Amazon STEM Toy Club is a monthly subscription box service that delivers age-appropriate STEM toy that encourages any child to learn through play. The subscription costs $19.99 per month, and the theme of the month can be anything from natural sciences to robotics. There’s always something new to discover in every box of Amazon STEM Toy Club!
There are three age ranges available for this box: 3-4 year old, 5-7 year old, and 8-13-year-olds.
This is a review of the 8-13-year-old box.
In true Amazon style, the kits come in a large outer Amazon box, and purchases of multiple kits may be shipped together. This month, we only picked up one kit, and it came in a surprisingly well-fitted box.
Everything in the set! The toy selected for this age range was a challenging Lazer Maze!
Think Fun Lazer Maze ($24.97) This maze game teaches STEM skills and requires you to use mirrors, beam-splitters, a little science and brainpower to direct the laser through a series of mind-challenging mazes and light up the target.
It comes with a complete instruction leaflet, describing the effect of each mirror gate on the beam.
Here is the 5 x 5 game grid where all the action happens!
And here are the 11 Game Tokens that consists of the following: 1 Laser, 2 Beam-Splitters, 1 Mirror, 1 Cell Blocker, 5 Targets/Mirrors and 1 Checkpoint.
And here’s the Laser that needs to hit the targets according to the challenge card you have picked. The block emits a beam when the button on top is pressed.
There are a total of 60 challenge cards, from beginner to expert level. Each card shows where to position certain starting pieces. you than have to add in the pieces called for, orienting them as required to hit the number or targets designated. The back of each card shows the one proper solution for each challenge.
The game is actually made for solo play, however, it can still be played together with the whole family! It’s so much fun that everyone would love to take a turn. The different mirrors make for some creative game play — some mirrors reflect part of the beam while letting some pass through, allowing you to actually split it and hit multiple targets.
There’s also a symbols key info card to further understand the use of the tokens. Sometimes you are told the orientation of the pieces to be placed, and sometimes you have to figure out the placement and/or orientation to solve the puzzle.
And an info card with all the contents.
This is the solution to the first challenge, a simple single bounce off a mirror to the target.
The kids really loved this kit! First of all — LASERS! Plus, it was a good challenge an lesson on how light travels.
They liked to play with the beam, experimenting with setups of their own.
The beam splitter and different pieces really make for some interesting arrangements. I love that this game can be played as a single person puzzler or easily used as a turn-based challenge game.
This was another great STEM selection, from the same makers of the Gravity Maze the kids also loved. It is a great intro to the functioning of mirrors and light manipulation. After playing for just a bit, the kids seemed to pick up on the straight line travel of the beam and intuitively understood how the light would reflect at a right angle off of the diagonal mirror. The only concern I have with this kit is laser safety. The beam is harmless on your skin, but kids have to use care to not direct it at their eyes. The board keeps the beam horizontal, but I did have to make sure they were being safe when baby brother was hanging around, as he was much closer to table level and the height of the beam. This subscription is a great value (this kit retails on Amazon for $24 right now) and useful for stockpiling toys for gift giving.
If you received something different than our family, let us know in the comments!
Comments
I think this is the first month that we received something different than your family. We received the Thames and Kosmos Physics Lab.
this one? http://amzn.to/2jAxEjk
We skip months so sometimes they throw repeats at us.
No. This is the kit. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002HABZU/. We never received the laser maze despite not skipping months.