16 STEM Toys Your Smarty-Pants Kids Will Love in 2025

Pyxel is a great STEM toy that teaches kids to code, regardless of their level. This cool pet is fun for both beginners and experienced writers. There’s a simple fun remote to start with and a Blockly lock for beginners. Take it up a notch, and you can even use it to learn Python.

Here’s a different twist on a DIY robot. Kids can create anything their young minds can imagine out of plastic with this 3D printing pen. The 3Doodler Start Plus is compact and lightweight, making it easy for little hands to hold. With a price of 30 minutes, this pen melts plastic sticks so that children can draw them into any shape, but the nose and melted plastic are not hot, so they will not burn little hands. (I’ve tried it; you can put a tip on your skin and draw on your finger. I didn’t worry about giving it to my kids.) Draw right on a piece of paper or a table and make a plastic crust. It comes with 72 strings as well as an action guide and 10 new projects.

National Geographic kits are a great way to get kids excited about science. Even if your child isn’t into science (yet), they’ll be fascinated by all the different types of mud and putty in this kit, including glow-in-the-dark and bouncing putty and snotty mud.

The kit comes with seven pre-made slimes and putty and all the ingredients so kids can make their own. There’s also a tutorial, so you can learn all about slime and putty and try some experiments.

This award-winning STEM toy is a step up from your standard marble toy. Not only is it fun, but kids are introduced to problem-solving mechanics and engineering. Players can choose from 60 different challenges at different levels of difficulty.

These fun and challenging K’nex kits will keep budding engineers busy for hours. The best part? It ends with a large, 3-foot-tall motorized ferris wheel that can provide endless hours of fun. This tool is recommended for ages nine and up, but remember that younger children need adult supervision to help them with the more difficult pieces.

Kids who love candy (and who doesn’t?) will appreciate the Gummy Candy Lab kits. Not only will they learn about different concepts of chemistry, but they will be able to eat delicious food in the process. The kit comes with everything they need to make candy, including a plastic mold, carrageenan (a natural gelatin), cherry and lemon zest, and storage bags. Maybe if you are good, they will share.

If you’re looking for writing toys, Artie teaches line-by-line scribbles… by drawing lines on paper. Kids make this bot friend to make drawings with three-color markers on the back. It has built-in lessons and an easy-to-follow guide so kids can jump right in after downloading the box — seeing something happen on paper is instantly fun. He teaches five programming languages: Blockly, Snap!, JavaScript, Python and C++.

Artie can also recognize colors and follow lines while being monitored remotely and has a “cliff sensor” to prevent him from falling off tables.

Circuit Explorer is like Lego, but this STEM skill toy teaches the basics of how a circuit works in programming. Children learn that they have to connect the lines to the sides to complete the circle and make things dry or move. Choose from three different sets of rocket ships, Mars rovers and space stations or mix and match parts to create your own formidable machine. They can interact with Lego bricks.

There is a whole world of educational Lego, and you won’t find it in the toy aisle. The Lego Learning System is packed with hundreds of bricks and instructions to guide students through multiple lessons. Each tool is suitable for different ages of children. These educational materials are designed for the classroom, but anyone can purchase these educational toys directly from Lego for at-home learning. (And there are teacher guides to help parents.)

Our favorite is the Spike Essential learning kit for grades 1-5, which includes a number of technological tools such as a light matrix, a color sensor and a motor. Children also use the program to create their own programs. With 449 bricks and 40 lessons, this kit teaches creative thinking, design engineering, physics and math skills – all told in the story of the colorful Lego characters. If you want something cheaper without the technical equipment and software but still want to keep the physics and math lessons, check it out BricQ Motion Essential kit for $150.

Thames & Kosmos make excellent DIY toys and are often hard to find. (We’re looking at you, Candy Claw Machine and Mega Cyborg Hand.) Here is one fun gem that we still see a lot: This wacky, waving, hand-throwing person has a blower that allows kids to do experiments using air pressure, air flow and air flow. Air basketball. The wind of fire. Air tube man. Good for ages eight and up, and we emphasize “up” because you want this on your desk. (No judgment here.)

Want something sweet? Paint the kitchen with chocolate with the Skyrocket Chocolate Pen. A warming tray keeps the chocolate smooth while your battery-operated pen absorbs the sweet stuff from the cartridge. Draw, eat, repeat. This fun pen comes in a variety of colors, and little hands will have an easy time filling in the choices. You can also draw any shape you want on wax paper and it will cool in 10 minutes. Of course, this is very artistic, but there are chemistry lessons you can teach with ice cream. Technically, this makes oil science.

There are easy ways to get smart kids even if you are not smart. I signed up for a subscription to KiwiCo Clubs, which offers learning services in a box. Filled with multiple science and engineering courses, they come in letters and cater to different age groups. I am a long time subscriber for my children, and I love the quality of the products. It’s not just about small milkshakes; there are all kinds of boxes, even engineering boxes for 14-18+. Subscriptions start at $24 a month, but you can also shop the KiwiCo Store for individual purchases.

Creating your own robot requires no programming skills. This is the Kids First Robot Factory by Thames & Kosmos, and it’s great for introducing kids to the basics of engineering. This book is a story book with pictures that guides young people through making eight different battery powered bottles. With this construction toy, kids can also make their own contraptions, and as they go through the story they learn why each robot moves the way it does.

I am a fan of the geometric brain training toy. There are many spins on the trend of building magnets, but I personally like Magformers for the way they are designed and the options available for different types of boxes, so that they can be easily extended to different generations. My tip: Get a starter with wheels, so kids can speed up their creativity. Some models can be controlled remotely.

This cute robot for ages 5 and up teaches basic programming, has a variety of challenges and is screen-free with no phone or tablet required. Botley can recognize objects and move around, follow cutting rules, navigate obstacle courses and follow the black line your child makes. With 46 stages included, there’s plenty to keep kids busy.

Even the ones in your life as young as 18 months can learn STEM with these magnetic foam builders. The soft blocks easily connect and rotate so you can create creatures with heads, wings, elbows and other body parts. Don’t worry about the blocks getting dirty because they are dishwasher safe and easy to clean.

My 2-year-old never got tired of it after a year, and my 5-year-old still plays with it making all kinds of cars and creatures. It is always better to find a toy that has a good shelf, and you can expand this educational toy with several boxes.