Science Kits that Are Fun to Give

Wrap up hours of science and engineering fun and discovery when you give one of these science and engineering kits.

Are you thinking about holiday gift ideas for the young people in your life? Science and engineering kits make great gifts and can offer hours of exciting hands-on exploration and discovery. While experimenting or building, kids might even discover a passion for STEM that will shape how they think about the future.

Our STEM kits are perfect for independent school projects and science fairs, but many of these kits are also perfect for fun, at-home, curiosity-driven learning and exploration. Whether you are buying for your children, family, or friends, a gift of STEM is one you can feel good about.

15 Science Kits to Encourage a Love of STEM

The 15 STEM kits highlighted below offer hours of exciting science and engineering exploration, perfect for kids to do independently at home:

1. Electronics Kit for Arduino

With the Electronics Kit for Arduino, kids combine electronics and programming to explore circuits and coding in exciting new ways. From drones to smart home appliances, timers, sensor-based devices, and robots, there are lots of fun projects at Science Buddies kids can do with Arduino. See Arduino Projects for Students for more information.

Tip!: The How to Use an Arduino tutorial contains more than 30 videos to help kids get started with Arduino.

2. micro:bit Go Bundle

With micro:bit Go Bundle kids can get started making the connection between coding and circuits. With support for block-based programming and an array of on-board input/output features, the pocket-size micro:bit makes it easy for kids to design and build innovative real-world projects and solutions. This is a good introductory option for kids who may not be ready yet for Arduino or for kids wanting to try a different microcontroller that has a number of built-in input/output features. (In addition to the micro:bit Go Bundle, the ElecFreaks micro:bit Tinker Kit and the ElecFreaks micro:bit Basic Kit contain additional parts for use with a micro:bit.)

See Pocket-Sized Physical Computing Projects with micro:bit to learn more about projects kids can do with a micro:bit.

3. DIY Mini Drone Kit

With the Mini Drone kit, kids build their own popsicle stick drone and explore the science of drone flight. After building the basic drone, additional parts can be added for a series of drone experiments, including ones that use Arduino programming (and the Electronics Kit for Arduino).

4. DIY Night-Light Kit

With the DIY Night-Light Kit, kids design and build their own nightlight, including the circuit to turn the light on and off. Find directions and inspiration for thinking about how the housing can be customized in the Engineer an LED Night-Light project and Make a Night-Light activity. The nightlight circuit and kit can also be used for the Make an Awesome Paper Lantern activity, which is part of our 12 STEM Activities for Lunar New Year collection.

5. Paper Speaker Kit

With the Paper Speaker Kit, kids experiment with electromagnetism and the science of sound while building a working paper speaker! For directions to build the speaker, see the Build a Paper Speaker activity.

6. Electronic Sensors Kit

The Electronics Sensors kit features electronics components and sensors that can be used with more than 10 different science and engineering projects at Science Buddies. This kit provides lots of open-ended fun for kids interested in electronics. After exploring how sensors work with projects like Green Technology: Build an Electronic Soil Moisture Sensor to Conserve Water, Build Your Own Super-sensitive Electric Field Detector, and Is It Ripe Yet? Build a Circuit to Detect Ripe Produce, students can build their own sensor-based solutions for real-world use. The reindeer tree ornament shown below is an example of the kind of creative and innovative project kids can do using the kit and their own ingenuity. This reindeer was designed as a light-up water sensor for a tree!

7. BlueBot 4-in-1 Robotics Kit

The BlueBot 4-in-1 Robotics Kit is one of our top picks for kids who like to build and for kids who are interested in robotics. The BlueBot robot has a good-sized chassis and rugged wheels. Perfect for intermediate-to-advanced robot builders, there are four core models, each with different sensor-based behavior: Motion-Activated Guard Robot, Speedy Light-Tracking Robot, Zippy Line-following Robot, and Obstacle-Avoiding Robot.

After exploring the base BlueBot robots, students can combine the BlueBot kit with Arduino to design and build more sophisticated BlueBots that use additional sensors and have custom behaviors.

See 10+ Robotics Projects with the BlueBot Kit to learn more about BlueBot projects kids can do with the BlueBot kit.

8. Bath Bomb Science Kit

With the Bath Bomb Science Kit, kids explore the science behind making fizzy bath bombs. They can experiment with different recipes and formulas to see how different ingredients and quantities change the fizz factor. The quest to make the fizziest bath bombs is on! See the Bath Bomb Science project for directions.

9. Crime Scene Chemistry Kit

With the Crime Scene Chemistry Kit, kids use chemistry to solve a mystery. This kit isn't reusable in the way electronics kits are, but exploring forensic science and chemical reactions to determine the identity of an unknown substance can be a fun exploration.

10. Bristlebot Robotics Kit

The Bristlebot Robotics Kit is an introductory robotics kit that is perfect for kids ready to build their first robots. With this kit (and craft materials from home), kids can build three different kinds of wiggling, wobbling robots. Step-by-step directions are available for the ArtBot, Brushbot, and Bristlebot robots. Using these techniques, kids can design and build their own unique vibrobots or Junkbot robots using recycled materials. (The kit contains electronics components to make four robots, two Bristlebots and two of the other robot styles.)

11. Candy Chromatography Kit

The Candy Chromatography Kit is a great choice for a budding young chemist. Kids will learn about paper chromatography as they experiment to see what color dyes or pigments make up the colors of candies, markers, leaves, flowers, and more! See Paper Chromatography Science Projects & Experiments for more information.

12. Electric Play Dough Kit

With the Electric Play Dough Kit, kids combine the fun of classic play dough with introductory circuits. Using homemade conductive and insulating dough, kids experiment to light up "squishy circuit" creations with colorful LEDs. Once kids master simple electric play dough circuits, they can move on to more challenging 3D structures like the frog shown below! Multiple resources at Science Buddies help students learn more about circuits using electric play dough. (See our winter-themed examples for extra inspiration!)

13. Spherification Kit

With the Spherification Kit, kids use molecular gastronomy to turn liquids into jiggly spheres that pop in the mouth. With this kit, kids can make their own custom-flavored juice balls (similar to popping boba) or yogurt ravioli for fun treats and learn about food science and chemistry at the same time! Along the way to mastering the spherification of juice balls, kids will probably make some wiggly, stringy, juicy worms, too! That's part of the fun! (For a closer look at the steps involved in making juice balls with the Spherification Kit, see Making Juice-filled Boba with a Spherification Science Project. See also the popping boba and reverse spherification videos.)

14. Paper Roller Coaster Kit

With the Paper Roller Coaster Kit, kids can design and build a tabletop marble roller coaster. This is a fun paper-based engineering project! Students are challenged to add a loop to their roller coaster and will be learning about potential and kinetic energy as they work on their design.

15. Advanced Bristlebots Kit

The Advanced Bristlebots Kit is perfect for kids who have already built simple robots, or for older kids who love following a set of build directions from start to finish. The Advanced Bristlebots kit contains specialty parts to create either a light-tracking bristlebot or a solar-powered bristlebot. (After building one of these robots, kids can recycle the parts to build the other.)

All Science Buddies Kits are sold through our partner, Home Science Tools®.