Turn Your Kid’s Bedroom Into An AP Class On STEAM Education
Maybe they'll build you a beer-fetching robot.
LittleBits have been driving the STEAM education bus into your household for a while now, with kits for building everything from adorable little robots to a fully functional KORG keyboard. But the company doesn’t want to only rely on your technological genius to help introduce all the science, technology, engineering, art/design, and math skills your kid will need in a future you can’t imagine (no offense), which is why they just released their STEAM Student Set.
For the uninitiated, LittleBits are electronic building block kits full of buttons, triggers, switches, wires, batteries, motors, LEDs, and more (the “Bits”) to encourage your kid (the “Little”) to invent all the things. The STEAM Student Set has all that, with 19 Bits and 38 accessories, but it’s educator-focused to ensure school kids are inventing real-world solutions, not paper airplane tossing machines. That’d be a waste anyway; those already drive themselves.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7kRvaVAjiY&index=7&list=PLHXgG0awHxDrzVED7kt26EHsk8vHxLqvi expand=1]
The set’s classroom-ready features include: a LittleBits Teacher’s Guide with lessons and implementation strategies; a mobile app loaded with more ideas; a 72-page Student Invention Guide with step-by-step, guided challenges; an Invention Log for documentation; and a Curricular Crosswalk chart covering all the NGSS and Common Core standards kids’ lessons now must meet, which are damn confusing even for teachers. Especially for teachers.
If your kid doesn’t yet have awesome maker toys in their classroom but you think they’re up for the challenge, snag yourself a set and turn their bedroom into Invention 101. Meantime, convince their principal to get with the times by pointing out the companion professional development course that helps instructors of all tech fluencies do their jobs better. At the very least, put Junior through the “Hack Your Habits” challenge to improve their daily life through invention. Depending on what habits they choose to hack, your life might improve dramatically in ways nobody’s thought of yet — exactly like your kid’s job prospects.
Ages: 8+
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