Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, there are countless options when holiday gift shopping for kids – science-themed gifts are a great choice to fuse learning with fun and inspire the next generation of thinkers and tinkerers. With options for all ages and opportunities to introduce a range of scientific topics to young minds, consider adding these 10 gift ideas to your shopping list this holiday season.
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FUTURE SCIENTIST Lab Coat Onesie
This adorable hand-painted onesie, crafted by Zirenart on Etsy, is a great gift for scientist families and comes in sizes for babies ranging in age from 0 to 12 months. The fabric is made from organic cotton that is gentle on babies’ sensitive skin and the onesie can be customized with short or long sleeves and personalized with different colors and the baby’s name.
Price: $19.99
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Chemistry Flask Soft Baby Rattle
Another great gift option for the youngest mini-scientists, designed by ByMarika on Etsy, are these crocheted flask-shaped baby rattles – a conical flask, round bottom flask and measuring flask, each with their own personality. Shoppers can choose between these three styles and 20 different custom colors, and the toys are made from organic cotton yarn with hypoallergenic filling.
Price: $19.87
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GIANTmicrobes DNA
Most of us remember having stuffed animals as a kid – this unique plush toy is sure to make an impression on both younger children and aspiring young scientists alike. Suitable for kids age 3 and up, this soft, squeezable representation of DNA’s helix structure comes with a card containing educational facts about our genetic code.
Price: $14.95
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GeoSafari Jr. My First Microscope
With this fun gift idea, even preschoolers can appreciate how microscopes help us see the world in new detail. The battery-powered mini microscope, designed by a scientist with two preschool-age children of her own, features up to 8x magnification, two extra-large eyepieces and a bright LED light. Shoppers can choose between two colors: green or pink.
Price: $24.99
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She Persisted in Science: Brilliant Women Who Made a Difference
This picture book, authored by Chelsea Clinton and illustrated by Alexandra Boiger, tells the stories of over a dozen inspiring female scientists including Florence Nightingale, Rosalind Franklin, Jane Goodall and Temple Grandin. Recommended for reading levels between preschool and third grade, the 32-page book is part of the #1 New York Times bestselling She Persisted series.
Price: $8.99
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Creative Compounds Mega Set
This colorful chemistry kit comes with 16 different polymers and compounds that only require the addition of water to conduct fun and fascinating experiments. Kids 4 and up can create and play with “super sand,” “miracle snow,” slime and expanding water marbles while learning concepts such as surface tension, viscosity, and hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties using the included experiment guide.
Price: $17.50
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Cosmetic Chemistry Activity Set
For another hands-on, “edutaining” gift option, this science kit allows mini-scientists 6 and up to create their own lip gloss and body scrub while learning basic chemistry concepts and vocabulary. The activity set contains supplies that mimic real laboratory equipment, including beakers, syringes and lab badges, to make young learners feel like real chemists for a day. The kit was created by Black to the Lab, a company dedicated to bridging racial and gender gaps in STEM education.
Price: $29.99
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Magnetic Science STEM Experiment Kit
Chemistry is not the only topic kids can enjoy learning about this holiday season – this activity set, designed for children ages 8 to 15, teaches about magnetism with 33 different experiments and a full-color educational instruction manual. Students can observe floating ring magnets, build their own electromagnet and visualize magnetic fields with iron filings in a transparent box.
Price: $32.95
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Virtuali-Tee
This creative T-shirt merges fashion with augmented reality to enable kids and teens to learn about human anatomy in a more interactive way than just reading from a textbook. By using the free Virtual-Tee app and the camera from a phone or tablet, users can explore the circulatory, respiratory and digestive systems in 360 degrees, overlaid on the T-shirt’s unique skeletal scan code design. The shirt comes in a wide range of sizes, from XS Kids all the way to XXL Adult, and the app even allows wearers to see their own heart rate animated in a live 3D video.
Price: $19.95
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Forensics for Kids
This book on the history of forensic science presents fascinating cases and scientific concepts in a way that young readers can easily appreciate and understand. The book also includes 21 interactive crime-solving experiments that kids and teens can perform at home, by assembling their very own forensic toolkit from household items. Readers can feel like real-life detectives collecting and comparing fingerprint samples, making plaster shoe print samples and even using chromatography to analyze ink.
Price: $18.99