The Internet is filled with cool STEM websites and apps for kids that encourage interest in science, technology, engineering, and math. Here are a few of our favorites:
Grades K – 2
NASA Kids’ Club
NASA Kids Club is an excellent site for “kids” of all ages and provides an abundance of information, images, and interesting things to do on astronomy and the space sciences. Easy to navigate, the site’s more useful and interesting features include: Now in Space—where you can learn more about the crew on the International Space Station, Clubhouse—where you can play games, Pictures—of astronauts, scientific instruments, space, etc.
PBS Kids Lab
Targeting children aged 2-8, PBS Kids Lab was developed by the U.S. Department of Education with math mentors. Skills from counting to sorting are tested in online activity collections like “Dinosaur Train” and “Curious George.”
PBS Plum Landing (PBS Kids)
Plum Landing is a science education site starring a plum-shaped alien and her human friends provides videos, games, and activity suggestions that parents and kids can do together to learn about nature and ecosystems. Site content is geared toward 6- to 9-year-olds.
Strange Matter – Strange Matter is a great place for students to learn while having fun. The activities pertain to materials science or the “study of stuff”.
CyberChase (PBS Kids)
Join the cybersquad. Good guys only, please. PBS Kids show CyberChase offers a range of online resources for future CISOs, including activities and games geared toward learning math, code, and similar concepts.
Grades 3 – 5
The Ultimate STEM Guide for Kids: 239 Cool Sites About Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
This guide features summer camps, websites, competitions, apps, and career resources for students in elementary school to high school. The gender gap is slowly shrinking in these fields as more initiatives crop up, including organizations such as Girls Who Code, but since women are still vastly underrepresented, we’ve included STEM activities specifically for girls and young women.
Engineering Interact – This website provides fully interactive, engaging game environments with information about real world applications to introduce students to the exciting world of engineering.
Science Kids
Science Kids is the home of science & technology on the Internet for children around the world. Learn more about the amazing world of science by enjoying our fun science experiments, cool facts, online games, free activities, ideas, lesson plans, photos, quizzes, videos & science fair projects.
The Kids Science Challenge -Visit the games and video section of this website to help them conceptualize information in an engaging way.
Code.org
In addition to its Hour of Code series, the site also features an Intro to Computer Science course for K-8, programming tutorials in languages such as Python and JavaScript, mobile app development activities.
Climate Kids
Kid-friendly, expert site explores key climate issues
Kinetic City
Budding scientists of all stripes will dig Kinetic City’s collection of science projects, experiments, and educational games — including activities that pull the young scientist away from the screen. Do you or your children have your own favorites? Share them with us in the comments.
Science Buddies
The award-winning, non-profit Science Buddies empowers K-12 students, parents, and teachers to quickly and easily find free project ideas and help in all areas of science from physics to food science and music to microbiology. Whether your goal is to find a fun science activity for your kids or win the international science fair, sciencebuddies.org puts comprehensive, scientist-authored tools, tips, and techniques at your fingertips.
Math Blaster
Certified Kid-Safe, Math Blaster has provided an online, outer space-based MMO gaming console from JumpStart for 15 years. Free memberships let PreK-6 children integrate math problems into fun scenarios like “Space Zapper” and “Monster Mutt Rescue.”
Create A Graph
The NCES Kids’ Zone utilized Macromedia Flash Player to launch the CreateAGraph online tutorial for developing bar, line, area, pie, and XY graphs. The Grab Bag also includes math teasers, mathematician quizzes, and word searches.
A+Click
Recognized by Education World, A+ Click is a free, four-star website with 4,200 math problems for grades 1-12. Working toward the Hall of Fame, students answer questions, from circumference to proportions, that adhere to the Common Core.
Funbrain
Included within ENC’s Digital Dozen, Funbrain is one of Poptropica Worldwide’s educational, Certified Kid-Safe websites boasting over 35 million monthly visits. The Math Arcade has single-player games for grades K-8, such as “Apple Catch” and “Cake Monster.”
Math Playground
Developed by veteran K-8 teachers, Math Playground is a responsible, Certified Kid-Safe website where students exercise their brains with 425+ games. Common Core videos, such as “Line Plots” and “Skip Counting,” also explain key concepts.
National Geographic Kids
Nat Geo Kids inspires young adventurers to explore the world through award-winning magazines, books, apps, games, toys, videos, events, and a website, and is the only kids brand with a world-class scientific organization at its core.
STEM Apps for Kids
Let’s now focus on the brightest STEM apps for kids to download onto mobile devices for mastering science, technology, engineering, and math subjects on-the-go anywhere. Download from your app store.
