When it comes to STEM in 21st century teaching and learning, there are few limits to what students can accomplish. Besides helping boost their overall engagement and enjoyment levels in the here and now, access to STEM learning and opportunities to build real-world skills often significantly improve how students prepare for the future. Whether it's with introducing them to coding in the early grades, engineering in their middle years, or the benefits of more complex technologies, like virtual reality or artificial intelligence, in high school, STEM education is a crucial piece of student development. With such huge potential and importance, however, this instruction requires planning, guidance, and equipment. And, as the economy keeps trending toward STEM-dominated professions and opportunities, exposure to these areas is vital. Thankfully, there are few restrictions to leading effective STEM lessons.
Our mission is helping educators develop students who are truly Future Ready and helping them facilitate relevant learning is how. To that end, we offer a robust online store filled with the latest STEM solutions. But, beyond that, we love creating and sharing impactful content to help enhance how educators use these tools in instruction. In this section of our blog, you'll find countless posts on trending STEM topics, how-to articles, many recommendations for classroom solutions and projects, industry updates, connections between STEAM tools and the future, and a lot more. We are also extremely committed to closing certain gaps and increasing equity in STEM education. As such, a lot of this content contains context for advancing inclusive opportunities for all kids. We encourage you to search through the posts to find something relevant for you. And, if there's any topics we've missed, let us know.
The Meccano Meccanoid G15KS is a personal robot kids can build from the ground up. With three ways to program, voice recognition, and smart device communication, the Meccanoid might just become their best robot friend ever! Once built, it towers at almost four feet tall (122 cm) and it comes with 1,014 parts, two hand tools, a battery, and more.
E-Blox, as their name implies, are electronic building blocks—almost exactly like LEGOs—except they’re conductive! Kids can enhance their design and engineering skills and also get more familiar with electronics at the same time. And, with over 10 specialized kits available on our store, there’s always a new area of STEM for them to master.
Today, I experimented with the Snap Circuits Arcade Kit, a kit that allows students to build over 200 exciting projects and includes 20-plus Build and Play games. With over 35 parts, including a programmable word fan, tri-colored orb, and a pre-programmed micro-controller, the Snap Circuits Arcade kit is perfect for projecting a light arcade show!
Engaging in 3D printing allows students to experience learning from brand new angles and put their creativity to use in ways that will legitimately help them prepare for their futures. Right now, scientists seem to using 3D printing for something new every day—in some industries that you would expect and others that are pretty surprising.
Coding is a skill that’s going to be extremely relevant for everybody in the future and something that all students need to experience from the onset of their education. And, yes, this includes girls. For whatever reason—many of which we’ll get into later—girls seem to lack the same interest boys have in STEM education but we can do something about
The meeperBOT 2.0 is an affordable, programmable, and LEGO-compatible robot recommended for kids aged five and up that features a simple design but packs some great capabilities. Kids can drive, program, and video their bot using three different drive modes and various command functions in the meeperBOT app.
If you’re looking to incorporate hands-on play and inspire innovative thinking at an early age, you’re going to love Puzzlets! Puzzlets are a Bluetooth-enabled accessory for tablets or phones that kids can use to play games that teach things like coding, art, and math. It is designed for kids in K-2, helping them explore logic, cause and effect, and more.
The Code–a–pillar is a robotic tool for introducing kids as young as three to coding. Its replaceable sections—just like the ones on a real caterpillar—represent different actions and kids customize them and control the robot’s movements! No other early education STEM tool provides a better balance of programming and play than the Code–a–pillar.
The SPRK+ is one of Sphero’s latest additions to their seriously cool line of robots. Although only the size of a baseball, it is packed with educational power. When paired with the Sphero Edu app, the opportunities for learning are boundless. Kids have the option to write code in either a Blockly or path drawing environment.
Since it is Halloween and all, we got to thinking about how teachers could celebrate with technology. Sure, they could build something to scare their students, but that could take time and we’re all about helping teachers save time. We thought the next best thing would be adding some appropriately colored robots to the fold.
