This year is the year of smart toys that edu-tain children during playtime. These toys let kids build scale model houses (completely with frames) to “molecular models of quasicrystals.” Most of these informational toys are funded by the National Science Foundation, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t cool to play with. And kids can get a leg up in winning that coveted National Science Fair scholarship.
First up is ZOME, a set of balls and struts that lets kids build and study structures in a four dimensional environment. Kids can not only build geodesic domes and other structures, but models of viruses and even DNA.
Remember Lincoln logs? Well, Precision Modelworks offers a scale kit that teaches kids to build a house from the ground up. Kids learn to frame the house, build and design the home like a real architect, and even learn the importance of structural engineering.
Precision modelworks also makes extremely detailed models that chronicle the history of space exploration with models for the Apollo Lunar and Command Modules, the Mercury spacecraft that took America’s first man into space, and even the Space Shuttle riding atop a 747 Ferry. All built to scale with very detailed an interesting interiors.
Then there’s ScienceWiz learning kits, which takes kids on an interactive journey to learn first hand about light, energy, magnetism, global warming and even DNA – where kids can extract DNA from a fruit, probe and spool real DNA, and even build a double helix. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the various kits are age specific (ages 5-10 and 8-“80”) and give kids hands on learning in kit form for building and experimenting with the kit’s subject at hand. And kids who are seriously into science can join the ScienceWiz™ Club and receive new books & kits or extensions every month.