Find STEM-inspired gifts kids will love! From screen-free coding kits to magical books, the picks in this 2024 STEM gift guide are fun, smart, and affordable.
Maybe you’re organizing a White Elephant for your kid’s class. Maybe you need a gift for that hard-to-please niece or quirky nephew. Maybe, like me, you’ve just stalled out and can use some inspiration.
Look no further!
INSPIRE, a non-profit engineering research institute at Purdue University, has taken the guesswork out of choosing amazing gifts. And not just any gifts. Their annual gift guide is a goldmine of toys that hit what I call the “triple bottom line” of gift-giving: kids love them because they’re fun, grown-ups love them because they’re hands-on/minds-on, and they won’t break the bank. Oh, and did I mention they’re all science, engineering, math, or technology focused? #you’rewelcome
[If you’re looking for more gift inspo, or you just love STEM toys, check out my 2023 gift guide, which includes remote-controlled airplanes and a fabulous picture book, and my 2021 gift guide, with particularly great tween-girl friendly science kits and code-able swag.]
- For little kids, the Mochi Robotics Kit has entered INSPIRE’s pantheon of multi-year winners. It’s an adorable bear in a code-able little car that your kids can bedazzle or augment with LEGOs. Kids direct the bear around a playmat based on challenges that Mochi and his friends encounter in the accompanying stories. To nav him to the solution, kids learn computational thinking. My favorite part might just be that it’s screen-free. Because no kid in 2024 needs more screen time.
- Another repeat winner is the Turing Tumble, a totally analog puzzle-toy that simulates coding a computer by having kids solve logic puzzles and use gears, ramps, and levers to design more and more complex marble runs. It’s so fun that you might not even realize that you’re unlocking the secrets of how computers are coded.
- The Love to Code Creative Coding Kit is one of the most intriguing hybrid creations I’ve come across. It re-imagines the book through electronics. Kids craft functional circuits directly onto the pages of the included storybook, so that the images light up and transform before their eyes.
- The BOLT Coding Robot by Sphero is a practically indestructible translucent ball that can light up in different colors, navigate obstacles, and interact with its environment, all at the behest of whoever has downloaded and coded the accompanying app.
- Not on the INSPIRE list but totally captivating are personalized books by Magic Story, where an avatar designed to look like your child is the hero of stories exploring nature and building curiosity and wonder.
- Arthur C. Clarke is famously known for having said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic.” Rounding out this year’s gift guide is some actual magic (or at least how to fool your friends and family into thinking it’s magic): magician David Kwong’s How To Fool Your Parents, a super fun and accessible magic how-to book.
Once all the gifts are opened and the hot chocolate drunk, there is nothing more fun, memorable, or STEM-y than getting on the floor with your kids and building a fort out of shipping boxes or a Rube Goldberg machine out of wrapping paper cylinders, packing tubes, and ribbon. Happy holidays, friends — here’s to more of what’s good in 2025!