Teknikio STEM Kits – Review & Giveaway
Happy new year!! Here at NYCTM we’re starting off 2017 with a little #FamilyFunFriday giveaway. As a mom, it’s my job to teach my kids about how the world works. Right? It’s also my job to get them excited about learning and find new ways to make learning FUN. So when I heard about Teknikio and their fun STEM kits I knew we had to give them a try!
NOTE: This giveaway has ended but you can still read ahead to learn more about Teknikio STEM Kits. Thanks for stopping by!
Big thanks to Teknikio for providing us with a set of review kits and for sponsoring this #FamilyFunFriday giveaway – Don’t forget to enter for your chance to win at the end of this post.
Teknikio creates gender-neutral engineering toolkits for kids. These little boxes are packed with fun to empower makers of any age to build their own toys and gadgets.
I love that through these kits kids can learn the fundamental concepts of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), design, and craft. Beyond that, kids learn life skills — how to invent and engineer solutions for real-world problems!
Teknikio, offers three different STEM sets that combine craft, technology, and FUN. Each set is meant to encourage open-ended exploration of technology and design. These little kits are great for use at home and school.
FYI: If you’re a teacher interested in getting these kits into your school, Teknikio’s central mission is education so they offer a workshop bundle that’s just right for your classroom. You can learn more about it here.
Three STEM Kits by Teknikio
- Sparking Sense – teaches you about different kinds of switches and sensors and how to make your own gadgets.
- Fabtronic Sewing – shows you how to sew a simple light circuit and make a stuffed animal or simple cross-stitch with LED lights.
- Activating Origami – shows you how to add simple circuits to paper sculptures to make them move and light up.
I also love that these STEM kits make learning accessible for beginners but also make it challenging for older kids by allowing kids to get creative with their own projects. Each set includes electronic components that are reusable and besides what is included in the set, kids can go on to pair these components with their own scrap paper, fabric and any other materials from home to create whatever they can imagine. That’s pretty cool!
As a family, we had the pleasure of exploring Teknikio’s Activating Origami kit. It was exciting to add circuits to the traditional paper folding craft (which we found out we are not very good at).
We started out by following the directions. And I’m not going to lie, the origami folding instructions were a bit confusing for us so we just went with our instincts. We started out by making something like the suggested penguin but later just had fun playing around with the pieces of paper and adding the circuits and small motor or motion board to different areas of our paper. It was fun to see how the placement of the small motor would affect the movement of the paper sculpture we built.
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The kit included several pieces of origami paper and more than enough conductive tape for us to play around with and try different things.
The kit is designed for kids 8 and above but any craft-loving kiddo would enjoy tinkering with it. No soldering is required. Just keep in mind that small parts are included so adult supervision is recommended for younger kids.
Each Activating Origami Set includes
- Teknikio motion board (motor)
- Teknikio battery board
- 2 batteries
- 8 LED lights
- 10 fasteners
- 1 piece of copper tape (a couple of feet, at least)
- origami paper pack (multiple colors)
We had much fun watching our origami creation move around. It moved in a circle, or skated around randomly, depending on where we placed the motor board. And that was a lot of fun to watch!
A video posted by Live SIMPLE Live FUN Live LIFE (@nyctechmommy) on
All the components included were easy to identify and use. The battery holder came in handy (in past projects we’ve had to use tape to hold the battery in place). Also, the fact that the battery itself is clearly labeled with a “+” on one side and has a rough surface on the other — makes it super easy for kids to identify and set it up on their own.
Needless to say, we had so much fun!
Next, I think we’ll try our hand at sewing with circuits!
Don’t these STEM kits sound fun? They’re the perfect way to get kids excited about making, crafting, designing, inventing, engineering, and STEM!
[Tweet “Check out @Teknikio STEM Kits and #Make your next origami project move! “]
Are you ready to try a different type of origami craft with your kids?
Well, here’s your chance! Enter my giveaway below for your chance to win your very own Activating Origami STEM Set. I think you little makers will love this! Good luck!
And don’t forget to let us know why your kids would love a kit like this in the comments section below.
13 Comments
Emily Endrizzi
I think my daughter would really enjoy this. She is obsessed with Japanese culture and loves to try to make origami.
Heather Lawrence
I can totally see my daughter loving this set!
She loves to tinker and create and this looks perfect!
Keikilani
My son is very into crafts and creating things with his hands. He would really love this.
Tamara
My daughter loves origami lately! And my son does STEM at school and raves about it.
Catherine Sargent
This looks like a great kit. I have always wanted to learn how to do origami and my little niece would enjoy it too.
carissa garabedian
This looks so interesting, I think my son would love this. Our family loves owls too, your info says it was easy to follow , so I can give this a whirl with mu kids, I am not good with directions!
Reesa Lewandowski
My daughter would love these! I wish I saw these before Christmas!
Scott
Those are some very cool kits. Both of my daughters would love to try them out!
Erin @ Stay at Home Yogi
These are so cool and I especially love that they are gender neutral! Can’t wait til my boys are a little older so we can try things like this!
Ashley S
My son is only 5, but he loves loves loves STEM! His Kindergarten class actually has a separate STEM class once a week! And he’s actually starts “Junior Aerospace Engineering” classes at the end of the month 🙂
golden storm
i dunno about my kids but i would enjoy these myself
shirley
I have a girl that loves to build things, she would enjoy this.
Susan Biddle
My 6 y.o daughter mentioned wanting to try oragami so she would love this STEM kit!