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Gifts Ideas for Tinkerers, Makers and Engineers

Do you have little builders, innovators and creators on your list this year? If so, then you are in the right place. These gifts have been specifically chosen to encourage creativity, innovation, hands-on play and learning.

If you are interested in other science themed gifts, be sure to stop by the other posts in this series: Fun and Educational Gifts for the Young Scientists on Your List.

This post contains affiliate links. Please see disclosures for more information.

Creative Building

K'NEX Intro to Simple Machines
Levers, pulleys and gears! K'NEX building systems allow kids to explore simple machines while using creativity to build an unlimited number of different structures. Sets come in a range of prices.

Goldieblox Craft-struction Box
Supplies for crafting a variety of projects like a Spring-Car that moves and a Leap bot that leaps, in addition to unlimited creative options. Access to bloxtown.com where you can find new ideas on videos uploaded daily! Compatible with all other Goldieblox sets.

Magna-tiles Clear Colors 32-pc set
Literally hours of play for all ages. I have worked with students from Preschool through Middle School who love building impressive structures with these magnetic blocks. Although a little more expensive, these are definitely worth the investment!

Pley.com
Did you know that you can rent LEGO? Yes, that is right! K'NEX and other toys too. With a Pley subscription, kids can play with a toy and then swap it out for a new one when they are done. A variety of pricing options.

Roominate Chateau
Open ended structure building. Beyond simply building a structure, materials are included to wire up motor and light circuits to add to your building. Create elevators, windmills and more. Compatible with all other Roominate sets.

Making with Electronics

Makey Makey
Makey Makey is just plain awesome. This electronic invention kit gives you an endless world of possibilities. Create music with a banana, play Mario with a play-doh gamepad. Easy to use, no programming knowledge needed. Alligator clips easily connect to objects to play with the world in ways you hadn't imagined until now! Recommended age: 8 and up.

Snap Circuits Jr. Electronics Discovery Kit

Create over one hundred electronic projects with this introductory circuit board. Components like switches, wires, alarms and a speaker easily snap together. Awesome kit to get kids excited about electronics!

snap circuits electronics for kids great gift idea

Kits and Sets

Auto Mechanic Super Engine Repair Set
Do you have a kiddo who likes taking things apart and putting them back together again? This is the perfect gift! They can tinker away with this toy car engine, with removable parts, horn and lights. Ages 3 and up.

TinkerCrate
Give a gift that will last throughout the year! Hands-on science and engineering projects delivered to your door monthly. Each box contains a hands-on project with instructions, Tinkerzine (a magazine of additional projects) and access to online tutorials. Pricing options vary with subscription. Ages 9-16.

Groovy Lab in a Box
Groovy Lab in a Box is another awesome hands-on science and engineering project subscription service. Subscribe to receive monthly STEM projects, or purchase individual boxes. Projects include building your own light-up dance pad, and airplane design challenges. Ages 8 and up. Prices vary depending on subscription or single box purchase.

2 Groovy boxes that might be of particular interest to your engineer are:

Children's STEAM Festival: Rube Goldberg Machines- an Engineering Challenge!

It is Day 3 of the Children's STEAM Festival and today we are taking a closer look at ENGINEERING! Read on to find out how you can engineer your own Rube Goldberg contraption and then be sure to visit Growing With Science where Roberta has some interesting Engineering Activities for Kids to share.

Engineering has to do with designing and building using engines, machines and structures. Engineering challenges are an engaging way to bring science concepts to life and encourage critical thinking and problem solving.

Challenging children to build Rube Goldberg machines is a particularly exciting engineering task. Rube Goldberg was an engineer and a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist in the early 1900's. He is well known, amongst other things, for his drawings of wacky, complicated machines that accomplish simple tasks.

image: Rube Goldberg [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Machines like those depicted in Rube Goldberg's cartoons have been built for annual Rube Goldberg Machine contests, have gone viral on Youtube and make for some impressive tv ads. Here are a few of my favorite videos depicting Rube Goldberg inspired machines:

Building a Rube Goldberg machine is a great engineering challenge because you can leave it as open-ended or as structured as you like. At school I've tasked kids with building machines that include a certain number of simple machines and a minimum and maximum number of steps. I've challenged them to pour water into a cup, squirt toothpaste out of a tube and pop a balloon. As far as materials go, the sky is the limit. I've had students choose to use things from everyday recyclables to the science room's skeleton model and a skateboard!