Brain Play
Granted the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, Brain Play is a free iOS app from Morphonix’s NeuroPlay Adventures series that introduces kids to the functions of five brain parts: cerebellum, cerebral cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and brainstem.
BrainBalance
Funded by the NIH, BrainBalance with SaraBellum is another of Morphonix’s STEM apps for kids ages 5-8 to learn fun neuroscience facts while stacking and balancing shapes. iTunes presently charges $2.99 for iPhone or iPad downloads.
Neuron Galaxy
Vetted by Floyd Bloom, MD, Neuron Galaxy is a free science app given Common Sense Media’s ON for Learning Award to teach children ages 5-8 about synaptic connections in the brain, the Milky Way’s most remarkable organ.
GoSkyWatch Planetarium App
GoSkyWatch Planetarium allows you to identify and locate stars, planets, constellations, and more by touching the screen or by pointing it to the sky. It displays the sky view at the correct orientation when held at any angle. The app has a built-in compass so that you can tell which direction you are pointing.
Sky Map
Turning Android devices into mobile planetariums, Sky Map is among the open-sourced, 4.5-star science apps for kids. Using GPS, the sensor tells children exactly where to look for astronomical phenomenon like planets and comets.
K’NEX
Available on iTunes, Google Play, or Amazon, K’NEX is one of the free engineering apps for kids to build ingenious creations using virtual blocks, rods, and connectors. Given 4.5 stars, the interface uses 3D imagery for close-ups from every angle.
Sound Rebound
Made for ages 9-11, Sound Rebound is a premier, open-ended Exploratorium app for young physics explorers to freely move various 2D shapes to create different sounds and colors when struck by bouncing balls.
Robots for iPad
The IEEE created Robots for iPad in 2015 with 3D exploration of 158 robots, including Google’s self-driving car. Given a Tabby Award, the free app also includes 500+ high-definition photos of androids, drones, quadrupeds, and more.
Timeline Eons
Costing $1.99 on iTunes, Timeline Eons is an ad-free, 223MB app sold by Jarir Maani that provides a zoomable timeline with dates for natural science and technology events happening throughout history back to Big Bang.
DroidScript
Starting with the Whack-a-Droid tutorial, DroidScript stands out among technology apps for kids by using Android’s built-in Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, WiFi, and Bluetooth serial support to teach kids to code software 10x faster.
Lightbot
Played by over 20 million kids ages 8+, LightBot is currently $2.99 on iTunes and Google Play for providing 50 levels of programming puzzles. Guiding colorful robots through commands teaches first-time coders about conditionals, loops, and more.
Move the Turtle
For $3.99, Move the Turtle is downloaded onto the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch for children ages 5+ to learn the basics of Logo programming. The coding-centric STEM app also touches elementary geometry and measurement.
SpriteBox
Created by LightBox’s Danny Yaroslavski, SpriteBox is another of the coding apps for kids aged 6-8 to engage in 70 programming puzzles. The $2.99 price unlocks 500 stars for mastering parameters, sequencing, loops, procedures, and Swift syntax.
Truss Me!
Scientific Monkey LLC launched Truss Me!, a $1.99 iOS engineering app for recreational construction projects, in June 2016. Children earn golden nuts while using design tools that simulate those used by aerospace, mechanical, and civil engineers.
SimCity BuildIt
Selected for iTunes Editors’ Choice, SimCity BuildIt is among the most popular free engineering apps for kids to develop burgeoning metropolises. SimCash and in-app purchases give children the tools to erect buildings from the city center to the marina.
Blokify
Updated in December 2016, Blokify is a 3D modeling app developed by Noquo Inc. for children ages 6-8 to engineer building blocks into practical structures for $3.99. Virtual reality also becomes physical thanks to one-click wireless printing.
Skyscrapers
Ranked seventh in Tinybop’s Explorers Library series, Skyscrapers is a $2.99 educational app letting children ages 6-8 investigate the engineering of Earth’s tallest buildings. The Parents’ Choice Award winner also tests structures in earthquakes, hurricanes, lightning, and more.
LEGO Life
Installed over 3 million times from Google Play, LEGO Life is a free, creative Android app for children ages 5-12 to turn blocks into genius engineering creations, watch mini LEGO movies, and chat with the Emoticon Keyboard.
Bedtime Math
Proven effective by University of Chicago psychologists in Science, Bedtime Math is a free iOS or Android app with 1,600+ animated math problems for nightly use. Difficulty is customized in three levels: Wee Ones, Little Kids, or Big Kids.