There’s no shortage of interactive surprises with this cool new robot. Designed for children aged 11 and up, the Cue is ideal for introducing artificial intelligence and helping kids advance their coding skills. With this inviting robot and the Cue app from Wonder Workshop, students play games, chat, control, and program the Cue in Blockly or JavaScript.
The Meccano M.A.X is not only programmed to respond to certain commands, but it can also learn from kids and build knowledge about their interactions with its incredible AI technology. Students even get exposure to engineering as they build M.A.X from scratch and then teach it new behaviors, skills, and tricks using voice commands.
Ready for an adventure though the human bloodstream? Through the White House? To space? VR makes these thrilling adventures possible. In our office, we have both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive and today, I experimented with the Oculus. I had only ever used VR while sitting down before—certainly never standing and with touch controllers.
These cool kits are designed for play-based learning! By building a number of experiments, students can learn various circuitry basics and experiment with conductive and insulating dough, LEDs, and other accessories. Using the Squishy Circuits kits, they’re also able to get hands-on while they learn about conductivity, simple circuits, series, and parallel circuits.
Designed for groups of 2-6 students, the kit includes SAM blocks (buttons, lights, various sensors, motors, and more), accessories, and a Getting Started guide as well as a teacher’s guide. The blocks are wirelessly activated using Bluetooth, which enables them to move, illuminate, or make sounds.
Although intended for kids aged 6-10, the original version of the Ozobot can help teach students of all ages thanks to its versatility and the range of different things children can do with it. Beginner students can start by experimenting with color coding using easy-to-understand OzoCodes and then build their way up to using OzoBlockly.
If you’re looking for a small, easy-to-use, but high-quality 3D printer, the MakerBot Replicator Mini is for you. Before this experiment, I had very little 3D printing experience. I assumed they were all too complicated and sophisticated, so I was amazed by the simplicity that comes along with the MakerBot Mini.
The littleBits Rule Your Room Kit is one of littleBits’ newest kits and it’s nothing short of awesome. If you’re familiar with littleBits already, you are more than welcome to skip to the next paragraph! So what are littleBits!? They are easy-to-use electronic building blocks that are magnetic and color-coded by function.
Edison is the perfect teaching tool for STEM activities since it’s so incredibly versatile. A while ago—about a year now at this point—we were introduced to the Edison Robot and did a nice little write-up on it in what you now know as the Eduporium Experiment. Now, it’s revamped, however, and we’ve got some new stuff to cover, so here we go!
Circuitry kits like this one are a great way to introduce elementary students to one of the most important STEAM concepts. And, this one in particular is especially versatile because it combines so many specific STEM disciplines in one dynamic tool. There are three different versions with 59, 115, and 120 projects.
