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STEM Toys that Inspire Ingenuity

janoszd — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 07:20:22 +0000

Here’s my 2018 list of toys that inspire ingenuity, creativity, tinkering, STEM learning, building, and making for kids of all ages.

Price Ranges:
$ – under $25
$$ – $25-49.99
$$$ – $50-74.99
$$$$ – $75-99.99
$$$$$ – over $100

Makedo Cardboard Construction Tools
Ages – 6+
Price – $
Description – Makedo is one of my favorite STEM construction toys out there on the market and it’s super low cost to get into it. Everyone knows that kids can have as much fun with empty cardboard boxes that the gifts that came inside them and this takes the fun to the next level. With the basic Toolkit that comes with plastic screws, safety cutter, and screw driver kids can construct anything they can imagine with leftover cardboard from holiday shipping boxes, so be sure to save them!
Link – https://www.make.do/collections/all-products

Circuit Scribe
Ages – 8+
Price – $$
Description – Circuit Scribe is a fun conductive ink pen that allows you to draw your own circuits for use with other included components, such as lights and switches. Mini and Basic kits are very reasonably priced at $14.99 and $34.99 respectively.
Link – https://shop.circuitscribe.com/

blink blink
Ages – 8+
Price – $$$
Description – blink blink has found a niche in wearables, allowing kids to make fun wearable technology. The Wearable Tech Kit provides the necessary tools to engineer sewable circuits into DIY arts, crafts and fashion tech projects – from LED light up scarfs and leggings to pressure sensors for other wearables.
Link – http://www.blinkblink.cc/kit/

Dash and Dot – Wonder Workshop
Ages – good for all ages, 8+ for programming tools
Price – $$$$$
Description – Dash and Dot are programmable robots that can follow lines, play music, and other interactive tasks.
Link – https://store.makewonder.com/#/robots

LEGO
Ages – 4+
Price – $$$
Description – LEGO offers a range of products for budding young engineers and tinkerers. Even though all can appreciate the value of the simple brick, the “Technic” and “Power Funtions” lines of product that include gears, axles, and motors can be used to build machines and learn about energy and power.
Link – https://shop.lego.com/en-US/

LEGO Mindstorms
Ages – 7+
Price – $$$$$
Description – For an all in one, albeit expensive, box of versatile parts, take a look at LEGO Mindstorms EV3. The basic robotics kit includes the programmable brick that kids can learn to program as well as a range of motors and sensors to make magic. Check the website for free apps to do the programming as well as a series of challenges.
Link – https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms

Water Rockets
Ages – 14+
Price – $$
Description – Supply your own two liter bottle and bicycle pump to use with this launcher and kids can create their own rockets that will launch up to 100 feet in the air.
Link – https://tinkersphere.com/novelties/2430-water-propelled-rocket-085761143319.html

Model Rockets
Ages – 8+
Price – $
Description – Aerospace projects are a very fun way to engage young people. The Estes brand offers a range of kits from those that are ready to fly to those with assembly and some design required. They’re available in a variety of stores, but be aware that you will need to purchase motors separately. The A type motor is the least powerful, but important if you want to launch the rocket multiple times. To start, you’ll need a rocket, launch pad, ignition system, and motors, which usually come with igniters and recovery wadding.
Link – http://www.estesrockets.com/

littleBits
Ages – 8+
Price – $$$$
Description – littleBits is a platform of easy to use electronic building blocks that kids can use to create inventions. The Base Kit includes ten modules including a DC Motor, buzzer, dimmer, and light sensor. A way to have fun and learn about electronics and logic all at the same time.
Link – https://shop.littlebits.com/

GoldieBlox
Ages – 4+
Price – $$
Description – Designed and marketed primarily to young girls, GoldieBlox offers a series of kits and sets that allow kids to play and learn about mechanical and other systems.
Link – https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/6EC51CBE-A1F4-43D7-9E45-37D67E6C9836

