STEM Archives - NAPPA Awards

December 19, 2023 by

Surprise Powerz Talking STEM Doll – Astro The Astronaut
This talking doll is full of knowledge about planets, moons and stars. With 75+ phrases, sound effects, and singalongs, Astro helps build STEM vocabulary and ignites imaginative play for budding young astronauts. $49.99, ages 2-5, surprisepowerz.com

PYXEL A Coder’s Best Friend
A pet that teaches coding. Use a computer or tablet to code this four-legged friend and learn up to two coding languages: Blockly and Python. Kids can code PYXEL to perform tricks, change colors, make and react to sounds, and express emotions. $124.99, ages 8+, educationalinsights.com

Tinkering Labs Electric Motors Catalyst STEM Kit
Ignite curiosity and innovation in your young inventor. With 50+ components and 10 engaging challenges, kids can invent their own unique creations. $65, ages 8-13, tinkeringlabs.com

Sumology
A fast-paced tile placement game where you build equations by combining new and existing tiles. Sharpens math and strategy skills. $40, ages 8+, simplyfun.com

June 26, 2019 by

Kids are out of school, but that doesn’t mean the learning has to stop. Check out these latest NAPPA Award winners that keep the fun and learning going all summer long.

ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy by Age of Learning, Inc.

ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy is the leading and most comprehensive online early learning resource for children ages 2–8. It offers an expert-designed curriculum for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades. With more than 9,000 individual learning activities and 800+ complete lessons along their Step-by-Step Learning Path™, ABCmouse.com encompasses reading and language arts, math, science, social studies, art, and music. It is available on computer, tablet, or smartphone. Ages 2-8, 9.95/monthly or $59.95/annually.

Smithsonian Mega Science Lab

Learn about volcanos, weather, outer space and more. The Smithsonian Mega Science Lab is six different STEM kits in one. Observe the process of crystal formation; assemble and paint a model of the earth and moon; and erect and erupt your very own volcano. Create an Eco Dome Habitat where you can catch, collect and study bugs. Assemble and install your own weather station and start logging temperature, wind direction and speed, barometric pressure, humidity, clouds and precipitation. Put on your safety goggles and chisel away at your sand block as you excavate bones that you can assemble into a model dinosaur. This kit is a science sampler that offers six amazing adventures that are safe and easy to do. Detailed instructions are included. Ages 10+, $34.99.

Smithsonian Planetarium Projector

The Smithsonian Planetarium Projector brings the nighttime sky into your room. Just aim the projector at a light-colored wall or ceiling, and project a rotating star pattern of the northern sky. Three disks also feature 24 high-definition space images that you can project alongside the stars: planets, nebulae, moons, asteroids and other celestial bodies, as well as a satellite, space station, astronaut, space shuttle and more. Project more than 50 different image combinations. The Smithsonian Planetarium Projector features a 15-minute auto-shut-off, so you can fall asleep under a magical night sky. It comes with STEM educational content and requires 3 AA batteries (not included). Ages 8+, $39.99.

For more educational toys, apps and products, visit nappaawards.com

December 10, 2018 by Page Street Publishing

Partner Content: From our Friends at Page Street Publishing

Gift Ideas for the Kid Scientist on Your List

If you have a kid on your nice list who loves to build and create, we have the perfect gifts!

Genius LEGO Inventions

Use science and engineering to transform your bin of LEGO® bricks into amazing, movable toys, machines and gadgets. Bestselling author Sarah Dees is back with an all-new collection of projects featuring ingenious designs and simple scientific principles that real engineers use every day. Make yourself a robot pal whose legs move as he rolls along, or a drummer who really plays the drums. Build a wind-up car complete with a flywheel that’ll send your minifigures zooming. Or challenge your friends to a game of pinball on a LEGO® pinball machine you built from scratch. Each project is cooler than the next! For more info, click HERE!

101 Kids Activities That Are the Ooey, Gooey-est Ever!

Let your creativity and your imagination soar with these colorful, crazy-fun recipes for slime, dough, clay, foam, mud and more. From the bestselling authors of 101 Kids Activities, 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments and Adorkable Bubble Bath Crafts, this book is full of exciting and fantastical recipes that include tips on the science behind the goo, so you can learn too! Create amazing concoctions like Fake Snow, Color-Changing Slime and Glow-in-the-Dark Dough. With 101 super cool activities (that are also super easy to clean up), you can try them all! For more information, click HERE!

