The pupil, Sarah Coppings, emerged victorious with her product, the Play Buddy. Coppings explained her inspiration for the design of the educational tool.
“From very young I’ve been passionate about inventing and creating new and exciting things that have not been done before,” she said.
She added she had entered the competition three times, making it to the finals the second time around with a MultiDesker design. Her third entry, the Play Buddy, was designed to make learning easier for young children.
“Play Buddy is designed to solve problems in playschools [as] children this age need a variety of different activities in their day-to-day play to teach them different skills,” she said.
Coppings further explained that Play Buddy was designed for children between the ages of 2 and 4, as she noted that children this young should be taking part in activities such as painting and playing with clay, which the product offers.
Additionally, Play Buddy was designed to complement young children’s playing habits, privileged or not. Coppings is a matric pupil at the school and hopes to study towards a BA in Information Design and eventually open her own firm.
