STEM and STEAM Kits

Libraries across the country utilize facilitation kits to provide activities and materials to enhance their STEAM programming plans, and check-out (or take and make) kits to help their patrons use the experience at home.

Whether you’ve never used a kit before, or consider yourself a kit pro, these resources will provide you with prototyped and tested activities and resources.

* Results collected and analyzed by the Education Development Center and reported to the National Center for Interactive Learning in December 2018. Sixty-seven library professionals participated in the survey. ** Preschool ages through high school and families.

The following materials have been made available to library patrons to borrow, either for a short period of time (e.g., within the library) or to take home.

Anchorage Public Library, Alaska

• Simple Machines: Gear Content Sheet
• Simple Machines: Gear Discovery Sheet
• Circuits 2 (Squishy Circuits) Content Sheet
• Circuits 2 (Squishy Circuits) Discovery Sheet

Kendalville Public Library, Indiana

• Lego Mindstorms EV3 Robot Kit
• AmScope SE 305R-PZ Stereo Microscope Kit
• Simple Machines STEAM Kit
• Code and Go Mouse

Ridgeville Library, Ohio

• Engineer @ Home STEAM Kit (with Domino Effect Kit)
• Make Tech @ Home STEAM Kit (with Bee-Bot Robots)

Harford County Public Library, Maryland

• LEAP Kits
  Access materials on each of this library’s many STEM kits, which cover topics from building, to circuits, to health, and more!

The following sets of materials are curated for library professionals to use in facilitating programs and outreach. They are not intended for home use.

NASA@ My Library Program (funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate)
These NASA STEM kits include easy and cheap hands-on activities, as well as activities that require charismatic science tools you may already have in your library!

• Kit A: Sun-Earth-Moon Connections –> Facilitation Binder | Supplies List
• Kit B: Be a NASA Detective: Expanding Your Senses –> Facilitation Binder | Supplies List
• Kit C: Our Place in Space –> Facilitation Binder | Supplies List
• Kit D: The Search for Habitable Worlds  –> Facilitation Binder

Pioneer Library System
Explore how this library system catalogs and lends their kits for libraries.
Learn more >>

Washington State Library STEM Kits
Explore kits designed to serve 15 kids in a library program and follow tutorials for using the equipment.
Learn more >>

Example tutorial: LEGO^® Mindstorms^® EV3 Programming Basics, with instructional videos available on YouTube

Contact Washington State Library staff if you are interested in learning more!

Testimonial

View a presentation slide set to help you catalog STEM materials, and explore several library catalogs to see different approaches for how this might like in practice.

Slide Presentation:

Where The Wild Things Are: Cataloging STEM Materials, Kits, and Curriculum Resources
View on SlideShare >>

Examples from Library Catalogs:

Eastern Lancaster County Library

• Equipment
• Kits

Kendallville Public Library

• Cortex Kits

Middle County Public Library

• Library of Things – Educational Collection

Whitman County Library

• STEM Bags
• Bonnie Bags

Ridgeville Library

• OPAC Listings

Traverse Area District Library

• S.T.E.M. Kits

For patrons with limited economic resources, fines and fees can be a barrier to using STEM kits. In considering how to make STEM kits available to all members of your community, explore how some libraries have eliminated fines and fees.

Eliminating Fines and Fees on Children’s Materials to Create a Win-Win for Your Library and Community (Presented at the 2018 Public Library Association Conference)

Beth Crist, Youth & Family Services Consultant
Colorado State Library , CO

Terri Spaulding, Collection Resources Manager
High Plains Library District , CO

Judiane Koch, Librarian
Centennial Park Library , Greeley , CO