STEM

LittleBits Opens Up Access to Kits in Educational Settings

• By Michael Hart
• 09/24/15

LittleBits, the four-year-old maker of kits that allow children and adults to create inventions with a platform of electronic building blocks, is launching LittleBits Education to enhance the use of its products for schools and libraries.

Since 2011, the company has been making and distributing pre-made kits that can help children make gadgets like musical instruments and robotic cars.

A Base Kit, which retails online for $99, is designed to help students learn the basics of electronics and the principals of science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM). The kit comes with 10 modules like a DC motor, buzzer, dimmer and light sensor (and more can be ordered); an instruction book with eight projects and access to more online; and 150,000 possible circuit combinations.

In order to make LittleBits kits more accessible in the classroom, the company has released four new products:

• LittleBits STEAM PD, a stand-alone professional development program designed to help teachers integrate STEAM instruction into the classroom;
• LittleBits Invention Lab, a bundle of products to be used in libraries and other environments that will allow access to up to 72 students at one time;
• LittleBits Classroom Integration, for schools that want to integrate LittleBits and a STEAM curriculum into multiple classrooms at once; and
• LittleBits 1:1, a collection of products that will provide every student with his or her own mobile makerspace.

"We launched LittleBits Education because we wanted to make it easy for educational institutions everywhere to find a way to bring more 21^st-century learning to their students," said LittleBits Founder and CEO Ayah Bdeir.

Marymount School of New York, a private girls school in New York City, is the first institution to take advantage of the 1:1 portable invention kits.

"Giving every girl her own mobile makerspace of LittleBits offers them opportunities for rapid prototyping their innovations and inventions," said Marymount Headmistress Concepcion Alvar.