It may seem like innocent child’s play, watching the kids build impressive make-believe landscapes out of LEGO’s, but there is a serious side to the fun.

So this week, when the venerable building-cubes giant unveiled a new figurine, adult minds took note.

LEGO, long known for its firefighters, pirates and police officer figurines, this week unveiled its first ever a female scientist minifigure. Professor - the name the minifigure wears on her nametag - is LEGO’s first female lab-coated scientist. Her arrival is arguably long overdue: The LEGO universe is populated by a small roster of scientific women, including an astronaut and surgeon, but they are far outnumbered by their male counterparts of scientists and engineers.

Professor’s arrival is sweet music to highly scientific female ears.

Bilita Mattes, provost and chief academic officer at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, applauds the toy maker for taking a first step in the direction of providing equity in the world of science - even if only in the seemingly trivial world of child’s play.

“The influence of popular media on occupation and education choices for all kids is tremendous,” Mattes said. “To discount the importance of having equity in the popular media, whether toys, movies, games, yes that is important to be able to show children especially girls the possibility beyond the stereotypes.”

Those stereotypes play out in toyland as they do in the real world.

Women may have made gains in the sciences, maths and engineering disciplines, but they still have a long way to go to achieve equity. Women earn 60 percent of all college undergraduate degrees, but they remain underrepresented in science and engineering majors, according to the National Science Foundation.

In 2010, U.S. women received about 18 percent of all computer science and engineering degrees; and about 40 percent of all mathematics and physical sciences undergraduate degrees.

Workforce numbers were even more dire with women accounting for only 11 percent of all engineers in the U.S. labor workforce and 40 percent of physical scientists.

“Anything that makes it the normal or the identity of women as scientists is good,” said Dr. Ann Ouyang, associate dean for faculty and professional development at the Penn State College of Medicine. “Whether that will make a difference it’s hard to say.”

The bias and inequality that help fuel the disparity among the genders in the sciences, Mattes said, is ingrained early on in our society, and that includes the marketing of toys.

“It’s not to be trivialized,” she said. “Individual people are influenced very early on.”

Educators widely agree, Mattes said, that most children decide what kind of education they are going to pursue by the time they are in fifth or sixth grade.

“Providing good role models, equitable role models, even in the form of toys, is an influence,” Mattes said. “It’s not the only influence but it’s another piece.”

Mattes is part of Advance, a Harrisburg University collaboration with Shippensburg University, Elizabethtown College and the Innovation Transfer Network to target recruitment, retention and professional development of women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines - or STEM.

“We even lose academically prepared females in science and technology. They leak out of the pipeline if you will,” Mattes said. “What we are trying to do is create a safe and welcoming environment for all STEM disciplines in academics, to include in particular women in academics in STEM disciplines so students see individuals taught by individuals that they can identify with.”

Ouyang said that while women make up about 50 percent of incoming students to the medical college, they still lage behind male students in the STEM disciplines.

“Certainly among school kids the number of girls interested in these fields is really low so anything that would make it seem as if science is a more normal field for girls to be in, I think it’s good at any age,” Ouyang said.

LEGO last year unveiled a new line of minifigures designed to appeal to girls and introduce them to the world of construction. LEGO has struggled to capture the imagination of girls: Last year only 9 percent of U.S. LEGO household users reported that the primary user of the building cubes was a girl.

Calls to LEGO American corporate headquarters were not immediately returned.

On Thursday, the Danish toy maker reported a surge of sales with a 13 percent increase during the first six months of 2013, The Associated Press reported. The surge in sales was partly attributed to the new "Lego Friends" series of building blocks designed for girls.

The privately owned company reported a net profit of $424 million on revenue of $1.8 billion.

Mattes says she’s thrilled to welcome the newest professor, even if she’s just a little cube figuring.

“Any little bit, including the introduction of the first of what I hope are many, not just LEGO, toys that can help both genders begin to address the unconscious bias that exist in terms of the choices they make in education and profession, I’m in favor of it,” she said. “Even if it’s a little LEGO.”