It seems like it was yesterday we were writing our gift guide for 2018. Where did the year go? Our last two editions of the Holiday Tech Gift Ideas for Girls seemed to be a hit. Even after the holidays, the posts are still viewed, but it is not a surprise to our team. With more and more parents wanting to have their daughters learn about STEM, finding fun and educational resources is not always easy.

This year, along with the TechGirlz staff, we decided to check with our Teen Advisory Board (TAB) members for ideas.

We hope this will help you with your holiday shopping and help the TechGirl in your life become more confident and curious about STEM. Look for the (*) near the technology listed below that TechGirlz has free curriculum for.

Let’s start with ideas for our youngest TechGirlz:

• Fisher-Price Code n Learn Kinderbot (age 3+)
• Squishy Human Body Anatomy Kit (age 3+)
• SmartGurlz (age 5+)

For the rest of our TechGirlz, there are robotic kits:

• Lego Mindstorms EV3*- Build and program a Lego robot to walk, talk, and do any number of commands you can program.
• Edison Robot*- Small robot that can be programmed with blocks or in Python
• Sphero SPRK+ STEAM educational robot
• RVR Robot– Easily driveable and programmable robot
• Artie 3000 the coding robot

And Coding and Computer kits:

• Turing Tumble (Doug Stein)- build marble powered computers.
• Wolfram Programming Lab (Doug Stein)
• Little Bits
• Makey Makey*- Used to connect everyday objects to computer programs. Users learn about circuits and coding
• Raspberry Pi*, Arduino kit* or Micro:bit*
• mBot wonder workshop robot
• Cozmo by anki
• Kano Computer Kit

There are Engineering and Science Kits:

• Roominate– build a doll/play room and then wire it
• Snap Circuits Kit with basic electrical components that comes with a handout to show the user many different circuits to build
• Thames and Kosmos wind power science kit
• Kiwi Co science subscription box
• Smithsonian Planetarium projector
• LittleBits rule your room kit
• K’NEX Education stem explorations: vehicles building set

Some art kits, that rely on technology:

• Wacom Pen and Tablets– it’s a pen and tablet set, the pen is a stylist and you can use it to write on the tablet and this shows up on the laptop, it’s a way to draw on a laptop, which is usually difficult
• 3D Printer Pen– Uses filament to print things from a hand-held and guided pen. You can find different brands of these pens in craft stores and more.

And sometimes it is good to remember there are paper books to help guide their way to tech:

• Code Like a Girl book by Miriam Peskowitz
• The Hello Ruby series by Linda Liukas – Adventures in Coding, Journey Inside the Computer, and Expedition to the Internet

Of course we have to give a little shout out to ourselves:

• A ticket to the 2020 Girls in Tech Summit, the first all girls in tech conference
• Sign your TechGirl up for a TechGirlz TechShop
• TechGirlz swag from our CafePress store.

Have a Happy Holiday season! Do you have other tech toy ideas to share with the TechGirlz community? Tweet us @TechGirlzorg!