Rube Goldberg Competition by jclarson from New Mexico [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This is a great summertime activity. Draw a blueprint and then amend it through trial and error. What scientific principles will you put to use? Gravity? Equal and opposite forces? Make a hypothesis on how certain aspects will work. Test it out! This is the scientific method in practice!

Here are some ideas for your Rube Goldberg Machine challenge:

Simple Machines

include at least 3 inclined planes (ramps)
include a pulley and an inclined plane (ramp)
include a device that rolls on a wheel and axle

Everyday tasks

turn off a light switch
close a door
feed the dog
water the garden

Possible supplies: dominoes, popsicle sticks, k'nex or legos, blocks, marbles, small pulleys, string, toys, cardboard tubes, boxes, empty cans (watch out for sharp edges!), etc. etc.!

The official Rube Goldberg Machine Contest challenge for 2016 is to open an umbrella. Are you up for that challenge? There are a variety of age levels of the contest (11-18+), live and online. Find out more here.

What task will your Rube Goldberg Machine accomplish? What supplies did you use? Did you make a cool video? Please share! You can add a comment in the comment section or comment on the Children's STEAM Festival posts on Facebook or Google+.

Rube Goldberg Machine and other Engineering Resources:

Rube Goldberg Website
Rube Goldberg Machine Lesson Plan
Get Caught Engineering
Try Engineering
Teach Engineering
American Society of Engineering Education K-12 Division

Thanks for exploring engineering with me today! I'm looking forward to sharing STEAM ideas with you all week! To review our schedule and find links to all of the festival posts, click the Children's STEAM Festival button below.

The Google Science Fair is Back!

The Google Science Fair is now taking submissions for 2015. This contest for young scientists, innovators and engineers is in its 4th year and I continue to be awestruck by the incredible work being done by the young people who participate. What is the Google Science Fair? It is an international science and technology contest for kids ages 13-18. They can participate as an individual or on a team. Past winners have investigated lowering the cost of biofuels, cleaning up oil sands waste, mini flying robots, battling world hunger and much more. Check out some of our great young minds here.

The Google Science Fair is certainly not the only big science contest for kids. There are many options out there spanning a wide range of ages. Whether you are interested in having your students and children participate in a contest or not, reading the descriptions are a great way to inspire your own classroom projects and challenges. Children hold so much potential for creative ideas, it is our job to foster their curiosity!

I was so inspired by one past winner of the Google Science Fair, Ann Makosinski, I wrote about her last fall. In addition to the story of her bright idea for a flashlight that is powered by the palm of your hand, I've included several science opportunities and resources for young innovators. Check it out here.

For some ideas for engineering opportunities at home or in the classroom, check out the resources listed in my post "Solar Power in Space: Real Life Engineering Challenges". "Get Caught Engineering" is another great resource for engineering, STEM and innovation activities.

If you are looking for science contests for kids you might want to visit my Pinterest board "Science Contests for Kids" or my blog page "Contests, Grants and Freebies" for an up-to-date listing of science contests and other interesting projects that benefit schools, teachers and students.

The following websites also maintain extensive lists of contest opportunities for kids:

Let's get our creative young innovators and scientists inspired! Do you have a favorite science project or competition? Comment below or e-mail me at: shareitscience@gmail.com

Solar Power in Space: Real Life Engineering Challenges

It was thrilling for all to follow the progress of the Philae lander as it approached its comet destination through the European Space Agency's Rosetta Mission. Although this was a historical feat and Philae was able to record and send back some information, due to a "bounce" during landing the lander ended up in an unexpected position in the dark shadows of a cliff. The lack of light prevented Philae from drawing enough solar power to continue running, and for now the lander is in hibernation. Scientists are hopeful that as the comet approaches the sun in the next few months that it may be able to power up again. This is just one example of the myriad of engineering challenges facing space programs. It is rocket science after all...

