the computer unless you tried to feel the computer and you wouldn't really notice the weight difference unless you literally took the two different pandas and weighed them.

- So it would, like, how would the kind of like phone or like, you know, the devices gonna be in the bear?

How would it like work with the wifi and stuff?

Like, is it really just gonna be like a computer in the bear?

- Yeah, like a really small computer chip in the bear, something quite similar to like an apple watch, like of that size, the computer running it does not need to be large at all.

- Um, would the person that has the bear be able to send videos back to the loved one?

- Yeah.

We don't just wanna give you a phone in a bear.

I mean, cause you can buy that for, but this can be fit kind of it's simple, very minimal features, but also exactly what you need, um, so that you're not just giving a child a phone, but it's like, this is exactly what can be beneficial for you right now while you're in the hospital.

We don't just wanna make another phone case, you know?

Yeah.

So.

(laughs) - And, and as a parent, the security function is that the parent would have to let the teacher know; the parent would have to let the classroom or the cousins or the aunties and uncles and they would give them information so that they could download videos.

So.

- There will be some sort of website that you have to log into or use a port to get a password, to make this secure so that no one can try to get information from a kid in a hospital.

It will definitely have to some sort of encryption or something to make it secure.

(transition music) - The idea is you're in a cast for whatever reason or, um, you know, there's a lot of kids who end up in the hospital for long periods of time because they have delicate bones or, you know, some kind of medical condition that has them in the hospital a lot, potentially with the cast.

And so our idea is to kind of make the cast a little bit more customizable and fun.

And so we'll have something that's over your cast that you could cinch on easily.

And then you can add on little personalizations, um, fun things like a little circuit with lights, or even maybe Velcro on some like claws, if you wanna be like Wolverine or Ironman or something fun like that.

And you know, you could play like a little board game with your friends.

So like your friends will wanna like come and like check out your cast.

So it's all supposed to be customizable.

Everything will be Velcro.

- Well, I think Alex and I noticed that we weren't as tight with our presentation, our pitch, but we got, so that was good for us to learn early on that we have to kind of tighten up our presentation and we got really, really good feedback.

- How like simple or complex, would this be?

- so it should be easy to put on and off with one hand 'cause it's like cinch and then Velcro and then everything else are just modular pieces that you could buy as sets.

And then you can just kind of like; it's all Velcro.

- Is there gameplay associated with this?

- So, it sounds like were interested, like the younger one was like interested in the customization - Like wanting to be like Ironman or like Wolverine and things like that.

- Well, that's cool.

Yeah.

You can add in kinda license storytelling.

And what about like personalization in terms of like drawing or anything like that?

- So a little one thing would be like a little whiteboard and if kids love little whiteboards, so you could draw and hand it to your friend.

- We could probably do like a flimsy white, like there's, there's like a little flexible whiteboard material that could be a little bit more curves.

So it can almost be like (indistinct) and Velcroed - Oh that's a good idea.

- Right.

So it's not, it's a lot less rigid.

- Yeah, and then you could take off that whole piece.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Hey lady, how's it going?

- Hi.

I feel like I got a plan.

I got some vibes.

I got some thoughts, okay.

So I need the, the cast basically.

So I can drain.

- We're we'll work all than that, but it's this is kind of hypothetically the arm.

- Yes.

The thickness.

So, the cast will be thicker than this.

- Would that work for what you need?

- So am I making for something you're saying I'm making for something thicker than this?

- Yeah.

Okay.

- Cause, - Or, or we could just do this.

- It would just be that.

Yeah.

- Yeah, we could just be this - 'cause it's gonna be covered.

- It could just be that at 21 hours.

Yeah, it could just be that, yeah.

(laughing) Let's do that.

Yeah.

I'm gonna need at least six to pattern dress and sew and and make sure y'all got it completed, okay?

- Okay.

So, we'll see if we need to cut this a little down and like tape it together and like make it arms, okay?

- Yep.

'Cause basically, like I said, I just wanna make sure at that the crook of the arm, we wanna make sure we got enough fabric and then I wanna make sure I manipulate that Neoprene in the right way.

So that way it's flexible, but also one-handable to be, (overlapping conversations) Okay, come on y'all - We're getting ready for the focus group.

So we're preparing, trying to prepare what we can show them right now versus what we're going to have to keep working through.

- Good afternoon.

Our product' called Space Ed And it's uh, basically and educational space game with rockets.

One of the thoughts is, is first off, is the kit's gonna have it's come in a kit, and basically you're gonna be able to change the, the weight of the tip.

Um, It'll demonstrate the, how there's a plug inside the, the tube.

There's actually different size weights that you can use to weight that tip of rocket.

And then also we're gonna be, in the kit, there's also gonna be different types of fins that you can actually have a template and actually creates your own wing design, basically.

- Then you'll be able to wrap it up, put it out the the rocket itself.

And each time you change the way to the tip, it changes the trajectory.

And, and then also, yeah, so also the main goal of this is to learn different trajectories and velocities and how it, how it arcs or how a, basically a rocket launches and where, where lands.

- I don't think we got a lot of a reaction outta the kids, but we were the last to go.

So maybe they're maybe they're burned out.

I don't know.

Maybe, maybe we're at the end of their attention span.

- How do you do this?

- So there'll be a marker.

And actually we'll start we out the formula and we'll be able to actually keep a justice so time you take your range and also we're gonna have like a string or tape measure.

You can figure out your range, you build an angle from the side and then the weight left to calculate the weights and the tips.

So then, and then the PSI, there's gonna be a gauge on the side of the, so it tells you how, how much pressure you're putting down on the bag and then it'll figure out, then can show your trajectory, - And then do you win based on what you write down?

- Well, it's kind of helped you calculate, okay, who's gonna hit in that shot.

- Gotcha.

- Like, what's your like audience for this, for this toy?

Like would it be like in classrooms, like family games?

- So more like a family game.

So you could play against, you know, two brothers or two brother and sister they could play against; what would you guys change differently?

What would you, - [Parent] Um... - What do you like?

What don't you like?

- I think like I'll make maybe like a point system of some sort.

Cause I feel like writing down the stuff is like, cool.

But I feel like that's more for like school.

(group agreeing) Yeah.

Like class type games and stuff.

- They were more concerned about scoring and here we, you know, this is that STEM thing.

So it's more educational.

They're more like competitive, you know?

So, we're gonna add like a score-keeping card.

So after they're done learning, they can have fun.

- I'm starting to notice teams reflecting on their past experience and being able to use that from maybe not saying mistakes, but just how can I do this better?

- We're watching people birth things, right?

So it's, it's exciting to see that the seed of the idea and that everyone get together and really bounce ideas off of each other.

- And the fun thing about obviously toys and games, it's like very playful.

- So the next couple of hours, probably the most exciting part of the competition, because right now everyone's completely focused on their prototype 'cause right now everyone's pretty tired.

And but now is when they really have to get creative.

- [Narrator] On the next episode of make 48, the Tool Techs pick up the pace as the clock continues to tick.

- Yeah.

These are, these are looking awesome.

- Yeah.

So these are all gonna be little tiny cubes.

Thank goodness I didn't cut my nails before we did this, guys.

- [Narrator] And the teams begin to shift their focus to their presentation and videos.

- If you guys could be sensitized to the fact that somebody might miss something, so mouse starts and you know, - Yeah.

- The first thing is - [Narrator] Make48 is funded by: - [Voice Over] StanleyBlack&Decker provides tools and services around the globe to help turn great ideas into reality and to help us shape the world we live in.

We proudly support programming that inspires invention, innovation, and hard work.

Together with Make48.

We're providing men and women the tools and resources to build a better world.

StanleyBlack&Decker: For Those Who Make The World.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] To learn more about the invention process and to get to know the teams, visit make48.com (upbeat music) (gentle instrumental music fades) (soft instrumental music) (soft instrumental music) (soft instrumental music)