ZOOB (which stands for Zoology, Ontology, Ontogeny, and Botany) is an open-ended play system featuring five basic elements that snap together in twenty different ways. The elements are limblike and jointlike, and there are numerous ways to connect them into complex, organic, movable models. The shapes are inspired by nucleotides, the basic structural units of DNA; shown here in a double helix formation, the toy reminds us that design for children encompasses not only the many types of work displayed in these galleries but also the basic building blocks of living matter and children themselves.
Gallery label from Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900–2000, July 29–November 5, 2012.