After hearing about this issue with the Philae lander, I was reminded of something I learned while visiting Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum this summer in Washington, D.C. NASA's Mars rover, Opportunity, which has been chugging along for 10 years now could easily have been put to a halt due to dust covering its solar panels.

Dusty solar panels on Opportunity. (photo: NASA)

With dust storms on the red planet, it was predicted that this could be an issue with the rover mission. Opportunity has far surpassed all expectations, however, it would be great if the rover could continue traversing Mars as long as possible. From Earth there is only so much that can be done to remedy engineering issues when they arise on a rover like this. Luckily for Opportunity, strong winds last March cleared a lot of dust off of the solar panels. We saw evidence of this from two different "selfies"sent by the rover before and after the cleaning.

Space exploration is always an engaging topic. Why not use the real-life challenges facing the Philae lander and Mars rovers as a way to inspire students to tackle engineering challenges? There are so many unforeseen issues that arise in a space mission, we can use these instances to spark interest and foster great problem solving skills in our kids. After all, they might be faced with a major challenge someday with only their own ingenuity and a roll of duct tape to help them out!

There are many ways to introduce engineering, innovation and creative thought at school and home. It could be a building challenge using a kit, or it can be as simple as providing a few supplies, such as marshmallows and spaghetti to build a tower. Each year at my school we engage students in mixed age groups to complete a science challenge on our annual "Science Day". These challenges have included: soda bottle rockets, egg drop, paper airplanes, spaghetti and marshmallows towers, drinking straw bridges, etc. We also give students assignments to build solar cars, solar ovens and popsicle stick bridges during our science classes. The students come up with many different solutions to these open ended challenges. Their creativity always surpasses our expectations. How have you inspired your children or students to be a creative engineer? Comment below!

Read more:

Science News: "Good-night Philae"

Space News: "Philae Managers Say Recovery Possible as Comet Approaches Sun"

Space.com: "Opportunity: TheAmazing Self-Cleaning Mars Rover"

Sky and Telescope: "OpportunityRover Gets a Cleaning"

Engineering Resources and Activities:

Build a balloon powered nanorover (NASA)

TERC Astrobiology Afterschool Curriculum

Build a Solar Car

NASA's Space Place: People and Technology Activities

NASA Mars Rover Mission Website

PBS Design Squad

PBS Dragonfly TV

Free Resources for Children's Engineering

Engineering is Elementary: Boston Museum of Science

Engineering and Science Activities for Girls

What is a Virus Anyway?

This time of year, in this year especially, there is a lot of buzz and fear over viruses. Ebola and Enterovirus D68 have been particularly newsworthy due to some tragic losses and some miraculous recoveries. I am not going to write about the politics or statistics of these viruses here, however, I would like to try to answer these questions: What is a virus anyway? How can we educate our children accurately without scaring them?

Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus

We can trace our discovery of viruses back to 1898 when it was found that the cause of foot and mouth disease in lifestock was something even smaller than bacteria. Although we did not have a clear indication of what that meant yet, it was the first evidence that illness could be caused by something else. Viruses, although unwanted in many cases, are truly brilliant. Outside of a host they are enclosed in a membrane, protein coat or capsid that encases the DNA and RNA that codes for their particular strain of virus. They depend on a host to reproduce, so once they have traveled through some vector (air, water, bodily fluids) they reach the cells of the host. Once in the host cell the virus inserts its DNA into the cell, which essentially takes over the cell and the virus uses the cell's abilities for itself. The cell begins to produce more of the virus rather than complete its normal tasks. Eventually, the viral material bursts from the cell and continues to find new cells to infect. Viral diseases come in many forms and use many vectors to travel. Ebola is an example of a virus that is not airborne, it travels through contact with bodily fluids. Enterovirus D68 on the other hand is one that is spread through the air when someone sneezes or coughs. There are thousands of viruses ranging from the common cold, to chicken pox, to AIDS.

