Many of the best toys of 2024 can help children develop some form of skill on top of all the entertainment they can provide. The way children play with any kind of toys will, pretty much, engage some aspect of their development, after all. However, STEM toys are unique in that they put a heavy focus on combining fun with learning. It’s a more targeted approach, making it easier for parents to encourage their kids to develop specific skills while they find themselves occupied in fun and engaging play.
More than other toys, many of the best STEM toys make a point of exercising children’s creativity and problem solving skills. They’re encouraged to explore, experiment, and try out different solutions, all while learning to deal with different challenges along the way. Because these toys require children to pour a good deal of attention onto the tasks at hand, many STEM toys can help children improve their concentration and focus, important skills that can serve them well into the latter years of their lives. Some of the best STEM toys are designed for playing with other children, which encourages collaboration, teamwork, and the development of interpersonal skills.
There are different kinds of STEM toys, too. Some are engineering-focused, while others are rooted in traditional sciences. Some are aimed at giving kids a head start in electronics and programming, while others focus on improving math skills, logical reasoning, and other more complex concepts. Naturally, you’ll need to choose STEM toys that fall in line with the age and interests of the recipient. Toys that are too easy will fail to engage them and push their interest elsewhere. Give them something too advanced and it might discourage them from going further.
With that said, these are the best STEM toys of the 2024 holiday season.
Battat Toys Shine Bright Light Box
Recommended Age: 3 years and older
Tracing light boxes have long made for a fun way to engage children creatively, as they make it easy to trace various images and combine them in creative ways. This light box offers an extra dimension of play by adding two brightness levels and five light colors, allowing kids to play around with different color moods and aesthetics while tracing their drawings. Even better, the set includes 60 translucent shapes in various colors that kids can combine with their drawings for extra avenues of creativity, as well as three transparency sheets with pre-drawn illustrations that they can trace. We think the price is worth it for the light box alone, especially with its adjustable brightness and lighting colors.
Snap Circuits Flight Deck
Recommended Age: 8 years and older
Every kid has spent time building paper airplanes at some point. This toy lets them build a machine that will launch those paper airplanes, sparing their arms from having to throw over and over. With the kit, kids get to build the mechanical launcher using snap-on electronic parts, all while picking up lessons in aerodynamics, electric circuits, and aircraft physics along the way. Plus, they get to fly lots of paper planes without waking up to a sore arm tomorrow morning.
Star Wars Galactic Chemistry Lab
Recommended Age: 6 years and older
In many ways, this feels like an old school chemistry kit. Except, it uses Star Wars to engage kids in the various experiments, prompting them to breed their own glow-in-the-dark Dianoga Worms, produce Bantha milk slime, and recreate the lava flowing from the active volcanoes of Mustafar. It explores real science concepts in a very approachable, especially for children who are quite fond of the whole Star Wars universe.
Fun in Motion HyperTiles Hyperbolic Building Toy
Recommended Age: 5 years and older
This construction toy uses hyperbolic paraboloid tiles, which are extremely nerdy shapes that you don’t normally encounter in other building toys. With 48 pieces of these three-dimensional tiles and 80 connectors, this thing lets you build some seriously wild structures that feel like an absolute fever dream. You can even combine it with additional sets for creating even bigger, wilder structures. It’s a toy that nurtures curiosity and creativity, all while engaging kids’ logical reasoning and problem solving skills. There’s a companion app, too, for kids who need a little push towards specific challenges and building projects.
Clixo Tropical Birds Pack
Recommended Age: 6 years and older
Another building toy, this one uses magnetic connectors at various section to snap the flexible pieces together into place, allowing kids to turn flat 2D shapes into beautiful 3D objects. This particular set comes with 22 pieces that you can combine to create ornate-looking tropical birds. While the set includes a quick-start guide to help kids get started with building, the real beauty of the set is in the experimentation, which lets kids build original creations that look absolutely wild. it even comes with a flapper mechanism, so you can set the bird’s wings moving in what looks like a flying motion.
ZipString Luma
Recommended Age: 4 years and older
How much fun can you have with some strings? Apparently, quite a bit. In this case, of course, they combine it with a clever handheld toy that sends a loop of string moving around and around at a 35mph pace. To use, simply mount the string onto the handheld tool and press the button to send it moving. From there, you can move the rig around or brush a part of the string against a surface to create a variety of shapes on the fly. This set, in particular, adds a colorful twist by coming with bright glow-in-the-dark strings that are charged to glow by the handheld tool’s built-in LED.
Thames & Kosmos Pinball Machine Maker
Recommended Age: 6 years and older
We love Thames & Kosmos’ building kits, which let you build functional versions of more complex objects. Yes, their versions are a lot simpler than their real-world counterparts, but they make for pretty intricate creations in their own right. Seriously, it’s a treasure trove for children looking to learn how simple machines work. This set lets you build a pinball machine that’s smaller and less-complicated than your typical Stern machine (like this Stern Jaws Pinball), while still being fully playable like the real thing. The toy comes with all the usual elements you’ll find in pinball games, including bumpers, slingshots, bells, ramps, and more, allowing kids to learn how those facilities function, along with physics concepts like force, gravity, motion, collisions, and more.
K’nex 3-in-1 Classic Amusement Park Building Set
Recommended Age: 9 years and older
K’nex sets always make for interesting STEM toys to explore various engineering and architectural concepts. This set comes with 744 pieces and lets you build one of three model structures at a time, namely a Ferris wheel, a swing ride, and a boom ride. Each model comes with moving parts, allowing you to make them move like their counterpart amusement park rides, along with a motor, so they can perform those motions on their own. These are big structures, by the way, with the Ferris wheel measuring a whopping three feet tall, allowing you to use it as a proper centerpiece for an amusement park diorama.
Blue Marble National Geographic Circuit Maker Kit
Recommended Age: 8 years and older
Messing around with broken electronic parts is something we loved as kids. We didn’t understand what any of the components on the board did, but it’s fascinating looking at every single item on those darn things. This circuit maker kit feels a lot like that kind of play. Except, it’s even better, because it actually lets you build electronic machines that work. There are 120 projects onboard, from basic things like simple lights and fans to more advanced items like aircrafts and sound systems. All components are designed for safety, too, so kids won’t be exposed to any hazardous materials or objects, unlike when they’re fiddling with actual electronic items.
Thames & Kosmos Bionic Robot Arm
Recommended Age: 10 years and older
Another one of Thames & Kosmos’ amazing sets, this one lets you build an actual robotic arm with a three-finger claw at the tip that allows it to grab different types of objects, as well as a flexible neck that allows it to bend in various ways, giving it a 180 degree vertical range and a 360-degree horizontal range for plenty of movement possibilities. It’s not just a static robot arm, either, as you also build its control system, which consists of two joysticks to control the arm movement and two triggers for operating the claw. This is a seriously fun toy that’s going to teach kids a lot about the mechanical engineering behind basic robotic systems.
LEGO Technic Planet Earth and Moon in Orbit
Recommended Age: 10 years and older
While we’re mostly with Technic sets in the form of cars, they do make all sorts of other sets that aren’t automotive-themed. This one, for instance, lets you build a model of the Earth and moon in orbit around the sun, showing the movements of the celestial bodies in relation to one another by simply turning the integrated crank. It comes with a full set of gears that enable the orbital movements, with a realistic simulation of the actual rotations that Earth and moon perform over and over. Overall, just a really fun toy for kids who have an intrinsic fascination for space and the planets in our solar system.
