Educational construction set

A construction set suitable and safe for children of various ages comprising construction pieces and connector strips. The construction pieces have a semirigid planar construction with opposing major sides which have hook fastener material disposed on one side and loop pile fastener material disposed on the other. The fastener materials are of the type which adhere when pressed together. An outer border or margin area of the construction pieces is kept free of the fastener materials, to provide a tab or hem for separating attached pieces. The construction pieces have various shapes and sizes with which many designs and structures may be constructed. The connector strips have a similar construction to the construction pieces and are used to join adjacent construction pieces. The sides may include complementary colors and patterns.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
The present invention relates to educational toys and more particularly to 
construction sets. 
BACKGROUND ART 
In recent years there has been an increasing concern of providing safe play 
toys for children. Most packages for children's toys contain a suggested 
age group, for which the toy is considered safe and suitable. Frequently, 
however, there are children of various age groups within a home or child 
care provider and toys which are suitable for an older age group may be 
unsafe for younger children. 
Construction sets with pieces that attach to one another have been popular 
for many years. A construction set which has become very popular involves 
rigid pieces which are connected using interlocking pegs and holes. This 
type of construction set is suitable for children over five years old, but 
the precise alignment of the pieces requires more coordination than 
possessed by many young children. Furthermore, the individual pieces of 
these construction sets are often very small, posing a safety hazard for 
infants and toddlers, as these pieces can be placed in a mouth and 
swallowed. 
Another type of construction set is disclosed by Savage in U.S. Pat. No. 
1,620,574, wherein rigid wood building blocks are covered with a fibrous 
material that is coated on the outside with unvulcanized rubber so that 
the blocks stick to each other. Because of the rigidness of these blocks, 
injuries may occur if pieces are thrown or stepped on. Also, young 
children may have difficulty using these blocks because of their thickness 
and weight. 
Non-rigid construction pieces have been developed with special emphasis 
placed on education and instruction, rather than the building of 
structures. Early designs used flannel or felt covered boards to which 
fabric pieces could be attached. Examples of this type are found in U.S. 
Pat. Nos. 1,265,720 to Andree, Re. 19,238 to Burke, and 2,369,804 to 
Schoolfield et al. Later developed designs have used Velcro to attach 
pieces to a carrier. Velcro is a trademark owned by Velcro USA, for 
synthetic materials which adhere when pressed together. Examples of this 
type are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,427,390 to Manger and 4,519,781 to 
Boyd. The purposes of the above devices are related to teaching music, 
letters, colors and shapes. A characteristic of these educational 
instruments is that the construction pieces are attached to a board or 
carrier and not to each other to form a structure. 
Cowen et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,027 describes an educational toy that 
is shaped as a cuboctahedron. The outer faces are covered with fabric of 
different colors and textures. Cutouts, such as letters and numerals, can 
be removably adhered to the fabric covered faces. There may also be an 
opening in the toy through which a child may touch an inner face which has 
a different texture than the outer face. 
A chess puzzle board is disclosed by Bifulco in U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,385. 
The chess board consists of various puzzle pieces which when properly put 
together form a chess board. The black and white squares are represented 
by alternating hook and loop pile fastener material rather than by color. 
The chess pieces also have hook and loop pile fastener material on their 
bottoms to attach to the chess board. A base is provided into which the 
chess board fits and attaches by means of hook and loop pile fastener 
material. The puzzle pieces may alternatively be connected along their 
edges to form different structures. This game set is directed towards 
older children. 
It is an object of the present invention to design a construction set which 
is educational, safe, fun and suitable for children of various ages. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The above object has been accomplished by a set of construction pieces, 
wherein each construction piece has opposed major sides which are 
distinctively related in at least one and preferably two or more respects. 
The construction pieces have various shapes and colors, and may be 
removably attached to one another to form self-supporting structures and 
designs. 
Each construction piece is made from a fabric or plastic sheet cut into a 
particular shape which then has loop pile fastener material and hook 
fastener material either glued or sewn to opposite sides of the fabric or 
plastic piece. Hook and loop pile fastener materials mechanically adhere 
when pressed together. The hooks on the hook material are generally stiff 
and pointy while the loops on the loop pile material are more pliant. 
Therefore, the two sides of the construction piece feel different and only 
attach to other pieces having the opposite type of fastener material. 
Thus, there are two distinct binary relations between the sides. These 
relations may be further supported by different colors or patterns on the 
two sides. Preferably, a primary color is on one side and the 
complementary color is on the opposite side. Connector strips which act 
like bandages may be used to connect different construction pieces 
together. The connector strips, like the construction pieces, have loop 
pile and hook pile fastener material on opposite sides. Using the 
connector strips, construction pieces can be interconnected to form 
self-supporting structures and designs. 
