Helping You Find The Right STEM Activities and Projects For Your Family

Making Smart Choices for Your Family

The Importance of Exploring STEM & STEAM through Hands-On Activities and Projects

Introducing kids to hands-on (a.k.a. kinesthetic) activities cultivates curiosity, resilience, and a growth mindset. Studies have shown that kids who participate in hands-on learning demonstrate higher levels of thinking in open-ended questions and greater content knowledge at all ages.

Many activities can be done with materials that are common in your home or with inexpensive supplies you can acquire easily. Upcycled materials, things you recycle from your daily life, are great things to keep around for maker projects. Some of the most fun can be had using upcycled materials in a creative way to make, build, create, and develop something new, sprung from their imagination or inspired by another maker.

Additionally, kids gain a valuable perspective on the possible. They are motivated to build, invent, and innovate in the future when they try project-based learning activities throughout their young lives. If projects don’t go as planned, extend the activity by talking about what might change the outcome. Encourage second chances and growth.

As kids get older, they have more screen time for school and play. Having hands-on activities that foster a tinker mindset and strengthen our creative skills are also a great way to unplug, detox, and de-stress. Many can attest that the benefits of the soothing effects of Oobleck and slime can outweigh the potential mess.

Kinesthetic activities also help kids develop building blocks that they will continue to use in the professional world such as creativity and collaboration to solve complex challenges.