This new release contains a carefully selected set of Bits designed to help educators discover how littleBits can help students learn and grow through STEAM. The kit allows teachers to get a feel for teaching with littleBits and allows district leaders to observe how well students interact with the technology before committing to purchasing larger kits.
These electronic LEGOs snap together and teach kids basic concepts, like magnetism, circuitry, inputs, outputs, and engineering while they play! With a model based on progression, students can start learning with littleBits as early as first grade and create a foundation for eventually inventing devices that they can use in feats of engineering and even control with code!
We say this all the time but a makerspace could be anything you want it to be. Seriously, there is no right or wrong way to design a makerspace. They now often pop up in classrooms, libraries, community centers, basements, closets, or wherever there’s room. The important thing is that students can work with their hands and create something meaningful.
Kids today don’t seem to have the same enthusiasm to build a pillow fort or make costumes out of cardboard. Instead, it is all too common to see them playing with a smart device, but, the line of inventive kits from MakeDo aim to spark creativity in kids by facilitating hands-on building and engaging them with something other than technology.
When students are given the freedom to invent unheard of solutions to problems and go about solving them in unique ways, they’re building a foundation for the future. A lot of the tools we’ll use in the next decade or two haven’t been invented yet. Most likely, a student somewhere in a K-12 school is going to be responsible for an invention eventually.
The Curious Cars kit in particular comes with six pieces of technology, all very uniform in size, and all encased in soft, malleable plastic. They are clearly labeled in simple language, and the whole kit is very fun to touch, which is designed to be encouraging for learners and get them started with getting their hands on the technology.
With the affordable 3Doodler, students as young as 10 years old can design and engineer three-dimensional objects to enhance their artwork and their creativity! With its lightweight frame and simplified controls, 3Doodler helps kids add tech-based, artistic innovation to the school day with artistic creativity and STEM connections.
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.
Connectable toys, like LEGOS, can serve as building blocks for a lot more than engineering household castles and transformable structures. With its very legitimate place in STEM education, E-Blox has gone on to create the next generation of LEGO-based learning and are on track to disrupt STEM education with a line of tech kits that get kids working with their hands.
A few weeks ago, we reviewed the SAM Labs Curious Cars Kit for the Eduporium Experiment and now this week’s edition has the SAM Labs Inventor Kit in store for us! SAM Labs is a British company who’s committed to bringing hands-on STEAM to early education and have created three innovative kits that do just that.
