It is essential the United States and the world have a diverse STEM workforce. This includes representation of varying races, ethnicities, and genders. There has been an increased effort in diversifying the STEM workforce in recent years – but there is still a long way to go.
Women make up over 50 percent of the overall workforce in the United States. Despite this high representation, women only account for approximately 25 percent of the entire STEM workforce. One way we can increase women in STEM is to give young girls access to quality STEM education starting as early as preschool and kindergarten. As parents, one way we can improve our daughter’s STEM literacy is by incorporating STEM lessons at home during the school year and summer months. An easy and effective way to do this is through STEM toys. STEM toys are a low maintenance way to introduce young girls to STEM learning and harbor a passion for STEM subjects, such as chemistry or engineering!
In this article, STEM Sports® has compiled a list of engaging STEM toys and activities to get your daughter excited about STEM.
*The prices listed in this article are subject to change at the discretion of each vendor, brand, and distributor.
The STEM Activity: The LeapFrog Magic Adventures Microscope is a great way to introduce children to science! This real microscope magnifies slides 200 times and will get children excited and interested in the details of the world around them. This STEM toy includes nine (9) slides that will allow children to take a closer look at different animals and elements. When using this STEM toy, parents and educators can encourage children to write down and verbalize the observations they are making.
Price: $89.99
The STEM Activity: The Crayola Paper Butterfly Science Kit is a great STEAM activity for elementary aged children. With this STEM toy, children explore earth science while exercising their creativity when decorating each butterfly. This is also a great way to help children improve their fine motor skills; a skill that will benefit them in all subjects and in the future.
Price: $26.19
The STEM Activity: The Lego® Education BricQ Motion Prime Set is a great STEM toy for middle school and high school aged children. Using this hands-on STEM toy, your daughter will learn about forces, motion, and interactions. This STEM toy can be used over a period of weeks and can be reused multiple times. This makes it a perfect holiday or birthday gift for a girl who is interested in STEM and wants to improve her STEM literacy.
Price: $133.95
The STEM Activity: The Sphero Mini Activity Kit is a turnkey STEM toy that introduces children to coding. Children will assemble their mini robot, which will introduce them to essential engineering skills. Then, once the robot is built, they will learn how different codes can control their robot and make it do different actions and movements. Coding is an extremely lucrative career path and it is rapidly growing. It is beneficial to introduce girls to coding at a young age to set them up for success in their education and possible future careers.
Price: $89.00
The STEM Activity: The KiwiCo Planet Bath Bombs introduces children to chemistry through a hands-on engaging lesson. This STEM kit comes with everything needed to create bath bombs at home. During the creation process, children will use their creativity to design and customize their bath bombs. They will then learn about chemical reactions when seeing how the bath bomb materials react when dropped into hot water.
Price: $19.95
The STEM Activity: The Clixo Super Rainbow Kit is great for individual or group learning sessions. Using this STEM toy, children are transformed into engineers. Throughout the STEM activity, children are encouraged to think creatively as they build different shapes, buildings, or whatever else they can imagine!
Price: $89.99
The STEM Activity: The Good Housekeeping Amazing Science Book includes over 80 STEAM activities to get children excited about learning. Each lesson teaches a different key STEM concept through hands-on, engaging activities. These lessons are best suited for children ages 8-12, but this can vary depending on current skill level and experience with STEM curricula.
Price: $17.00 (or $9.00 on Kindle)
The STEM Activity: The STEM Sports® STEM All-Star Kit is a monthly subscription that will get kids ages 8-14 excited about learning. Each month, they will receive a different box using a different sport to highlight a STEM concept. This STEM subscription kit will engage the sports lover or the bookworm – helping to get them physically active and improve their STEM literacy!
Price: $249.99 or $24.99 / month
The STEM Activity: If you have a toddler aged daughter and are looking to introduce her to STEM, the Primary Science® Sensory Tubes activity is the perfect fit. This STEM toy introduces children to basic STEM concepts while strengthening sensory skills and observational skills. By strengthening these skills early in a child’s education, parents are setting up their child for success throughout their educational journey.
Price: $39.99
If you are a parent interested in implementing STEM lessons with your child, read these STEM Sports® blogs:
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