We challenged one of our junior crew members to come up with some designs for fidget spinners made out of Lego pieces. Have you ever really wanted a fidget spinner of your own but your parents won't let you get one? Or do you just want to put your Lego to good use? If [...]
Electro dough is a great way to introduce lessons on circuits to younger learners. It is such a tactile way to get involved with building and engages the creative mind, placing more emphasis on creative play and hands-on exploration. Another advantage is that is it less fiddly to handle than some traditional electronics components - [...]
With the summer holidays looming, many of us will be looking for ideas to keep the kids entertained for the next few weeks. We've put together a list of our favourite STEAM books that are all packed with ideas and projects to keep you busy. Whether your children are little inventors, enthusiastic scientists or [...]
Has the slime craze reached your house yet, it certainly has in ours! Our eldest has been spending literally hours up in her room mixing and squishing, all our bathroom products have been disappearing in the quest for creating the perfect slime recipe (apparently shampoo and salt is a good combination, who knew?) and her [...]
The BBC Microbit is such a versatile entry point to programming and there are already some excellent resources that you can use to get going with it straight away. But at the STEAMShip, we are really excited about how we might explore different ways to integrate it in your projects beyond the excellent resources that [...]
From all across the world, teams of young people have gathered at the University of Bath, UK, to participate in the First Lego League International Open Championship 2017. How fortunate for the Steamship crew that this year's competition is in our own home city and the very first time this prestigious event has been hosted [...]
Drawbots are always a very popular introduction to robotics workshop idea so we've spent some time recently experimenting with various designs and techniques to extend the drawbot workshops. Our focus was evaluating what materials and construction techniques are appropriate for different age groups and skill levels. We also analysed how much of the building activity [...]
I am starting to explore some simple soldering projects and developing a workflow from early ideas to a more useful art prototype. I have been avidly reading Forrest Mims' Science Experiments. Its a great book for experimenting with science and art in a playful but educational way. Lots of the projects in this book [...]
As a potential workshop to explore prototyping with cardboard, we have been investigating ways of building machines with cardboard as a material. Its a material that is available in abundance and can be worked into the most ingenious creations. Just look at these examples So I thought that I would explore how I might build [...]
Google Cardboard allows you to get a great VR experience on a real budget. But I wanted to try and build a steampunk prototype of the viewer which allows for better focal length adjustment. The project is being adapted from the standard Google Cardboard template The prototype consists of 3 wooden panels. You slip a [...]
