Noggin Builders STEM Explorer Box Review + Coupon – Grade 3-5

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Noggin Builders STEM Explorer is a monthly subscription of hands-on STEM activities for kids. You can get the box for $60 each month, plus a $10 shipping fee if shipping outside Illinois. The box brings hands-on STEM activities complete with materials, printed and video guides, and online interactions with a teacher.

The Explorer boxes are available in 3 age groups:

  • PreK
  • Grades K-2
  • Grades 3-5

DEAL: Get $5 off on your first any Explorer box! Use coupon code SAVE5.

This is a review of the Grades 3-5 box!

Everything in the box is secured in resealable plastic bags.

You can also join the STEM Explorer community by logging to your online account. You can access video guides for projects, plus there are discussions with other Explorers and interactions with Noggin Builders teachers.

Here are the online content for the Explorer boxes. Each activity has its own folder that contains all the supplementary stuff that we need.

The activity includes 3 explorations, and they also provided us with online resources like activity guides and videos from Noggin Builders teachers.

We opened the folder for the Complex Machines, and there are some information and activity instructions for the activity.

Here’s an example of the activity guide for Bird Beak Design, which is exploring and designing a bird’s beak! The directions are easy to follow and kid-friendly.

The packets that contain the materials for each activity in the box are also labeled. The activities are good for a month. We got 4 so there’s 1 activity for each week. We got Rust & Oxidation, Birds, Rube Goldberg, and Persistence of Vision.

Everything in our box!

All of the individual bags have an online section with discussion boards, videos, an overview of the entire lesson, and individual project instruction sheets.

Activity #1: Rube Goldberg. For the first week, my kids did the activity entitled Rube Goldberg!

Before everything else, they learned the concept behind it from the online class led by an instructor. 

The interactive class is really helpful! There’s a student-teacher interaction, which makes it such a fun and exciting learning experience.

After the classes, they’re ready to do this complex machine! They’re really excited and the first week’s activity went smoothly.

Activity #2: Rust & Oxidation. The second activity involves the scientific principle of oxidation.

Oxidation occurs when an atom, molecule, or ion loses one or more electrons in a chemical reaction. When oxidation occurs, the oxidation state of the chemical species increases. Oxidation doesn’t necessarily involve oxygen!

The activities for the second week were really fun. Now, my kids understand the principle and this activity showed them the process of oxidation. They have learned why some items, specifically those who are made of metal, have rust or turn to rust.

Here’s the result of the activity!

The result is fascinating as we see how the metallic items turn or had some rust, and then we were also able to clean it or take it off the items. The process of oxidation is really amazing!

Activity #3: Persistence of Vision. The next activity shows something that we encounter everyday. There’s a series of images to complete a whole picture, which is similar to how film and animation work, and this is what Persistence of Vision (POV) is all about! 

For this activity, my kids created their own device that demonstrates POV.

This part involves another set of activities. First is to make a spinning top that will blend colors and patterns together while it works.

Next thing is to make a POV spinner that will introduce the kids to animation. It’s simple yet really awesome. My kids also engineered a spinner stand for the animated spinner.

Activity #4: Birds. My kids explored more about birds for the last activity. This specifically teaches kids about one of the most important parts of its body, the bird beak!

First, my kids designed a bird’s beak that is able to scoop up or pick up certain kinds of food.

They used the spoons, popsicle sticks, and the clothespin to try out different types of beaks and tried to grab different kinds of food using each of the beak types.

My kids also tried identifying the kind of beak we got from the owl pellet. There’s a chart provided so that they can easily tell what it is.

This reminded them of excavating fossils, but this time, they’re looking for a bird’s beak!

With Noggin Builders STEM Explorer, my kids have so much fun learning at home! This subscription doesn’t just send materials, they also give us access to interactive online classes so kids can learn the concept behind every activity before trying them out. The classes are engaging and the teachers are also pretty good. Noggin Builders STEM activities are always kid-friendly. In fact, my kids don’t even need to be supervised because they can mostly do everything on their own. For this box, they got fascinated with rust and oxidation, and the birds! The box is complete with all the materials they needed to do the activities, requiring just some items from home, like tapes and scissors.

For this summer, Noggin Builders is hosting a virtual summer camp – $195 per week per family, plus the cost of materials. Based on our experience, I would absolutely recommend it!

What do you think of the Noggin Builders STEM Explorer box?

Visit Noggin Builders STEM Explorer Box to subscribe or find out more!

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