Best scientific, experiment & STEM toys for kids | 2022 Impressive Buyer’s Guide from Scholars & Parents
What is the best science toy? These toys will help your children to better understand the world and teach them critical thinking. But how to choose the one that will really be helpful? While being meant for educational purposes, science toys are not school textbooks but should be associated with fun and games.
According to scholars, games are an effective way to learn new things and more importantly, how to make choices. Secondly, the toy should offer an explanation of a scientific fact, not just its demonstration. Thirdly, this kind of toy should not be too complicated, otherwise, your kid may just lose interest in it.
TOP-15 Best Scientific, Experiment & STEM Toys for Kids
We have reviewed the TOP-15 best STEM toys and science kits for kids at a price ranging from $10 to $200. Depending on what skills you want to develop in your child — robot coding and engineering or knowledge in geography, astronomy, physics or geology — you will find the right toy here.
1. CIRO Solar Robot Kit 12-In-1 STEM Toys | Best for Engineering Skills
This kit is great for getting children interested in STEM fields such as engineering. Designed for children 8-12 years of age, this kit is packed with everything they'll need in order to create their own customized solar-powered robot toy.
Complete with 190 pieces ranging from gears, plates, tires, and shafts, this kit is a great way to get children to explore the various engineering possibilities available to them, Easy to use, children will come back to this one over and over again. If you want a detailed insight into trusted and beneficial programmable and interactive robots to enhance a STEM mindset in your child, read our Buyer's Guide — 15 Best Robot Toy Reviews.
CIRO: Check the current price
2. Shifu Orboot Interactive Globe For Kids | Best Geography STEM Toy
Designed for children 4 years of age and older, this interactive globe will likely be a toy your child will return to over and over again throughout the years.
This toy takes an augmented reality approach to allow children to explore the world. This globe is made to be paired with a smartphone or tablet app that allows children to hold their device up the globe and effectively explore the world.
The app then reveals details about each country and continent presented, making this a truly enriching toy for any age.
Shifu: Check the current price
3. LEGO Star Wars Droid Building Set | Best Coding Toy for Kids
The LEGO brand is well-known for having provided children with the opportunity to explore their creativity for decades. This kit is innovative for the present age, as not only will children create their favorite Star Wars droids, they will also be exposed to level-appropriate coding with this STEM toy.
This kit will test your child's problem-solving abilities and get their gears spinning both literally and figuratively as they explore the various possibilities presented to them by both creating the droids and placing them in interactive missions that will help them learn to code along the way.
LEGO: Check the current price
4. 4M Solar System Planetarium | Best DIY Glow In The Dark Astronomy Planet Model Stem Toy
There's nothing like a classic solar system replica. With the aid of this kit, children will learn about the solar system as they test their creativity in order to create a planetarium.
Children will learn about the universe surrounding them as they get to flex their creative muscles painting and assembling the planetarium. Children will enjoy unplugging and following the instructions provided in order to assemble this model with pens, glow paint, string, and more. When they're done, they can tackle the quiz questions included in the kit.
4M Solar System: Check the current price
5. Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 Electronics Exploration Kit | Stem Engineering Toys for Kids 8+
Do you think your kid can become a great engineer? Try this Snap Circuits Electronics Exploration Kit for children aged 8 and over. This toy allows for creating more than a hundred of circuits with the use of 30 elements. No tools are required, just put these parts together in different combinations and that’s it!
Snap Circuits: Check the current price
6. National Geographic Da Vinci's DIY | Best Construction Kit for Kids
This innovative and fun kit is recommended for children ages 3 and up as it does contain the small parts necessary to create one's own replica of DaVinci's catapult itself. Children will be amazed at their own innovation as they are free to create their own tabletop version of DaVinci's catapult.
Easily assembled within 1 to 3 hours, children will likely enjoy immersing themselves in the technical complexities necessary in order to understand this simple machine. What's more, the catapult will be fully functional upon completion!
National Geographic Da Vinci's DIY: Check the current price
7. 4M Kidzlabs Anti-Gravity Magnetic Levitation | Best Physics Science Kit
This kit serves as a great introduction for children of all ages to the concepts of complex magnetic force and gravity. It is advised that this product does contain small parts unsuitable for children under 8 years of age, however.
Even older children will likely enjoy the experiments included in this kit, encompassing creating a floating pencil, a levitating screw, creating the maglev itself, and more. Known for their innovative scientific kits, 4M's line of KidzLabs will likely provide your child with hours and hours of intellectually engaging fun.