The construction set is made suitable for children as young as six months 
old by using fastener materials with a lower density of hooks and/or loops 
than is normally used in standard materials of this type. Therefore, less 
effort is required to pull attached pieces apart. Also, an outer margin on 
each side is kept free of the fastener material so that there is a free 
edge to grab onto when separating pieces. The pieces are also made 
sufficiently large, so that infants and toddlers are unable to swallow the 
pieces. 
An advantage of the present invention is that it is suitable and of 
interest to children of various ages, since the pieces can be used to 
construct very basic designs as well as complex structures. Moreover, the 
present construction set may be used for complex educational purposes, 
such as diagramming chemical formulas or mathematical problems. 
Another advantage of the present invention is its inherent safety due to 
the light weight and pliability of the construction pieces. Throwing or 
stepping on these pieces is not likely to cause physical injury. 
Furthermore, the construction pieces and connector strips are sufficiently 
large to prevent a child from completely placing a piece within a mouth. 
The construction pieces and connector strips are washable. Yet another 
advantage is the self-teaching aspects of the set. The binary relation of 
the fastener material can be used to teach other binary relations. Thus, 
the present construction set is both safe and suitable for situations 
having children of varying age groups.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 1a, a house 10 is illustrated having been 
constructed with construction pieces held together by connector strips. 
The ends of the house 10 are made with a large square piece 12 and a large 
triangular piece 14 connected together by a connector strip 22. A small 
circular piece 16 and a small square piece 13 are attached to the large 
triangular piece 14 and the large square piece 12 respectively, to 
represent windows. The front and back of the house are made with large 
rectangular pieces 18 connected to the ends of the house 10 with connector 
strips 22. A small triangular piece 15 and a small rectangular piece 20 
are attached to the front of the house to represent a doorway, while a 
small square piece 13 is attached to represent a window. A roof to the 
house is constructed from two large top rectangular pieces 18, held in 
place by connector strips 22. 
Each construction piece 12-20 and connector strip 22 has on one side loop 
pile fastener material and on the opposite side hook fastener material. 
These two fastener materials adhere to each other when pressed together 
and are discussed more fully below in relation to FIG. 3 and FIGS. 4 and 
4a. The house 10 or other structures are built by piecing together the 
construction pieces 12-20 using the connector strips 22. The connector 
strips 22 act as a bandage in connecting other pieces together. Also, the 
construction pieces may be connected by overlapping the various pieces. 
The construction pieces and connector strips are semi-rigid so that the 
structures built are self-supporting without being rigid. Using just a few 
simple shapes it is possible to build many various structures. 
Turning now to FIGS. 2a-d, many simple two-dimensional mosaics and designs 
may be constructed using the construction pieces and connector strips of 
the present invention. FIG. 2a depicts a face 24 made out of a large 
square-shaped construction piece 26, two circular construction pieces 28 
and a triangular construction piece 30. The circular pieces 28 and the 
triangular piece 30 are placed on top of the large square piece 26. In 
FIG. 2b, a tree 32 is represented by a circular construction piece 34 and 
a connector strip 36, and in FIG. 2c, a house 38 is represented by a 
square piece 40 and a triangular piece 42. A pair of glasses 44, shown in 
FIG. 2d, is made from circular pieces 46 adhered to connector strips 48. 
The glasses 44 or other designs may be used as decorations. 
A set 50 of construction pieces and connector strips is shown in FIG. 3. 
The set 50 comprises two of each of the following construction pieces: (a) 
a small triangle 52, (b) a large triangle 54 (c) a small circle 56, (d) a 
large circle 58, (e) a small square 60, (f) a large square 62, and two of 
the following connector strips: (g) a short strip 64, an (h) a long strip 
66. The triangles 52 and 54 are isosceles triangles with the sides of the 
small triangles 52 having a minimum length of 3 and 1/2 inches. The large 
triangles 54 may have sides with a length of about 5 inches. The small 
squares 60 have sides equal in length to the sides of the small triangles 
52 and the large squares 62 have sides equal in length to the sides of the 
large triangles 54. The small circles 56 have a diameter of about 5 inches 
while the large circles 58 have a diameter of about 6 and 1/2 inches. The 
short strips 64 are about 4 and 1/2 inches long and 2 inches wide, while 
the long strips 66 are about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. The 
dimensions of the construction pieces and connector strips are not 
critical, as long as the pieces and strips are large enough to be 
difficult for infants and small children to put completely in their 
mouths. 
