A "STEAM"Y Holiday Gift List
Cost: $159 (base kit) plus optional add ons
Ages: Grade 4 and up
Engineering & coding
This year we have found a lot of success with the launch of our Hummingbird robotics program with our 5th Grade lunch club. All you need is some basic supplies around the house and a spark of creativity and you will be engineering something in no time. Various lights, servo motors, sensors and a circuit board allow students to build and code anything they want from very basic to more advanced design. The Base Kit includes everything you need to get going, however if you want a robot that will actually roll around on the floor You will need to also purchase 2 gear motors, wheels (or make them yourself), and a battery pack. Coding uses scratch, Snap (a product of Scratch), or more advanced java. It is a great way to easily engineer a basic bot and use the basic coding principles of sense, think, act to motivate your students to create something fascinating. Their website as well as YouTube offers example projects and tutorials.
This is my new favorite tool of the year that we have added to our school. I highly recommend it to instill a love of engineering, coding, creativity in your child.
Cost: $99
Ages: Grades 3 & up
Coding
The Finch is a small robot designed to inspire and delight students learning computer science by providing them a tangible and physical representation of their code. The Finch has support for over a dozen programming languages including environments appropriate for students as young as five years old! The Finch was developed to catalyze a wide range of computer science learning experiences, from an entry into the basics of computational thinking all the way to writing richly interactive programs.Try programming a Finch today!
Cost: 24.95 per month
Ages: Grades 1-6
Gaming & Coding
Bitsbox truly is the gift that keeps on giving for any level of experience coder. Each month you receive a box in the mail which includes a themed book as well as accompanying game which students can enjoy in the physical world (as opposed to the virtual world.) The book contains coding activities which helps students create video games that can be played on an iPhone, iPad or any other device. It is a huge motivator for students to be able to play the games that they create. This can be used to teach basic coding skills by simply copying the content of the book, or to challenge the student by trying different variables, backgrounds, characters and other elements to not just extend their understanding of coding but affords them the opportunity to be more creative in their designs as well.
Cost: 34.99
Ages: Grades 2 & up
Gaming & Coding
Does your student love to be a storyteller? Do they enjoy being artistic? Bloxel's Builder is a great way for students to create something in the physical world using small blocks, snap a photo, and turn it into a video game using the free Bloxel’s Builder app. Bloxel's builder is a great way for students to connect their physical and virtual worlds all while enhancing their technology & art abilities.
Cost: 44.99-199.99
Ages: Grades 3 & up
Circuitry
Snap Circuits provides a fun and easy way for students to learn circuitry to make any one of hundreds of creations. Students can create fans, alarms, horns, and other things all triggered by various switches. Students learn the principles of electronic engineering all while having fun creating new and exciting things. Depending on the kit, there are anywhere from 100-700 experiments and guides available. A good starter kit would be the pro kit for $99.99 or the Snap Circuit 300 for $69.99. We have a couple sets of this in the Lainer School Library’s J-STEAM section and it is a student favorite (especially with our 5th Graders.)
Cost: $49.99
Ages: Grades 2 & Up
Coding & Circuitry
MakeyMakey is another student favorite. They learn about electronic circuitry and coding all while creating their own video games using a cloud based application. Students can challenge their creativity and coding skills while also learning about circuitry.
Cost: $119.99
Ages: PreK and Up
Engineering, Coding, creativity and fun
The Sphero is a sphero shaped robot that runs via bluetooth from any device (iPhone, iPad, android, etc.) One of the most versatile robots on the market, the Sphero includes many apps that are available which allow you to simply drive it across a room, or write code to make it work. We have used these in various grade levels at school for students to drive using a joystick, to coding & measuring angles. You can have fun creating obstacle courses around the house and using the joystick to navigate the bot; create digital art pieces that are created by the path of the sphero, or even create a physical world mini-golf course and play it virtually with an app.
Cost: 99.99
Ages: PreK and up
Ozobots have become a favorite among our primary learners at school in the last couple of years. Ozobots are small (about the size of a penn) robots equipped with color sensors that are designed to change colors based on the color of the line it is following. Students enjoy coloring lines on paper and watching the bot change colors. To make it a more coding based robot, there are various combinations of color that you can use to tell the robot to act a certain way. This can include turning, speeding up, slowing down and more. There are mazes and bowling activities that you can do which will challenge students critical thinking skills.
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