4M Kidzlabs: Check the current price
8. National Geographic 10 Geodes | Best STEM Kit for Mineralogy & Geology Enthusiasts
If your child is at all interested in mineralogy or geology and is a budding rock-collector themselves, they will likely enjoy the offerings of National Geographic's geode kit.
Including 100% natural geodes, your child will be able to break them open and discover the wonders inside all on their own. With safety glasses included as well as stands for displaying the geodes and a magnifying glass in order to examine them, children can also consult the guide included in order to learn more about the geodes included, informing your children how the geodes were formed.
National Geographic 10 Geodes: Check the current price
9. SmartLab Toys Smart Circuits | Best Electronics Science Kit
Made for little scientists ages 8 and up, this is a great way to gauge your child's interests in the field of STEM. Children will be able to build their own gadgets and circuits and see how they interact with one another.
This kit includes 48 pieces including a microprocessor, speaker, battery pack, LED array, light sensor, tilt switch, and more, allowing your child to create mechanically complex circuits and gain a base understanding of the world of STEM. Get your child thinking technically and engaged in the world of STEM with a great intro kit such as this.
SmartLab Toys: Check the current price
10. AmScope Kids Beginner Microscope Kit | Best Backyard Discovery Kit
This microscope kit is great for older kids looking to explore the world around them. There is no assembly required in order to get this microscope working, allowing children the freedom to eagerly explore the world around them in high-def.
Equipped with LED illumination and a color-filter wheel, children will be able to easily adjust the settings on this microscope in order to easily gauge the world around them. In fact, children will be able to magnify the materials under the microscope up to 1200 times!
AmScope: Check the current price
11. Ravensburger Gravitrax Starter Set | Best Science Kit for Planning Skills
Combining the idea of a build-your-own race track with that of an innovative STEM kit, this marble run track will likely provide your child with many hours of entertainment.
Engaging their STEM skills, children will be able to utilize spacial reasoning and planning in order to create an innovative and fun track for their marbles to run down. The possibilities of tracks created by this kit are endless, and your child will love seeing the included marbles run down the tracks they will have created themselves, utilizing their own sense of ingenuity.
Ravensburger: Check the current price
12. Educational Insights Nancy B's Science Club MoonScope | Best Telescope for Kids
This is a great telescope and STEM toy for children of all ages. Allow your children to get hands-on with their learning experience as they explore the sky around them head-on with this telescope.
The included journal will help your child to make sense of what they're looking at and helps them to understand the lunar phases and more. Able to magnify its view by up to 90 times, this telescope will give the viewer an entirely new view of the world around them and help to encourage a sense of scientific exploration in young children.
Educational Insights Telescope: Check the current price
13. Educational Insights Artie 3000 | Best Coding Robot
As adorable as it is innovative, the Artie 3000 is a truly unique take on a STEM toy. Children can flex their coding chops by programming Artie's art projects. Kids will plug in their code and Artie will draw out the lines and patterns they have provided him.
This is a great kit, allowing children to combine a love of art with coding and see the results immediately. Children of all ages can get creative with the code they're inputting and work hard to create complex patterns. A quick-start guide will help guide your child.
Educational Insights Coding Robot: Check the current price
14. 4M Crystal Growing Science Experimental Kit
Another option, 4M Crystal Growing Experiment, will teach your kid to grow crystals. Who knows, maybe one day your kid will become a world-renowned geologist?
4M Crystal Growing: Check the current price
15. Insect Lore Butterfly Growing Kit
The Insect Lore Butterfly Growing Kit is a good way to develop an interest in biology. The product includes live caterpillars and a mesh habitat for monitoring their growth. Give your kids an opportunity to create their own butterfly garden!
Insect Lore: Check the current price
Choosing the Right Toys for the Right Age
Science toys are great for children of all ages as they are a fun way to help children to learn while playing.
Kits for Toddlers
You'll want to be sure to choose a kit without any corrosive or dangerous, especially if you plan on allowing your child to explore the kit themselves and develop their own senses of curiosity and creativity. Look for simple kits with non-toxic materials such as magnet kits, kits with tools, and coding toys.
Kidtastic: Check the current price
Get More Technical With Pre-School Age Kids
Kids at these ages can better grasp utilizing more technical tools such as microscopes and backyard discovery kits. Anything that allows children of this age group to discover the world around them will likely be a big hit, and they will have just developed the skills needed to analyze nature effectively.
ESSENSON: Check the current price
Chemistry Sets for Older Kids
Chances are the more dangerous the tools you'll be using are, the more engaged an older child will be with the kit. Older children will be able to safely use chemistry sets without injuring themselves and will likely think they're much cooler than the science kits they played with when they were younger.
Thames & Kosmos: Check the current price
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