Tools, just tools
Ages – 4+
Price – $$
Description – Imagine being a kid that likes to build and tinker and hearing a grownup say “get your tools so you can help.” Not plastic toys, but real tools sized for little hands. Consider a basic set with some degree of good quality that includes a hammer, screwdrivers, pliers, and a wrench.
Link – https://www.amazon.com/Grip-96009-Childrens-Tool-Kit/dp/B001AIU2UO

Makey Makey
Ages – 7+
Price – $$
Description – Use Makey Makey to connect to virtually anything that will conduct even a little electricity to make fun inventions. Use bananas to make a keyboard. Use play dough buttons as a game controller. Great for beginners and fun even for expert makers.
Link – https://shop.makeymakey.com

fischertechnik
Ages – 7+
Price – $$
Description – A classic German-designed series of component parts to create a variety of machines and structures. Mechanical models can be made from gears, basic building blocks, static parts, wheels and many other parts. Available from many retailers, this construction set helps children to understand everyday technology by playing.
Link – http://www.studica.com/us/en/fischertechnik/fischertechnik-universal-starter/536618.html

Vex
Ages – 8+
Price – $$$$$
Description – Used in school based programs and robotics competitions, the VEX Robotics Design System offers students an exciting platform for learning about STEM.
Link – http://www.vexrobotics.com/find-a-reseller

Meccano
Ages – 5+
Price – $$
Description – A fairly widely available building platform that uses modular parts. Build vehicles, robotics, buildings, and other items limited only by imagination.
Link – http://www.meccano.com/where-to-buy

Disruptus
Ages – 10+
Price – $
Description – Disruptus is a game that asks players to look at objects and ideas and use different approaches — as determined by the roll of a die — to innovate. Disruptus draws inspiration from the practice of “disruptive thinking,” one of the most powerful ways to innovate. Disruptive thinking has been used to create ideas and objects like digital music, and car sharing programs.
Link – https://www.funnybonetoys.com/product/disruptus/

Rokenbok
Ages – 3+
Price – $$$$
Description – Rokenbok is a construction toy system that promotes STEM learning through hands-on exploration and play. Children build their own Rokenbok cities and then use remote control vehicles, conveyor belts, and chute systems to interact with their creations.
Link – https://rokenbokeducation.org/toys

STEM League NVD – November 3, 2016

janoszd — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 20:08:53 +0000

Photos from the STEM League meet held at Northern Valley Regional High School – Demarest on November 3, 2016 are now posted.

Below are a few favorites. For the complete album, please click to:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskMbPJGz

Below is a link to brief video highlights from the competition.

Congratulations to the First Place Team from Paramus High School!

STEM League NVD – November 3, 2016 – Video Highlights

STEM League NVOT – October 27, 2015

janoszd — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 20:04:19 +0000

Photos from the STEM League meet held at Northern Valley Regional High School – Old Tappan on October 27, 2015 are now posted.

Below are a few favorites. For the complete album, please click to:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsknRhFNs

Below is a link to brief video highlights from the competition.

Congratulations to the First Place Team from Fair Lawn High School!

STEM League NVOT – October 27, 2015 – Video Highlights

STEM League Northern Highlands – April 14, 2015

janoszd — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 18:54:27 +0000

Photos from the STEM League meet held at Northern Highlands Regional HS on April 14, 2015 are now posted.

Below are a few favorites. For the complete album, please click to:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskjVoDGf

App Review: 123D Catch

janoszd — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:06:26 +0000

Cost: Free
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Grade Levels: 7-12
iPad App Link

The 123D Catch app developed by Autodesk demonstrates exciting new possibilities for tablets and smart phones. Use your camera to take 20-30 photos of an object from various angles and 360 degrees around and the app generates a 3D model of the object. Models can be exported and emailed as .3dp format. Although the app has a simple interface it takes some practice to take effective photos for models, so it may try the patience of younger children.

