Gear

13 Smart STEM Toys for the Techie Kids in Your Life

We found more than a dozen math-filled and science-rich toys for tiny nerds to disassemble, set on fire, and then rebuild.

Anyone who has ever watched a toddler methodically take apart a Tupperware drawer should know that many children are natural-born engineers. Your only job as a parent is to nurture their creativity ... and, well, clean up the mess afterward. Between us, product reviewer Scott Gilbertson and I have five kids. This, honestly, is the most fun part of my job—calling in toys for my kids and I to test together and recommend to you. It hardly feels like work at all.

Wrap up a few of these STEM toys (also called STEAM toys; we love you too, Arts!) and books for your future scientist to blow up, burn up, or dismantle. Hopefully, they'll thank you for the early encouragement when they're older. Be sure to check out our many other buying guides, including Our Favorite Subscription Boxes for Kids and The Best Gear for Traveling With Kids .

Updated November 2020: We removed some older picks and added new ones, like the Lego Spike Prime, Osmo, and a rock tumbler.

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  • magna tiles
    Photograph: Valtech
    01

    Endless Building Fun

    Valtech Magna-Tiles

    Every kid that I know is addicted to these things. It's been several years. At 3 years old, my son can still occupy himself with these for hours. Translucent Magna-Tiles click together to form both two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional objects. Younger kids can make a house with a backyard and fences, or ice cream cones. With an older kid, the sky is the limit—or, rather, your credit card is, since there are wheelbarrows full of expansion sets you can buy.

    If these are too pricey, there are knockoffs that work just as well too, like Picasso Tiles, which are only $30 for 60 pieces. —Adrienne So

    $50 at Amazon
  • Photograph: Lego
    02

    Lego Robots

    Lego Spike Prime Robot

    Lego's Spike Prime building set is a complete DIY robot-building classroom in a box. Literally. Prior to the abrupt rise in distance learning this year, Lego marketed this primarily to schools. It comes with its own lesson plans, but don't let the seriousness fool you—my kids love this set and went from never having used it to programming their own robots (using the drag-and-drop Scratch programming language) in a couple of afternoons.

    Lego keeps updating Spike Prime too. Recently it released a new series of plans for bots that track exercise and help kids learn about motion and energy transfer. —Scott Gilbertson

    $330 at LEGO
  • Photograph: Sphero
    03

    Make Music From Colors

    Sphero Specdrums

    Earlier this year, Sphero acquired STEAM toy company LittleBits. Sphero's toys are always so cute, I want to eat them whole; I particularly liked the new Sphero RVR. But for sheer aesthetic pleasure, it's hard to compete with the Specdrums, which debuted at last year's CES.

    These tiny, pocketable rings turn all the colored surfaces around you into a potential musical instrument, and turn anyone into an amateur DJ. Use the app to assign sounds to colors, or vice versa. When you tap on different colors, you can hear the different tones. Anyone from toddlers on up can play with these and find them vastly entertaining. You can also buy a one-ring set for $50. —Adrienne So

    $100 at Amazon
  • Photograph: Chronicle Books
    04

    Underwater Vistas

    The Brilliant Deep

    Chronicle Books' gorgeous picture book tells the story of Ken Nedimyer, an environmental scientist, live rock farmer, and fish collector who founded the Coral Restoration Foundation.

    The book weaves together details of Nedimyer's biography with facts about coral reefs—I did not know that corals spawn like fish do—and luminous underwater landscapes and depictions of scuba diving. It makes environmental preservation and following your passions look both doable and fun. —Adrienne So

    $13 at Amazon
  • Photograph: Osmo
    05

    Table Tiles

    Osmo

    The Osmo tablet accessory and gaming platform for kids merges the physical and digital worlds in a way few toys manage. Your kids can tackle solving puzzles and playing word games with blocks and tiles you move around on the table in front of them. The Osmo hardware captures what they're doing and translates it into actions on the screen.

    Osmo recently launched several new titles, including a math-related dragon game that's been a hit in our house. Be sure to give the hardware requirements a close look to be sure your iPad or Fire tablet is compatible. —Scott Gilbertson

    $99 at Amazon
    $99 at Target
  • Photograph: Crayola
    06

    Color Chemistry

    Crayola Color Chemistry Set

    Everyone who has come across a Crayola crayon has probably melted one, whether accidentally or on purpose. Crayola's Color Chemistry Set includes enough brightly colored Crayola ingredients for 16 activities out of the box, and up to 50 with common household ingredients. Exploding volcanoes and colorful quicksand are just a few of the eye-catching experiments that you can look forward to trying. —Adrienne So

