Apparently not all educational toys are equal so according to a July 18, 2023 article by Nate Berg for Fast Company, Note: Links have been removed,

Seemingly overnight, and almost by necessity, toys have become teachers. The educational toy market has exploded in recent years, with some researchers estimating more than $100 billion in sales globally by 2028. The uptick is partly thanks to an acronym. STEM—for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—has become an easy way to distinguish toys with an educational side from toys that are just meant to be fun.

Or at least it was supposed to be easy. With more and more toys labeled as offering STEM benefits, toymakers and toy buyers alike are starting to wonder where the line is drawn. Is a set of racing cars or building blocks actually educational, or are parents and kids being taken in by a widespread case of “STEM-washing”?

During the pandemic, STEM toys (and their artsy cousins, STEAM—science, tech, engineering, arts, and math—toys) became must-haves for families across the country. …

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STEM toys have a growing presence in toy stores and online, and a market that’s expected to grow by nearly a billion dollars over the next few years. Scientific toys, a subset of the STEM category, has grown 28% over the past three years to about $281 million in annual sales, according to Frédérique Tutt, a toy industry analyst at Circana. The growth is even bigger for STEM-adjacent building sets like Lego, which have grown 51% in that time, to more than $2 billion in annual sales, she says.

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From building blocks to toy car ramps to stomp-fired air rockets, a wide range of marginally educational toys were suddenly being sold as STEM products. Whether STEM-washing or inconsistent marketing is to blame, the confusion has led the toy industry to try to get precise about what a STEM toy is.

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You can read about an accreditation programme for STEM/STEAM toys in Berg’s July 18, 2023 article.

Perhaps they should adopt a similar approach to so-called art/science or SciArt installations and shows. Some of those shows are, at best, ‘science lite’.