Monday, December 12, 2022

Family Science: STEM Kits!

Our little family does a lot of science on the side.  Our son-in-law is a software engineer who loves to buy fancy kits.  Ken drops off Paul and the complicated kit for us to navigate. Have you considered buying a STEM kit for Christmas?   Good Will online has a LEGO BoostSnap Circuits, and Makey Makey kits available.  Makey Makey is a simple circuit kit.  However, this kit has clear instructions and fun ideas; kids use play doh and bananas to complete circuits.  LEGO Boost and LEGO Droid Commander are much more complicated.  First, the LEGO kits must be assembled. (You need to like building with LEGOS.  I mention this because our little family is NOT fond of building with LEGOS.) The controller needed to program the assembled robot can be tricky to insert.  (Ask me how I know.)  Our little family made the LEGO Boost kits family projects.  Programming the assembled robots was intuitive for Paul; but his daddy is a software engineer.  Paul was coding at seven.  I could understand the coding instructions from the LEGO Boost app.  I have no background or seemingly any aptitude for coding.  Look for sealed, used sets or kits.  Check at your library, too.  Ask if they have a Makey Makey kit, Snap Circuits, or other stem kits available.  Libraries with Maker Spaces often have these kits to try.  See if your kids even like Snap Circuits.  



 

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