The Eduporium store is home to hundreds of STEM, MakerEd, and other innovative technology products not to mention countless laptops, tablets, and other classroom tools. You’d think that would be enough to satisfy any teacher’s classroom needs or any district’s large-scale requests. Well, it might be, but we’ve decided to do a bit more. Our research has told us that teachers like to have a number of compatible EdTech products for students to use collaboratively. We thought ‘Hey, that’s a pretty good idea,’ and set out to create custom EdTech bundles for our partners. Here are some of our favorites.
An Introduction to Our Bundle Breakdown and Design
If you head to our homepage and click on the red ‘Custom Bundles’ box, you’ll be able to see some of our many custom crafted educational technology bundles with some explanation for how the process works. On our store, you’ll be able to find all 23 of our current bundle offerings and, right away, you’ll notice the discounted prices for each of them. Not only do we bundle EdTech tools so teachers can have access to compatible products that deepen learning, we do it to help reduce cost as much as possible. We have bundles designed for students in every K-12 grade level and even Pre-K because every student stands to enhance their skill set when working hands-on with technology.
So, there are two ways in which our bundles are organized: by grade levels and by discipline. As we said, the bundles span all the way from Pre-K through Grade 12. Within that span, there are five different levels broken down by age. They are Pre-K-K, Grades 1-3, Grades 3-6, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12. Then, the bundles are also organized by discipline. Since STEM education covers a number of important areas, we felt it was crucial that we give teachers the chance to teach all of them using interactive technology. The subjects covered by our current bundles include programming, circuitry, music, robotics and coding, engineering, and environmental awareness with each bundle in these categories containing three-to-six relevant technology tools to teach these key concepts.
Our bundles are designed to create a clearly organized and systemic pathway to achieving full real-world readiness through STEM-based learning activities. When it comes down to it, teachers can request from us one of the bundles we have already created or they can request that we create a custom one for them based on their learning goals and even the devices they already have. Either way, we’ll also include starter activities with the bundle so that teachers can bring the technology into the classroom with a clear plan in mind. Each product in all of our bundles comes with a starter activity, making it easier than ever for teachers to innovate in the classroom! As kids progress, our bundles progress with them and provide an end-to-end learning experience that’s real-world relevant, engaging, and tons of fun.
The Discovery Bundle
As we discussed, our bundles are broken down by discipline and by grade level. With that knowledge, it may, however, be a bit tough to determine exactly who and what the Discovery Bundle is for. So, we’ll explain it to you. Our Discovery Bundle contains a wide variety of technologies that help kids work with their hands, solve problems creatively, and discover innovative solutions using EdTech. The answer to the question of what it contains is that the Discovery Bundle includes a bunch of tools that help introduce kids to learning with technology. Each of them fosters a sense of exploration (or discovery if you will) while kids learn, play, and create. It’s designed for students in the early grades and offers more avenues for originality and creativity than some of our other bundles, which is why we placed it at the top of the list.
There is no one STEM concept highlighted in the Discovery Bundle. Instead, we chose to broaden the horizon and incorporate a number of them, including circuitry, robotics, conductivity, design thinking, and engineering. The Snap Circuits Beginner Kit provides the introduction to circuitry through teacher-approved play, the Ozobot and Dash and Dot robots break down beginner-level coding, and the Makey Makey enables students to see firsthand which objects around them (including themselves) are conductive. Then, there’s Roominate, which allows students to design their own houses and buildings, perfectly combining design thinking skills and engineering as they creatively construct sound structures.
Also present in the Discovery Bundle is Square Panda, which is a tactile way for kids to learn phonics. It pairs with a tablet and kids supply the missing letters from the partial words displayed on the screen to help boost their phonics and literacy skills. And, last but not least, is the LightUp Edison Kit—another option for teaching circuitry. Kids construct circuits and use the LightUp Learning app to take pictures of them. If they’ve built it correctly, the camera on their device will give them the green light to move on! Using the tools in the Discovery Bundle, kids can start fine tuning their spatial, motor, and problem-solving skills, build basic coding competency, and heighten their inventive abilities. They’ll even learn about cause and effect and realize what it means to use technology creatively, making the Discovery Bundle a great addition to early education!
Power of Programming Bundle
Moving into the middle school level, our favorite bundle at the moment would have to be our Power of Programming Bundle. Not to be redundant, but programming is an extremely powerful movement and an extremely useful skill for students to start building. Plus, the EdTech tools in this bundle are just really, really cool. The Power of Programming Bundle, or POP as we like to call it, is designed for children in Grades 3-6, but those grade recommendations are a bit loosey goosey. You could certainly get away with using this bundle in first, second, seventh, or even eighth grade. Our goal in designing our bundles was to make them as versatile and applicable to as many classrooms as possible. This one is certainly able to help accomplish just that.