So how do we teach about viruses? In general, I believe that if kids learn about good hygiene, what a virus is, how their body fights disease and how grown-ups are working hard to keep them healthy, then we have done our job. It also doesn't hurt to keep exposure to the news media at a minimum since kids interpret what they hear in many different ways. There are many good resources to teach kids about health and their body. One of my favorites to use with my students is www.kidshealth.org. There are many interactives, articles and videos here to help understand their body and health. They also keep up to date with current health issues and write about them in an accurate and age appropriate way, such as this recent article on Ebola. Another good resource is NSF International's "Scrub Club" website. This site is full of cartoons, games and other fun resources to teach about germs and sanitation. Excellent resources for older students and adults are: The Encyclopedia of Life, The Big Picture Book of Viruses and Cells Alive! There have also been several interesting blog posts by Travis Good about innovations to help reign in Ebola in a series entitled: "Makers Against Ebola". This is part of a larger design challenge called "Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development" by Open IDEO, which is a community for designers and makers for social good. Sounds like a great prompt for some innovation or engineering projects at school or home!

How do you teach your kids or students about health and viruses? If you know of a great resource please add it in the comment section!

Resources for Kids and Adults about Health and Viruses:

The Encyclopedia of Life: What is a Virus?

Introduction to Viruses

World Health Organization: Ebola Fact Sheet

Center for Disease Control: Enterovirus D68

Kids Health Website

Brainpop! Health and Disease (Need to subscribe to a free trial, but a great resource for kids!)

The Scrub Club

The Big Picture Book of Viruses

Cells Alive!

Makezine: Travis Good blog posts on "Makers Against Ebola" design ideas.

Inventions for a Brighter Future

Ann Makosinski is a teenage inventor from Victoria, BC, Canada. She embodies the type of drive and thoughtful innovation that gives me faith for our future. Last year, at the ripe old age of 15, Ann won the Google Science Fair in the 15-16 year old category. Her invention is elegantly simple, yet incredibly utilitarian. She invented a flashlight that is powered by the heat of your own hand. Ann was inspired by friends in the Philippines who were unable to do their homework once it was dark because they had no electricity. Ann knew that this was the case in many parts of the world. She was interested in tapping into the potential of human thermal energy. Ann's flashlight is an aluminum tube lined with Peltier tiles. Peltier tiles are made of two different types of metal and generate a current when one side is heated and the other cooled. When you hold the flashlight the heat from your hand warms one side of the tile, while the other side is cooled by the ambient air. She made her prototype for $26 and it could maintain a strong beam of light for 20 minutes. Her flashlight works with no batteries, no mechanical energy (like cranking), as soon as you pick it up- it lights up. Brilliant. Since winning the Google competition she has begun to work with engineers to increase the brightness output to be more comparable with other flashlights. Until then it is not marketable, but a solution is within reach.
It has only been fairly recently when scientists and engineers have looked into using body heat as a power source. It is difficult, as our thermal energy is not strong enough to run most devices. Possible applications may be power sources for hearing aids, or pacemakers.

Ann is just one of a growing group of young inventors and makers. Google is not the only high stakes contest available for innovative kids; others include the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Microsoft's Imagine Cup, Toshiba's Exploravision, and the Intel Science Talent Search. In an age where it is easy to imagine creativity being squashed by so much clicking, swiping and staring at screens it is exciting to see all of the incredible things the next generation of citizens are producing.

Invention challenges are only one piece of the innovation puzzle. As we become more plugged in, many people yearn to create in three dimensions. I believe it is innately human to innovate. Kids and adults are becoming more involved in the maker and DIY movements. Maker spaces are becoming available for people to share in the use of tools, equipment and technology to build and create their own inventions. From knitting and canning to carpentry and electronics, magazines, books and websites featuring ideas and directions for do-it-yourself projects are all the rage. It seems that the more "advanced" we become with our gadgets the more we miss engaging our minds and hands.
I was inspired and filled with hope in reading about Ann and other young inventors. With a little creativity and ambition, the possibilities are truly infinite.

Read more:

Resources and links for Inventors: