Feed hungry minds and engineer chocolate bar of the future! #ISeeMore
It’s no secret that kids like to ask the question ‘why’, but just how much? New research reveals that curious kids in the UK ask their parents a whopping 22,174 questions during their school years – more than half of which are science or engineering related (53%).
Nearly two thirds of parents believe curiosity is key to intelligence (59%) and a successful career (58%). However, children appear to be asking stretching questions with Mums and Dads unable (or perhaps unwilling) to answer a third of them. Only one in 20 (4%) of parents are able to answer all of their questions
The survey of over 2,000 parents of school aged children was commissioned by the Institution of Engineering and Technology to mark the launch of its #ISeeMore competition with Mondelēz International, home to brands such as Cadbury Dairy Milk and Maynards Bassetts.
It found that the top five questions asked by knowledge-thirsty kids are about:
<li>Science, engineering and how things work (53%)</li>
<li>How things are made (43%)</li>
<li>Nature (40%)</li>
<li>Food and drink (31%)</li>
<li>Politics (29%)</li>
The majority of parents tell their kids to Google (69%) the solutions rather than suggesting more traditional options such as asking grandparents (14%), their partners (24%) or their children’s teachers (15%).
Nearly two thirds (58%) of parents feel proud of their children for asking questions but, when stumped, just over one in 20 (6%) make up an answer and hope it’s right. Almost one in five (18%) tell their child that they’ll enlighten them later and, in the meantime, look it up themselves.
The #ISeeMore competition challenges 8-16 year olds to use their engineering acumen to design a chocolate bar of the future.
The winner will see their design created as a one-off prototype alongside chocolate experts and hear from a real life engineer at the Bournville Factory in Birmingham where some of the nation’s favourite Cadbury’s chocolate bars are produced.
The winner will also receive a trip to Cadbury World and an iPad mini. Ten runners up will win family tickets to Cadbury World. For more information on the competition, the judges, the prize or to enter visit https://www.engineer-a-better-world.org/get-involved/
