Ladies of Industry: Holiday Gift Guide

Welcome to another BTA Holiday Gift Guide! If this is the first of our gift guides you’re reading, be sure to check out the posts by Heroine and Girls Like Comics, Dammit! for some other great gift ideas. Now, I consider myself to be firmly stationed on the nerd side of things, and love gifts that enhance that nerddom. Specifically, ones that teach you about and get you familiar with things in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). Anyone who has listened to my podcasts know that I’m a huge proponent for self-education, and I believe learning through play is a huge step for realizing the ease in which we can learn on our own. I also believe its really important to not only expose kids to STEM early (in a way that’s fun and encourages them to love it, not shoving it down their throats), but also to expose adults who just might not realize that they actually do love things in the STEM fields. Therefore, my idea of an amazing holiday gift is a kit or toy that teach precisely that.

Little Bits
 
Little Bits look seriously amazing. I want a set so bad, and will probably pick one up for myself next time I have some spare cash. Little Bits are little kits (heheheh) that teach you about Electronics. On top of their basic Electronics kits, they also have some that are specialized, like a Synth Kit for building an Analog Synthesizer, a Space Kit for making a Rover and other cool stuff (drool), a Smart Home kit for starting your Jarvis dreams, and some other pretty swanky stuff.
 
http://littlebits.cc/

Snap Circuits
 
I bought this for my nephew last Christmas, and I was really tempted to just keep it for myself. A lot of the Electronics education that this kit teaches I learned while I was messing with my first Arduino Kit, which was a LOT more fiddly and more difficult to figure out. It would have been much easier to learn about wiring and circuits and transistors and resistors if they were all snap-able and easily changeable. This kit is designed for kids, but I wouldn’t find any shame in having one myself.
 
http://www.snapcircuits.net/

Arduino Kits
 
I got my first Arduino kit a year or so back, and I absolutely loved messing with it. Previously, I’d only done stuff on the software side, and had never messed with Electronics on the physical side (aside from putting together a computer). The examples that they give you are really fun to work through, and once its done you can use it for a bunch of different stuff! You’d be amazed by all the different things people use Arduinos for. Just check out sites like Instructables and Sparkfun for cool examples of what you can do with one! Below are some pretty neat Arduino starter kits.

Kano
 
Kano is an adorable little computer kit that walks you through building your own computer! It’s a very simple computer and the components are built to be easy to fit together in order to give you a nice introduction into building a computer. You can then take that computer and program things on it! Its driven by Raspberry Pi and uses its own open source operating system. It’t not an incredibly powerful system, but its a really slick and user friendly intro to putting together your own little system.
 
http://www.kano.me/

MaKey MaKey
 
So, MaKey MaKey is bananas. It’s a kit that could literally allow you to use bananas as a keyboard. Your computer has input devices, like a keyboard or a game controller. This Kit allows you to use everyday objects as your input devices.
It’s weird and cool and is amazing at encouraging you to get creative! I’ve seen a lot of really ridiculous things that were created using this kit.
 
http://www.makeymakey.com/

Soft Circuits
 
Soft circuits something awesome that I’ve unfortunately had zero experience with, but am excited to get exploring sometime soon. Basically, you integrate Electronics into your clothes for cool effect! Yeah, light-up shirts have been a thing for a while, but its quite cool when you get to try it yourself. I’ve seen some really amazing projects done with soft circuits, just go to a site like instructables and check out a few! Below are some nice soft circuit kits that I’ve found. Definitely a neat gift for someone creative who’s into cosplay or just making fabric-based crafts in general.

Kinetic Creatures
These are just adorable. Kinetic Creatures are cardboard craft sculptures with a little bit of engineering tossed in. You put them together in an oragami-esque fashion, and then use a little hand crank to make them walk. I think they’re a marvelous little toy that are simple and elegantly show off some simple physics and mechanics.
 
http://www.kineticcreatures.com/

Electric Paint Pen
 
Not much can be said about this, I just absolutely needed one the moment I saw it, so I figured it belonged in a list of nerdy gift ideas. The concept is simple: its just like any other paint pen, but the paint used is electrically conductive. So, you can draw circuits on paper if you so chose. Great for prototyping and making.
 
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11521

4M Science Kits
I know a lot of the things I’ve listed are expensive. Likely why I list them, as I want them and don’t often have enough spare cash to get them. There are certainly more reasonably priced items for exploring the world of STEM. Though, I think you’re hard pressed to beat looking around the internet for interesting science projects that only require household objects. But since those don’t make good presents, you could always check out the science projects that 4M produces. When I was in the Philippines, I’d pick up one of these every week or so for funsies. They’re not very expensive, and even though they’re not very elaborate they’re usually fun little projects. They are a little hit and miss, so just check the amazon ratings. Some of my favourites are below.

Of course, you can never go wrong with a good construction kit! Lego were my favourite toys when I was younger, along with a box of blocks (just regular wooden blocks. I feel like someone made them for me), Kinex, and Lincoln Logs. There are some pretty amazing construction kits out there, so just poke around. Science kits are also really amazing, and I almost had an entire section on them, but I’ve rambled on enough already. Just check out the Learning & Education section on Amazon.

To sum up, something that encourages the curiosity and creativity of your loved ones. You might think that educational kits and the like are only for the younger audiences, but they’re usually fun for all ages as long as you’ve got a curious mind.