30 Best STEM Toys for Kids in 2024, Tested by Experts

Combine a marble run with a series of engineering challenges and you get this game. It makes players flex their building, spatial reasoning and critical thinking muscles to solve the 60 challenges, which has nearly 25,000 five-star ratings on Amazon. Or, they can just free play and build cool tracks for the three included marbles. Ages 8+

Good Housekeeping Institute book testers loved using the instructions and pieces in this kit to make gravity-powered contraptions, like chain-reaction machines, fortune tellers and labyrinths. Testers also found the directions to be clear. “The visuals in the book were accurate, and it was easy to determine where each piece went,” one said. Ages 8–12

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No phone or tablet is required to practice coding with Botley! In our testing, kids took to this coding robot immediately without even realizing they were learning to code. Kids can program Botley to do a sequence of up to 150 steps to complete coding challenges, having him follow paths and avoid or reach obstacles. Ages 5+

Kids as young as 4 can learn screen-free coding and get the critter to do things like fetch or play hide-and-seek. There’s also an interactive mode where kids can just play and take care of their pets without coding. This comes in many animal shapes, including a dog, rabbit, cat and dinosaur — and, more recently, a dragon and a unicorn. Ages 4+

Kids get safe hands-on experience with electricity and circuitry using this kit, which lets them build machines without a soldering iron (the pieces just snap together). This kit includes directions for more than 100 projects, including a photo sensor and an adjustable-volume siren, but Good Housekeeping Institute testers loved the UFO project the most by far. A similar set — the Flight Deck, focused on projects that launch things into the air — won a Good Housekeeping Best Toy Award this year. Ages 8+

For serious engineers looking for more of a challenge, this kit lets kids build a joystick-controlled bionic arm powered by nylon tendons (no electronics, so this is for builders). When they’re done, they can try to use it to pick items up off the table. “She loved looking up the parts in the instruction manual and cutting the plastic parts out of the frame,” one parent tester said. Ages 10+

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Kids will have so much fun controlling their new friend’s movements with easy-to-press buttons that they’ll have no idea they’re practicing colors, letters and early math. There’s even a “secret code” mode for older kids. The coding is very basic, but that’s part of what we love about it. Ages 3+

The “M” in STEM often gets overlooked, but this activity kit brings math into the spotlight and will delight any fan of Netflix’s Numberblocks. Kids can use the linking counting cubes to recreate their favorite characters, and wipe-clean cards give them ideas for math-based puzzles and activities. Parent testers were amazed by how much math their kids absorbed while using this toy. If your kid is a fan of the series, we also recently gave a toy award to this Number Five Plush. Ages 3+

Kids can program Artie to draw different designs, and Artie will bring those creations to life on paper. With this updated iteration of the bot, kids can code Artie in Blockly, Snap!, JavaScript, Python and C++, or they can use easy-to-decipher pre-programmed codes in Artie’s own UI. Ages 8+

These foam blocks come in shapes other than your traditional squares and triangles, and magnets keep them together. Because they’re made of foam, they can also be used as a bath toy. “My kids love mixing the different shapes into robots and bridges, then adding their cars — it’s been so fun,” one parent tester said. Ages 3+

Featuring the voice of Bindi Irwin, this microscope lets kids slip in any of the 60 colorful preloaded slides to learn more than 100 facts about animals, plants and humans. It lets them feel like a scientist while they learn encyclopedia facts! There’s a quiz mode, too. The microscope works in English, Spanish, French or German, and if they like the look and feel of it there’s a talking telescope as well. Ages 4+

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Budding elementary-age scientists will thrill to the 83 hands-on experiments included here, which are led by the scientists from the Good Housekeeping Institute. The book goes from room to room through a home and explains the scientific concepts behind the phenomena you might find there, like why bathroom mirrors get foggy or what makes sweaty sneakers stink. Then, the experiments let kids dive deeper into the concepts. If they like it, they can move on to Good Housekeeping 1,001 Amazing Science Facts (for ages 8+), or younger ones ages 4+ can start off with Good Housekeeping The Little Lab: Fantastic Science for Kids. Ages 7+

Budding engineers use magnetic pieces to build a one-of-a-kind exploring vehicle with this set, mastering engineering concepts as they learn the construction of each moving vehicle. It comes with how-tos for four designs, but kids in our testing preferred dreaming up their own creations. Ages 5+

Introduce kids to the world of coding with this mini toy that packs a lot of fun. Available in lots of colors, kids use the Sphero app to learn how to program and play games. When they aren’t coding, it can be driven around using the app-based remote control, implementing fun technology like facial recognition. Ages 8+

STEM with a sensory twist, this kit comes with a wind tunnel with a kid-safe fan. They can use the included pom poms, arm-waving person, pinwheels and more to experiment with how wind can make things spin and fly. Ages 3+

This game transforms kids into roller coaster engineers. Players design a 3D adventure ride with real loops and drops based on the challenge card they draw. Then, they send the car speeding down and hope for success. It comes with 40 challenge cards ranging from beginner to expert, and while it’s meant to be a single player game, it can also be fun to work in teams to solve the challenges. Ages 6+

Kids can learn about geology and minerals in an extremely hands-on way with this kit, which lets kids break apart 10 colorful geodes and examine the crystals inside. It comes with safety goggles, a magnifying glass and a learning guide so they can really get a good look. Ages 8+

Kids can dream up their own creations with these magnetic tiles that make construction (and deconstruction) a breeze. They’re a great introduction to educational topics including shapes, principles of magnets, symmetry and spacial reasoning. If you’re ready to teach your kid what makes an equilateral, right or isosceles triangle, here’s your chance! (Feel free to Google it.) We love that this STEM toy is equally appropriate for a 3-year-old, a 5-year-old and for older kids. Ages 3+

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They’ll learn about gravity, physics, magnetism and other scientific concepts while putting marbles through their paces in an elaborate build-your-own marble run. Expansion sets and accessories are available that let marbles do other cool tricks, like go on a zipline or get fired through a magnetic cannon. Or, for younger ones, this year saw the debut of the Toy Award-winning Gravitrax Junior with bigger, easier-to-use pieces. Ages 8+

It takes some effort to master these kits, but once kids do, they can use plastic tiles threaded with LED wires to make fabulous light-up creations. There are lots of kits to choose from, and each kit makes multiple projects. When they’re done, kids can display them in their room as light-up decor. Ages 6+