learning Archives - Posh in Progress

Thank you, WowWee for sponsoring this post. Be sure to visit WowWee today to buy Minion MiP and Botsquad in time for the holidays! Do you do STEM activities with your kids? I bet you do and you don’t even realize it. A lot of the activities we do with our kids naturally include science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), but we just don’t talk about it with them. For my day job, I actually work for a university to try to get elementary, middle and high school kids interested in STEM. Currently, I work with schools, museums, afterschool programs, and other places where people learn about STEM (think zoos, aquariums, etc.). In the U.S. and globally, we don’t have enough people going into these STEM jobs. Even worse, we still don’t have equal representation of women or people of color in STEM jobs. Even a lot of our STEM jobs are being outsourced to other places. Basically, we have a bit of a crisis and we need our kids to be more interested in STEM. Kids are natural scientists – they ask questions, they are creative, they interrogate their worlds. They seek answers to complex questions all the time. The thing is, somewhere along the line, a lot of us lose that inquisitive nature and creativity, but we don’t have to. The next time you’re doing an activity with your child that incorporate STEM, talk to them about the scientific topics, tell them they are being a scientist or an engineer. It’s really that simple to start incorporating STEM into their lives. By reinforcing that STEM is cool, your kids will begin to internalize that they are scientists (here’s a great article to get your kids to think like scientists). Lately, we've been getting our kids interested in STEM through robots. WowWee has kid-friendly robots that my kids love. They especially love the Minion ones because they love those movies and it's a character they know. The Minion MiP robots are straight out of Gru's lair. This motion-detecting, self-balancing henchman is ready to play. Get up to all kinds of mischief with your very own Minion MiP Turbo Dave from WowWee. Packed with fun and games, this self -balancing robot speaks MinioneseTM the official Minion language, responds to clapping and hand gestures, and can be controlled from the Turbodave app on your compatible smartphone or tablet. He even has his own Fart Blaster. The Minion MiP is full of personality, the only full experience robotic Minion that brings the minion world to life and has an app for pairing the robotic programming and AR experience through gameplay. Right now, you can save 20% using code 20MINIONMIP. If you want to try some STEM activities for kids, here are 25 different things you can do to get them excited about STEM. 25 STEM Activities for Kids 1. Read STEM-Themed Books (here and here) 2. Play with Robots 3. Build a Marshmallow Tower 4. Make Balancing Robots 5. Play with Magnet Blocks 6. Blow Up Magic Balloons 7. Design a Popsicle Stick Catapult 8. Try a Skittles Science Experiment 9. Let Your Kids to Bake with You 10. Build Car Ramps Using Paper Tubes 11. Create a Rain Shelter 12. Build a Gumdrop Bridge 13. Try Fishing with Magnets 14. Make Seed Beads 15. Start a Rock Collection (30 ways to play with rocks) 16. Build a Bug Hotel 17. Go on a Nature Walk (and Talk about Nature) 18. Create Art with Milk 19. Make Balloon Hovercrafts 20. Create Magnetic Trees 21. Build Pool Noodle Structures 22. Get a Marble Run 23. Plant and Grow Seeds 24. Make Slime 25. Make a Tornado in a Bottle I hope you find these STEM activities for kids helpful. If you have other ideas, I'd love to hear about them! I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.