There are always parents who want to make sure their kids continue to learn during holiday breaks and vacation. Occasionally, parents look for good advice about purchasing educational gifts this season and teachers are often on the hunt for STEM products to enhance their classrooms.

The University of Delaware has outlined some of the best gifts for students who love science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“Melissa Jurist, coordinator of K-12 education in the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware, gets emails from parents every year at about this time asking her about holiday gifts for their kids who love science, technology, engineering and math (STEM),” according to the article.

Her advice was to get children the tools that real scientists use. She believes that bridging the gap between a child’s current world and the scientific world is important. However, aren’t these types of tools expensive?

“What makes the most sense, to me, is to provide multiple points of access to STEM — equipment, books and activities,” she added according to the article.

“I don’t differentiate gifts by gender, and I don’t think STEM materials need to be expensive.”

So, Jurist designed two different learning labs that parents can build. The first lab is for children ages 4-6 and the second is for children ages 7-12. The first of the two are chock full of inexpensive ideas such as magnets, a stethoscope and prisms. Meanwhile the kit for older students consists of litmus paper, gyroscopes, pantographs and more.

Read the full story.

Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World Contributor