If you want to encourage your kids to invent new things and explore technology, engineering, science, and math, an interesting Indiegogo campaign may be able to help. The campaign hopes to inspire kids to create through a hands-on series of kits called Tinkering Labs Catalysts.
According to the campaign, each kit will provide a variety of items along with project ideas which take the form of Challenge Cards; they’ll allow kids to take part in what they call “open-ended learning.” The campaign is looking for help to fund the first Catalyst, “Electric Motors.”
“What at first seems like a random set of items (motors, wooden parts, springs and bolts, rubber bands and washable markers) rapidly becomes a platform for innovation in the hands of kids,” the Indiegogo says.
The kits are designed for kids of any experience level ages 6-13. The Challenge Cards seem vague enough with ideas like “build a vehicle that moves in a straight line” that it gives kids some direction while leaving specifics open to their imagination. While they’ll have to think about how to engineer their project to perform the task, exactly what it will do it is entirely up to them.
Tinkering Labs shared a video on YouTube showing what some kids have created with the Electric Motors Catalyst. There are a lot of fun creations that display the potential of the kits and the possibilities they can open.
The Indiegogo campaign has set a goal of $50,000 “in order to purchase parts in bulk, and set up the fulfillment services and strategic partnerships needed to scale.” So far it’s raised more than $28,280.
Photo via Bring Tinkering into Your Home & School/Indiegogo