Reddit mentions of Motion, Magnets and More

Stembox seems cool, although I haven't had the budget for it (the price is not unreasonable).



That said... I find most of my science ideas on Pinterest and YouTube. (scishow and scishow kids, veritaseum, how it's made, etc. Also vi hart's doodling in math class thing about phi and plants).

We are usually learning more in depth about something that we encountered in real life, trying to solve a problem, or learning more about the underlying reasoning and mechanics behind something.

One thing that I would like to say is that making something "for girls" is a slippery slope. Remember that girls are diverse and three dimensional. We are not split up into fashion lovers, pet lovers, tomboys/sports lovers, geeks, and family focused.... You can, and do, find all those in the same kid. Wonder Woman, for example, resonates because she is three dimensional: good at sports, smart to the point of being geeky (reads teaching stuff for fun), enjoys dressing pretty, and loves babies.

I think Goldie Blox really screwed up their idea to engage girls, by having cool mechanical stuff and then wanting to make cutesy rhyming books that do not adequately explain the methodology and usage of their kits.

For example,

https://www.amazon.com/dp/155453707X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ZYMvzbT1XC61M this is the best book, and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkmP5w6G4UM_N1uXdIATJ3BfXVcPHoXhf these are great videos about simple machines like ramps and levers.

Something at this level that helps kids understand the the concepts all the way at the basic level, then applied into a project for the box (say it's about levers: make a catapult, then make changes based on this info that help it to shoot farther), then explained into some situations that you might experience (building a pillow fort [https://youtu.be/iPZEwqkY5TQ] riding a seesaw with a smaller friend, lifting something to move it), allows them to engage with the project emotionally and be able to apply it to every leverage situation that they come up with later in life.

Same would apply for other fields, although those aren't as easy to provide glib examples for in a reddit comment.

In my experience, girls tend to be more socially oriented, not meaning more EXTRAVERTED, but thinking about how things they encounter will fit into situations with other people. They are more likely to be enthusiastic about something cute (eg puss in boots' sad face, fuzzy baby things etc), which boys usually like but won't necessarily get excited about. Lego did market research and found that girls are more concerned than boys with the appearance of something, specifically making sure that the pieces match and looking for symmetry, than boys are. The girls' fine motor skills develop faster/earlier, while their spatial reasoning skills lag a little - so maybe when building a kit, to ensure girls stay engaged, show things from multiple angles.

So some concrete ideas:

• Don't just show an abstract 2D diagram, but also a photo or 3D representation of the thing.
  
• Have both cute (a kitten) and icky things (a germ or a monster) in the margins, making helpful comments.
  
• If you provide decoration materials for a finished product, include twice as much so it can be twice as fancy, or they can decorate something else to match.
  
• Make an effort to color coordinate the pieces. All shades of the same color, like a paint swatch, is a good bet. (maybe keep it to no more than 3 complementary colors per kit - 2 bold and one light/pastel)
  
• Be sure to include descriptions of how this item can be used to connect to the world around them, particularly for conflict resolution and being helpful or supportive.
  
• Don't just provide a project and tell why that exact set of steps works, but ensure that the underlying concept will be understood well enough to apply it to other situations.
  
  Hope this is helpful.