This would be greater fun with access to a 3D printer to actually print your models, but even without that it can help to provide an outstanding orientation to the exciting new world of 3D imaging and modeling. Just a few years ago software with this type of functionality cost upwards of thousands of dollars and required high end hardware. Now you can have it in your pocket and free!

App Review: 3D CAD Models Engineering

janoszd — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:54:35 +0000

Cost: Free
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Grade Levels: 7-12
iPad App Link

The CAD Models app provides access to thousands of drawn and rendered parts from more than 300 catalogs of leading global manufacturers. The downloadable 3D CAD models are compliant with the most important international standards and are available for all current CAD systems, such as: CATIA®, Autodesk® Inventor®, SolidWorks®, Creo/trade; Parametric, NX™, AutoCAD®, Solid Edge®, etc. The preview within the app provides users to rotate 3D parts and zoom.

I see at least a couple of possible classroom applications. First, these files could be used as resources when introducing basic drawing techniques such as isometric and orthographic. A teacher could select a few interesting or challenging parts for students to view and try to draw using the techniques they are learning. Second, these standard parts could become a valuable library or resources for higher level design projects. Students could use a combination of this library of parts in conjunction with their CAD system to model more advanced systems.

App Review: Wind Tunnel

janoszd — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:45:07 +0000

Cost: $1.99, Free Lite and HD Pro versions available
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Grade Levels: 4-12
iPad App Link

The Wind Tunnel app allows you to draw freeform shapes on screen and observe a simulation of how particles and smoke would move over and around the shape in a wind tunnel. This could be a great enhancement for lessons and activities that deal with flight as well as other transportation types of activities. Have students draw and test their designs and shapes in the Wind Tunnel app first before they build and test physical models. The free version will only give you a basic sense of what the app can do and how it works; it will not allow for the drawing of your own shapes.

Ingenuity

janoszd — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 12:30:21 +0000

The profession I most closely identify with has been challenged since I’ve entered into it, perhaps longer, with an identity crisis. This is not surprising; I believe that many others in education are hard-pressed to articulate why they teach what they teach. To me, this discussion is very much about identifying the personal quality that one wants to develop in young children. Language arts and English teachers strive to develop literacy in young people. Physical education teachers strive to teach lifelong physical fitness.

Most in my profession have wanted to hang their hats on the term “technological literacy,” especially since the release of the National Standards for Technological Literacy by the ITEEA in 2001. Is technological literacy a personal quality? Yes. Is it measurable? Well, yes, but many would set out to measure someone’s proficiency using Microsoft Word in an effort to describe a young person’s “technological literacy.” Unfortunately, the time when my profession could have captured this term and made it their own has long since sailed away.

“Design” is a pretty understandable term, but it is not a personal quality. It’s more a verb or activity and also sounds like something art teachers teach. I’ve taught many students over the years about the design loop or the other design processes, but I’d rather hang my hat on a personal quality as an outcome of teaching.

Some like to use the term “engineering.” Does “engineering” describe a great deal of what we teach and how we teach it? Yes, but engineering (the verb) doesn’t describe everything that I’d want children to develop through their education. Add to that the fact that engineering is the title of a very specific profession and you might see the problem with widespread adoption of the term as something desirable in every school for every student. Further, engineering is not really a measurable personal quality.

“Innovation” also sounds like a desirable thing. But, I’m not sure that you could call innovation a personal quality. An innovation to me is more of a thing, a noun. Yes, there is a describable process behind the term and I want young people to learn to innovate, but innovation really isn’t a personal quality. Beyond that, innovation seems to have become pretty cliche in the current common vernacular.

There has been a recent rally around the term “STEM” in the realm of education among those in and around my profession. Is it a very laudable goal that we should be striving toward to have more integrated learning especially at the high school level? Absolutely. But, that may be the best thing that will ever come from the acronym that as far as I can tell was first conceived as a way to organize funding streams instead of as a way to make interdisciplinary connections. I’d also rather not describe what I’m about in terms of the acronym du jour, which will surely fade into the next catchy acrostic invention.

