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K’NEX Education STEM EXPLORATIONS: Gears

K’NEX Education Gears kit focuses on building moving models. Along with the basic building pieces, the set has some gears and instructions for building three moving models. This set may help kids understand gears interactions and basic mechanics. This is one of the proposed models – an eggbeater. The tips rotate when you move the crank.

Many K’Nex Education sets offer moving models, and can have gears and motors. This set, however, doesn’t have a motor. The gears you rotate yourself are the only source of movement.

This set has relatively small pieces, so it will not be a good choice for the small children. Sometimes connecting pieces may also be though, so the best age for K’NEX Education Gears kit is 8-10 years old. Even if this set has no mini K’Nex pieces, you should be very careful about giving it to any child under the age of 7. You should also be careful around the moving gears – they are not metal, but having hair stuck in it is still very unpleasant.

Moving crafts can be a great add-on to any K’Nex collection. However, this set has a relatively small number of gears for so many regular pieces, so you have to be precise while using them. The set also offers a very limited number of the possible models. This, however, is not a big problem, since K’Nex crafts are easy to invent, and this set is more than enough to create many different things.

K'NEX Education STEM EXPLORATIONS: Gears
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Curious Magnetic Worm

A curious magnetic worm made from a Japanese magnetic construction kit, nimble one, judging by the wheels. He hung down to watch TV. My kids love to have fun with magnetic construction sets on the bed, like building the Magic Magnetic Forest . Our beds are metal bunk beds, and it is very convenient to hang something magnetic to the “ceiling” above the lower bed. A year ago, we moved, and when there arose question of buying new beds, all the children said that they only need metal ones to play with magnets.

Curious Magnetic Worm
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ASOK

ASOK is a Chinese brand of classic magnetic frame building kits. They almost always come in pastel colors and have gently rounded edges.
The pieces are smaller than in most similiar kits, but there are more pieces in each set than usual.
The kits also have many specialized pieces like windows or wheels, so you can create cars and houses with just one set.

ASOK
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Quercetti Kaleido Gears

This Kaleido Gears set by Quercetti has all the essential things you’d desire in a gear system. Firstly, their construction quality is top-notch, and the pieces have a robust and solid design. The set also has a seamless gear interface, so they interlock securely. With these reliable connections and sturdy pieces, the set allows you to build machines that can perform real work.

The set includes several base plates that fit together like puzzle pieces. Sadly, this set has no poles or pillars, you make a basic construction from the puzzle pieces only. You can also build 3D structures with these pieces, like boxes or buildings. There are also no bands or chains, so this set has fewer building options than the other Quercetti gear sets.

The gears, however, are great – they have different sizes, colors, and ornaments, and they move! Together, they create very bright and flashy crafts, hence the set’s name. It also includes the axis pieces and a crank to move the gears. This set is great for explaining basic physics to the children – they will learn the basics of gear connections without any trouble. Since the kit mostly has big, colorful parts, the recommended age is 3-12 years.

Quercetti Kaleido Gears
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NAPKIN

A cute frilly napkin we made from a building straw set. It looks great, but sadly cant hold any water or support a hot kettle.

Building straws are a popular and unusual type of building set. These sets include long, hollow flexible tubes that connect to each other at their ends. Since the tubes themselves have no special connecting devices, each set also includes special connecting parts. These parts are very small hard and rigid, and they have long pins that you can insert into the straws. The number and the positions of these pins can vary, so different connectors hold the straws’ ends at different angles. Because the tubes are flexible, this simple principle allows you to assemble countless shapes and crafts.

These sets are very unusual because they allow you to create any geometrical form you want and use the bent lines. The final craft will always be hollow, lightweight, and almost symbolic. However, you will still recognize these shapes, and they look more detailed and solid if they have more straws. Also, the straws are soft, so you can shorten them with a pair of common scissors if you need to. Sadly, there is no way to fix the straw after it was cut. Since a long straw bend more smoothly than the short straws connected in a row, the long ones are very valuable in a building set like that. So you have to be careful if you want to cut something.

NAPKIN Building Straw Set
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