    $25 at Amazon
    $25 at Walmart
  • Photograph: Particula 
    07

    A Twist on a Classic

    Particula GoCube

    No one needs a Bluetooth-enabled Rubik's Cube, but once you get your hands on a GoCube, you probably won't be able to put it down. Smart sensors inside the beautiful, glowing cube connect to a companion app on your phone and sense where each block is positioned. You can learn algorithms and strategies that will help you get your solve-time down. And if you give everyone you know a GoCube, you can also stage live competitions with friends and family! —Adrienne So

    $80 at Amazon
  • Photograph: Amazon
    08

    Unlimited Books

    Amazon Kindle Kids Edition

    No parent has ever complained that their child was reading too much. You might think that Amazon's Kindle Kids Edition is just a 10th-generation Kindle, but for $20 more it also includes a year's subscription to Amazon Kids+ (formerly FreeTime Unlimited), a two-year worry-free replacement guarantee, and, well, yes, a cute cover.

    Not only does Amazon Kids+ give your child access to more than a thousand kid-friendly books in both English and Spanish (Audible books will be coming soon), I found it easy to whitelist more free titles (free books!) from my local library using Amazon's parent dashboard. You can also highlight or look up difficult words, or add them to a Vocabulary Builder tool. Testing this Kindle is the first time I've gotten my 5-year-old interested in longer chapter books, so I'd give it a ringing endorsement based on that alone. —Adrienne So

    $110 at Amazon
  • Photograph: Amazon
    09

    Unlock the Rocks

    Rock Tumbler

    The best toys are the ones that aren't toys at all. This year, my children became extremely interested in fossils and geology. We've been taking walks in the woods or at the beach, putting promising specimens in our pockets. We often keep the rock tumbler running for weeks (outside, because it's a little noisy), changing out the grit and watching as rough rubble eventually reveals itself as sparkly quartz or agate. If you're feeling ambitious, you can also throw in a rock guide and plan a rock-hunting trip when traveling becomes easier. —Adrienne So

    $60 at Amazon
  • Photograph: Amazon
    10

    Colorful Clay

    Polymer Clay

    Part of exploring the world is feeling the world, digging in the dirt as it were, but if you don't have a yard or live near a park, you can bring some of that same spirit of exploration inside with polymer clay.

    This is the mold-and-bake clay you might have used growing up. It just has a fancy new name. The things your kids create might not always hold up, but that too is a learning process—after her doll's table fell apart several times, my daughter asked if I could reinforce the legs with wire.

    Other fun sculpting options include kinetic sand ($12), modeling clay ($10), and good old-fashioned Play-Doh ($21). —Scott Gilbertson

    $30 at Amazon
  • Photograph: Amazon
    11

    Fantastic Stickers

    Paint by Stickers

    I know what you're thinking: Painting with stickers sounds kind of lame. But trust me, kids love these books. There's something about the balance of fun and meticulous concentration that these books require that draws children in. If your child isn't a dinosaur fan, there are plenty of other options, including unicorns, undersea animals, bugs, and more.

    $10 at Amazon
  • Photograph: Kiwico
    12

    Yeasty Goodness

    KiwiCo Science of Cooking: Bread & Butter

    We've tested many gift subscription kits, but my 5-year-old declared this baking kit to be the most fun of all. We've talked about yeast, watched carbon dioxide fill up balloons ("We're eating fungi farts!"), talked about the different states of matter while making butter, kneaded dough, and finally, had cinnamon toast for snack. It does require a lot of parental supervision over a lengthy period of time, but I also liked that she now has her own separate measuring cups and tools and can quit stealing mine. —Adrienne So

    $20 at KiwiCo
  • Photograph: Amazon
    13

    A Crayon Replacement

    Sargent Art Tempera Paint Sticks

    Tempera paint sticks are like oversized crayons, but instead of wax, your kids smear tempera paint around. Don't worry, it dries quickly (in about a minute and a half), and it's easy to clean off most surfaces. It's all the fun of painting, but there's no brushes or other mess to clean when your kids are done. There are sets of all sizes. We started with this 12-piece set but have since expanded to a 32-color set ($43). —Scott Gilbertson

    $14 at Amazon
Adrienne So is a senior writer for WIRED and reviews consumer technology. She graduated from the University of Virginia with bachelor’s degrees in English and Spanish, and she worked as a freelance writer for Cool Hunting, Paste, Slate, and other publications. She is currently based in Portland, Oregon.
Senior Writer
Scott Gilbertson is a product reviewer for WIRED, specializing in portable technology. He was previously a writer and editor for WIRED's Webmonkey.com, covering the browser wars, web standards, the independent web, and all aspects of internet culture. He studied at the University of Georgia.
Writer and Reviewer
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