Fun with LEGO Inventions

Ooey Gooey Fun

November 13, 2018 by

Check out these terrific NAPPA Award-winning educational apps.

LetterSchool – Spelling Words!

LetterSchool is a fun and educational App with a wonderful mission — teaching the world to read and write while having fun. The App includes educational games for young children learning to read to work on sight words with endings such as -ab, -et, -at and -ut to increasingly more challenging endings such as -ock, -eed, -ish, etc. The program’s challenges increase with the child. $9.99, ages: 2 – 8.

Kidomi

Kidomi is an app that combines fun and learning. Featuring hundreds of puzzles to solve, adventures to read, inventions to build, creations to make and games to play from the top global content creators that kids know and love including Toca Boca, Crayola, Sago Sago, Highlights for Children and more. New activities are added every day. $7.99 monthly or $59.99 annually, ages 3-8

Connected Kids

Connected Kids is an online, self-directed study course that guides parents and educators to create and deliver mindfulness and meditations techniques that help kids and teens reduce anxiety and stress. Created by Lorraine E. Murray, author of “Calm Kids: Help Children Relax with Mindful Activities,” this program has been empowering adults to teach their kids and teens with mindful skills since 2003. A great way for adults to practice what they are teaching and for the whole family to learn these important skills. $230 for the course. For the entire family

August 14, 2018 by

Your kids will love discovering the incredible world of technology with these STEM-related games. #PlayLearnConnect

Bright Creatures Kit

The perfect introduction to STEAM learning – Bright Creatures Kit gets kids building with dough and making simple circuits to add light to their creations. Part of the Dough Universe, the kit comes with three pots of dough, a smart controller, and LED light helpers. And with the projects and games in the interactive storybook app, they’ll be exploring and inventing for months to come!
$49.99
For Ages: 4+

Botley the Coding Robot

Meet Botley the Coding Robot! With the Botley, children as young as 5 can learn to code. Botley’s advanced features will allow your kids to grow with him. Botley is ready to use right out of the box, 100% screen free and includes a 77-piece activity set. Botley can detect objects, be programmed for if/then logic, follow looping commands and take on obstacle courses.
$79.99
For kids 5+

Itty Bitty City

Created for hobbyists, makers, inventors, and tinkerers, Itty Bitty City is a fun-filled collection of Microduino mCookie modules, sensors and accessories which creators use to build eight exciting projects, including a windmill, lighthouse, night light, piggy bank, and music box. Widely used by students and teachers within schools’ STEM/STEAM programs.
$129.00
For kids 10+

Robots on the Line

You’re one of the lucky robot factory workers invited to an exclusive event. Pick refurbished or out-of-date parts to build robots that meet eager buyers’ requirements. Sell your completed robots to earn points; but hurry because other players may be building their own robot. Can you outsmart your opponents and assemble a four-wheeler robot with two heads, or a robot with six eyes and four hands before they do?
$54.95
For kids 8+

Kidlo Coding Games For Kids

Get your kids coding in no time with Kidlo Coding Games For Kids, a fun app to teach kids (5-9 yrs) basic programming concepts like sequencing, loops and functions. Includes 50+ interesting games.
Free with app
For kids 5-9

mPuzzle

Designed for children ages 5 and up, mPuzzle is a collection of easy-to-use, snap-together magnetic components that teach basic electronic circuitry concepts. With mPuzzle, children learn how things work by seeing cause-and-effect relationships and outcomes. The product offers everything kids need to construct common objects found in our everyday world, such as a street lamp that illuminates at dusk, or a TV remote control with a red LED light that shines when it’s turned on.
$99.00
For kids 5+

mPie

Designed for children ages 7 and up, mPie builds upon mPuzzle’s foundational circuity lessons and hardware components to teach kids introductory hardware coding and more advanced electronic and product design concepts. With mPie, kids discover the world of hardware coding, which helps them visualize the logical and sequential order of things in a physical and engaging way.
$99.00
For kids 7+