Referring now to FIGS. 3, 4 and 4a, construction pieces are shown to have 
disposed on either side fastener material which adheres mechanically when 
pressed together. Standard fastener materials of this type are Velcro Hook 
88 and Loop 1000, which when pressed together and then peeled apart, have 
a peel shear stress of 14.0 psi along the length and 10.5 psi along the 
width. It is desirable that the construction pieces and connector strips 
have a lower peel shear stress than standard Velcro, thereby enabling very 
small children to pull attached pieces apart. This may be accomplished by 
using a hook fastener material which has a lower density of hooks than the 
standard Hook 88 material which has more than 300 hooks per square inch 
made from 0.80 mil nylon monofilament. A hook material with a hook density 
in the range 50 to 150 hooks per square inch would significantly reduce 
the peel shear stress when used with standard Loop 1000 material. 
In FIG. 4, a construction piece 62a has a semirigid fabric base layer 78 to 
which the fastener material is permanently attached. One side of the 
fabric base layer has hook fastener material 70, while the opposite side 
has loop pile fastener material 74. In FIG. 4a a flexible plastic material 
is used to make a plastic base layer 76. The fastener material 70 and 74 
may either be sewn or glued to either base layer 76 or 78. Typically a 
construction piece is made by cutting a particular shaped piece out of a 
sheet of base material. Corresponding pieces of fastener material having 
the same shape only slightly smaller are cut out of fastener material 
sheets. The fastener material pieces are then adhered to opposite sides of 
the base layer piece leaving an exposed margin 80 of the base layer around 
the perimeter of the fastener material. This margin 80 serves as a tab for 
easing separation of pieces. 
Alternatively, the fastener materials may be cut slightly larger than the 
base layer, so that a margin of each fastener material extends beyond the 
perimeter of the base layer. These margins are devoid of hooks or loops. 
The edges of these margins may then be sewn together to form a hem which 
can be used to pull attached pieces apart. 
The connector pieces may be made without a margin area and further without 
a base layer. A strip of loop pile fastener material 74 may be simply 
glued or sewn to a strip of hook fastener material 70, thus making a 
connector strip. An alternative embodiment of a connector strip has both 
types of fastener material disposed on the sides. Having both types of 
fastener material on each side creates a universal connector strip, in 
that it would not matter which side of the strip was used to connect 
construction pieces. A universal connector strip may be made by having 
small sections of each type of fastener material interspersed along the 
sides of the strip or a fastener material with alternating hooks and loops 
may be used to make the universal connector strip. In the material with 
the alternating hooks and loops, the hooks and loops may alternate by row 
or alternate within a row. The construction pieces may also have universal 
fastener sides, wherein both types of fastener material are disposed on 
the sides rather than having the opposite fastener sides as shown. 
When, as preferred, the sides of the construction pieces have opposite 
fastener material disposed on them, a pseudo polarization exists between 
the two types of fastener material. Like fastener materials will not 
adhere to each other, but opposite fastener materials will. Furthermore, 
the two types of fastener material have a different feel or texture, thus 
giving the sides a second type of polarity. These "polarities" between 
fastener materials, and thus opposite sides of the construction pieces and 
connector strips, can be advantageously used for educational purposes. For 
example, all sides with hook fastener material 70 have a primary color and 
the opposite sides 72 have the complementary color to the primary color. 
In this way primary and complementary colors can be self-taught. FIG. 3 
illustrates a combination of primary and complementary colors wherein the 
loop pile containing sides of the triangles 52 and 54 are red, while the 
opposed hook pile containing sides are green. The circles 56 and 58 are 
yellow on the loop pile sides and purple of the hook sides. The squares 60 
and 62 are blue on the loop pile sides and orange on the hook sides. Other 
colors and combinations can also be used. Alternatively different patterns 
could be placed on the sides. These patterns may include stripes, 
checkers, polka dots, paisleys, tartans, numerals, letters, symbols and 
pictures. Therefore, the construction set 50 may incorporate many 
self-teaching aspects, such as shapes, spatial relations, textures, 
colors, patterns, symbols, polarity and binary relations. Moreover, the 
construction set 50 may be used for other more complex educational 
functions. 
In FIG. 5 a chemical formula for ferrous hydroxide is diagrammed using the 
construction pieces and connector strips from the construction set 50, 
shown in FIG. 3. Small triangle 90 has two short connector strips 92 
attached at one end and extending from the small triangle 90. Attached to 
the opposite end of the short connector strips 92 are a small circle 94 
and a small square 96, which together represent a hydroxide ion 98. The 
small circles 94 represent an oxygen atom and the small squares 96 
represent a hydrogen atom. The connector strips 92 represent the bond 
between the hydroxide ions 98 and the iron atom represented by the small 
triangle 90. The polarity of the fastener materials can be used in 
diagramming chemical formulas to demonstrate which ions can and cannot be 
joined together. One side of a construction piece may represent a 
positively charged ion while the other opposite side represents a 
negatively charged ion. If desired, the construction pieces and connector 
strips may also be used to diagram mathematical problems and equations.