Recommendation for Best Buy for up to $1000

Safoura Seddighin

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May 20, 2024, 1:07:03 PMMay 20

to K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces

Hello,

I hope all is well with you all.

So I just found out that we have about $900 budget that I have to spend before end of this week.

At our lab, we have two 3D printers. Some ozo bots, and Lego spike kits; the rest is some STEM kits and low tech maker materials.

What would be your suggestion for a quick buy to spend this little money the best? Thanks so much, friends.

All the best,

Safoura

Marci klein

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May 20, 2024, 1:21:19 PMMay 20

to K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces

how about cardboard and connectors, renewable energy kits for designing and engineering sustainable cities? https://www.3duxdesign.com/pages/3duxuniversity-iclassroomsets You can get the GOBOX classroom, renewable energy kit and miniature "build-a-bots" for well under $900. The connectors work well with lego spike. If you get some 5x5 lego base plates on amazon, you can use the 3duxdesign kits to build an extire sustainable coity and the lego spike to code functionality. Then the ozobots can be programed as self-driving cars for a complete smart city! (3dux kits include project guides for all of that)

Kathy Giori

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May 20, 2024, 1:46:05 PMMay 20

to Marci klein, K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces

Hi Safoura,

I would spend it on affordable microcontroller boards that are well-supported by educational software for physical computing (MicroBlocks support being my undeniable first choice as an open source physical computing software tool, because it's live, like Scratch, and founded by the developer who led Scratch development at the outset.)

I am particularly fond of hardware with wireless radio support (Wi-Fi and/or BLE) so that learners can easily bridge their creations into the world of "Internet of Things" (IoT). Example of boards I like:

* micro:bit, Adafruit Circuit Playground Express Bluefruit, Adafruit Clue, or any other Nordic Semiconductor boards (with nRF52 MCUs)

* Espressif ESP32 hardware (and kits if the board doesn't have many sensors/actuators on it already)

* Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) wireless version boards and kits

I would like to see students pick up microcontrollers, sensors, and actuator components to instrument and actuate the real world. Every student should have these tools in their backpack, just like they carry around calculators.

Let me know if I can help further. Good luck!

kathy

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Safoura Seddighin

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May 20, 2024, 2:08:35 PMMay 20

to Marci klein, K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces

This seems very interesting; thank you for sharing.

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Safoura Seddighin

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May 20, 2024, 2:09:15 PMMay 20

to Kathy Giori, K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces, Marci klein

Yes, this too. Have you done this with older elementary kids? I have preK to 6th grade. Thanks so much.

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rmag...@spa.edu

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May 20, 2024, 2:53:29 PMMay 20

to K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces

I would recommend Makey Makey for this age group. I have used them with 3-5, and they are a great introduction to programming, circuits, and prototyping. I use them in conjunction with Scratch (which is free!).

Marcia Gauvin

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May 21, 2024, 11:29:56 AMMay 21

to K-12 Fab Labs and Makerspaces

You don't say your grade level, but Finch Robots by Birdbrain Technologies would be my vote.