In this bundle, students can use a variety of products to learn programming on a real-world scale. It’s not just robotics tools or computer software they will be working with. The POP Bundle features a little bit of robotics with the reemergence of the Ozobot for bigger and better programming challenges, but also includes two programmable computers kids can build themselves! The Kano Computer Kit is a DIY computer that kids construct from scratch. All the parts come in the box and step-by-step directions guide them as they put it together. Then, once it’s built, they can use it to play games, surf the Web, and even code—just like a regular computer! Then, there’s the pi-top—a DIY, mobile laptop. It’s like Kano, but it’s a laptop and doesn’t require a separate monitor as Kano does. Kids can still code with it once it’s built and even play Minecraft! Finally, the littleBits Arduino Coding Kit allows students to design and build programmable circuits using step-by-step instructions as well. It’s a great way to ensure they’re programming correctly!
While these all sound like great products on the surface, it’s the skills they help cement that truly makes their addition to the classroom worthwhile. The value of these tools, especially when bundled together, is incredibly important in the 21st century. Together, they allow teachers to incorporate interactive learning on multiple fronts and empower kids to create real-world inventions using real-world techniques. As the tools get increasingly complex, like from Ozobot to pi-top, for example, kids will be prepared and can use methods, like trial and error, to help them tackle the tougher challenges. Above all else, the Power of Programming Bundle will enable students to create game-changing technologies—not just use and consume them. With that, this group of tech tools can transform the middle grades into an invaluable experience filled with authentic learning that can translate to real-world readiness.
Ultimate Robotics Bundle
Robotics kits are powerful learning tools. Just check out our robotics progression chart and it’s easy to see why we think so. Our Ultimate Robotics Bundle is sort of like a culmination of robotics-based learning as it features some of the best robotics products we have. It’s designed for students in Grades 9-12 and helps them add the finishing touches to their STEM skill sets. The robots in the bundle are very versatile and, even though students likely will have worked with some of them before, there are different variations of models in this bundle and different things they can do with others. If you’re thinking about launching a robotics curriculum or even an afterschool robotics club, this bundle will serve you well.
In the Ultimate Robotics Bundle, you’ll find two of our favorite robots for teaching programming and two variations of each. The first is, again, the Ozobot Bit, which students can now program on a laptop or desktop using OzoBlockly, its programming language, and the Ozobot Evo, which allows them to partake in a social robotics experience. There are also two EZ-Robot models in the bundle: The EZ-Robot Hexapod and the EZ-Robot Rover. The Hexapod is a 6-legged ‘bot that students can program to walk around and perform a number of different movements. The Rover, like other rovers, works like the Mars Rover and can be used by kids to explore areas they cannot get to themselves. Both can be programmed and controlled using the ez-builder software, which is easily downloadable and allows them to connect their robots over Wi-Fi.
In terms of value, the Ultimate Robotics Bundle is excellent at teaching students some of the most important 21st century skills. Since the software with each robot is so easy to use, students are able to become more like master coders than they ever have before. They’re able to see the results of their programming in action with robots that walk or slide around without the need for being connected to a computer with a cable, which helps them see what they can accomplish with programming. Each of these robots also offer learning that’s personalized for the students that are using them. They can create custom programs and sequences, allowing them to use technology to create the kind of education that most excites them. Most importantly, they’ll get fully comfortable with robotics and learn how to harness their creativity to program unique outcomes using technology!
Make Your Own Bundle
We’ll all about helping schools and teachers customize education for their students. If, by some incredible unlucky event, an educator is not interested in any of our 19 awesome bundles, we can help them build their own. Aside from being a reseller, we’re EdTech experts and consultants, too. So, when a teacher comes to us and asks for some guidance and recommendations for EdTech tools, the first thing we ask them is what they are trying to accomplish in their unique classroom and what their specific goals are. Then, we’ll take some time to do the research and come back to them with suggestions for products we can bundle together. Most of the time, they will be products from our store, but we’re also able to bundle products we don’t carry with ones that we do—whatever each educator needs to make their teaching pop.
We’ve found that the bundle approach is especially helpful for teachers who also have makerspaces. Makerspaces are great because they enable almost any style of learning to take place with almost any kinds of tools. We can stick with the theme bundles (robotics, engineering, etc.) or provide teachers with more makerspace-specific products, like pipe cleaners, cardboard, and electronics. And, don’t forget, we can also supply the starter activities for you, too. In our makerspace bundle, teachers are able to request exactly what they need and that’s what we’ll deliver. If you’d like a custom bundle for your classroom, this is probably the best way to go about getting it from us. The variety that is possible really gives teachers the freedom to create custom learning experiences and adapt any of their lessons on the fly. If they’re given the tools they want, they’re more willing, able, and excited to make adjustments as they go.
We’ve now told you almost everything there is to know about our customizable EdTech bundles. Hopefully, you see the same potential for them bolstering active education and refining 21st century skills in students as we do. But, there’s one more thing we’d like to mention. We are perfectly willing to go outside of the box a bit and create some even more unique bundles for any educator who wants one. Perhaps our favorite example of this is a virtual reality bundle. We’d love nothing more than to give students the opportunity to use VR in the classroom and have the means to create bundles based around these products. The same goes for 3D printing. If you want a 3D printing bundle in your classroom, we can help get that done. We hope to create more and more virtual reality, robotics, 3D printing, engineering, and coding bundles for teachers this school year. If you can dream it up, we can bundle up the products to help you make your ideal learning experiences happen!
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