Engineering and Coding for Kids!
Stem Education and Maker Blog
All About Sound Sensors
Sounds sensors allow you to create circuits and machines that respond to sound. In this tuorial, you'll learn how they work as well as how to build and code a circuit that uses one. Find out how a sound sensor works in this video tutorial. Build a simple sound...
read more
All About Photoresistors
Photoresistors are used to control circuits by makng them reactive to light. Find out how they work, as well as how to build a circuit that includes one and some code to run the circuit in this quick lesson!Photoresistors are designed using materials that react to...
read more
All About Buzzers
Looking to build a project that includes some buzzers? Here's everthing you need to know about them- how they work, how to build a circuit that includes them, and how to write some code to turn them on and off. What happens inside an buzzer to create sound? Find out...
read more
All About LEDs
LEDs are used in all kinds of engineering and coding projects. Here you can learn how they work, as well as how to build a circuit and write code to get them working. Get started with this STEM project today!What happens inside an LED to create light? Find out in...
read more
Profiles in STEM: Christina Koch
On February 6, 2020, Astronaut Christina Koch landed on the ground in Kazakhstan in the Soyez space capsule, returning from a record-setting 328 days aboard the International Space Station. Koch's stay on the ISS began on March 14, 2019 and continued through...
read more
Valentine’s Projects to Make You LOVE STEM!
Valentine's Day is a great time to get kids excited about STEM. STEM engineering and coding projects can be used to combine holiday cheer with science, technology, engineering, and math to inspire kids' love of all things STEM. Check out these great STEM projects for...
read more
STEM Project Based Learning Outcomes
Project-based learning is where students gain knowledge and skills by investigating and responding to authentic, engaging, and complex questions, problems or challenges. It’s a teaching method you’ll often find in classrooms, homeschools and learning centers, and -...
read more
Low Cost Alternatives to After School Coding Camp
Parents can spend up to $1,000 a month on after school coding camps, hoping to instill the life-long value of STEM skills in their children. We get it: learning STEM is important, and we think that being exposed to coding as early as possible makes for a...
read more
$5 STEM Fun!
STEM is for everyone! And it doesn't take too long or too much money for your kiddos (or you!) to learn essential skills in science and engineering. We pulled together three projects that don't take too much time or cash - and still give you a fun time,...
read more
5 ways to get tech into your homeschool classroom
Take a Field Trip Take virtual field trips to the cultures, times and places you’re learning about in your current curriculum. Have students do independent research on a home computer, compiling photos and information, and maybe even have them teach YOU what they’ve...
read more
Test your Astronaut Knowledge!
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, test your knowledge of astronaut and space history.
read more
Making Screentime Productive
Making Screentime Productive There are lots of articles that discuss why screen time is bad for kids, and explain how much screen time is good for kids, as well as tools for limiting it. Out-of-school time creates more time for parents and students to argue about...
read more
Taking STEM on the Road
Taking STEM on the Road Are you hitting the road this summer? Road trips are a mainstay of summer time! Traveling to new destinations, combined with lots of time in the car, allow for lots of opportunities to keep minds active and engaged while you are on the road. ...
read more
Summer STEM Fun!
Summer has arrived, and somehow everyone’s already bored or sucked inside of a television. Panic has set in and you’re wondering how to keep little minds learning, growing and occupying themselves with constructive creativity. Well, you’re in luck - Here’s our Summer...
read more
Makerspace Essentials
According to John Spencer, co-author of Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student, a makerspace is “...simply a space designed and dedicated to hands-on creativity.” When we think of a makerspace, we think of an area in...
read more
What is a Maker?
We talk a lot about “makers” at MakeCrate, and if you’ve been wondering what a “maker” is, it’s time to learn all about Maker Culture! Definition: A maker is a person (or thing) that makes or produces something. When we talk about makers, we’re referring to kids &...
read more
Profiles in STEM: Octavia Butler
Octavia Butler is deemed to be a visionary among futurists, according to CNN’s Emanuella Grinberg. During a time in the latter half of the 1900s when the realm of science-fiction writers was dominated by an industry of mostly white dominated writers and she rose to...
read more
Fact from Fiction: Real Inventions from Science Fiction
Some of our great modern inventions were born years ago in the minds of creative writers and artists. Learn about the ways that science fiction has impacted our reality. Cell phones Cell phone technology inventor Martin Cooper credits his inspiration...
read more
Women in Space: Milestone Achievements
Here at MakeCrate we have a particular fondness for women in STEM. After all, our founder is a woman. We also have a fondness for space. Because SPACE! So we thought it’d be fun to put the two together and celebrate just a fraction of the records,...
read more
Recycling Logic Puzzle
Test your problem solving ability with this recycling logic puzzler!Four recycling trucks arrive in different days, and in different times, to collect recycling materials.What is the color of the truck that collects batteries? Use the chart and clues below to help you...
read more
5 Great STEM Activities for Outdoors
5 Great STEM Activities for OutdoorsSpring is here! The beautiful weather calls us outside, and creates the perfect opportunity to bring learning outdoors. Check out these ideas to encourage STEM learning while taking advantage of the great outdoors!...
read more
Profiles in STEM: Rachel Carson
Perhaps the finest nature writer of the Twentieth Century, Rachel Carson (1907-1964) is remembered today as the woman who challenged the notion that humans could obtain mastery over nature by chemicals, bombs and space travel than for her studies of ocean life. Her...
read more
Robots Every Day!
MakeCrate’s Robox, an educational robot subscription, is designed to teach kids how to build and program robots- great skills to have as robots become more and more prevalent in our everyday lives. Let’s take a look at some of the amazing ways that robots...
read more
Profiles in STEM: Helen Greiner
The team at MakeCrate loves automation and we are ready adopters of just about any tool to increase efficiency and eliminate chores. So today we are celebrating Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot, and one of the designers of the iRobot Roomba -a self-driving vacuum...
read more