This brings me to the term “ingenuity,” the namesake of this blog. Every student should be spending time in school developing their ingenuity, and lots of it. Looking at some dictionary definitions of the term I find that it is a personal quality. It’s a term that can be used in conjunction with talent. There’s an outcome to be had from applying it. Perhaps we haven’t yet found the most effective way to measure it in an educational setting, but in my heart of hearts I believe that it’s just as measurable as one’s physical fitness. One can challenge themselves to develop their ingenuity and they can also put it on display in a competitive setting.

So, fifteen years into my education career, I think I’ve decided on the term that I’m going to “be about” and promote it’s development in our young people. I want my own children to develop their ingenuity because I think it will make them every bit as successful in life as almost anything else. I want the young people of our nation to develop their ingenuity because I think it’s what has always set us apart from others and I think that will continue. I want others around the world to develop their ingenuity because with ingenuity becomes independence.

President Obama’s State of the Union 2011

janoszd — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:25:52 +0000

About the first thirty minutes of President Obama’s State of the Union Speech tonight was dedicated to innovation, education, and infrastructure.

I don’t take lightly how the president interwove these themes with education and our schools. I especially noted this reference to the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): “And over the next ten years, with so many Baby Boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.”

I admire the goal; it’s a very laudable one. However, so many people do not yet realize the power of the two middle parts of the STEM acronym and the value added to a student’s experience when they study them along with mathematics and science. Though they are hard to find and it may not be true in every school, most schools math and science departments are staffed with people that are very capable of teaching those subjects. What we do not have is enough people to teach our students about technology, engineering, and ingenuity.

Also prominent in this first segment of the speech were themes of entrepreneurship, manufacturing, how technology has revolutionized our lives, global competition, creativity and imagination, clean energy, infrastructure, and invention. Our students need to know about these things too, but there is really no time left in their math and science classes to learn something meaningful about these other important topics.

The president also made reference to Sputnik and how it led us to transform our education system and research and development.

If we’re going to reinvent ourselves and reinvent our nation, we cannot do it with the same education system that came out of the post-Sputnik era. While giving our kids more experiences in learning math and science were great things to come out of that era, we need to build on that for the future. Our education system needs more in the way of instruction in Technology and Engineering, which is core to developing ingenuity of our young people.

Here where I live in New Jersey, we have set a strong foundation for these studies. We’ve also engaged engineers, architects, industrial designers, and other professionals and showed them a path to sharing their knowledge and experience with children. Let’s build on that and truly reinvent education with study of Technology and Engineering at the core.

Project Management

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:40:30 +0000

The processes of invention and project management are very similar, and both are very important to the world of business. An inventor manages a complex project or process involving manpower, money, resources, and time schedules, just like an engineer would do when they create a new product or design and construct a new building or bridge. The inventive process is inherently STEM-based, requiring the inventor/engineer to think in a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary fashion. Since project management is a highly prized skill in the world of work, having kids involved in inventive activities is a highly relevant school-to-work activity. This is exactly the kind of thinking the business world will demand of employees.

Give young people a big jump start in the business world and help them better understand project management as a lesson of ingenuity. Here are some ideas for the classroom:

1) Integrate the business aspects of inventive thought into their activities. Engineers and inventors don’t invent because they can, but because there is an economic incentive to do so. When they are involved in an invention challenge, make sure they discuss the economics and marketing aspects and intellectual property of the invention.

2) After they conceive of a new product or invention, have them take some time to think like a project manager and identify the kinds of skills they will need on their project team to bring the invention/product to market.

3) Invite project managers and inventors to act as role models for students and to stimulate discussion about the value of invention and new product development. Also, the invited project managers and inventors can serve to discuss the educational skills necessary to hold these positions.