Tag Archives: Stem

Photo-A-Day, Review, Toys

Sunny Days With Solar Powered Rovers

Solar Powered Rovers
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00680

We received the Solar Powered Rovers from Thames and Kosmos for free to play with and review. Opinions are our own.

Today was a sunny day and Andy was on a home day from the hybrid model of school. He had also lost privileges to use his iPad. Therefore it was the perfect day for us to try out the Solar Powered Rovers from Thames and Kosmos. This STEM experiment kit has 5 different rovers to build. It comes with a solar cell and motor set plus many other pieces that you can use together to make special models. Four of the models are vehicles and one of them is a fan. Andy wanted to make the fan first and so together we assembled the fan.

solar powered fan

The kit is for 8+ and it is the perfect for Andy to work on all on his own. All of the pieces fit together well and it is fairly easy for him to assemble the rovers. The manual is full color and has easy to follow instructions. It is also sprinkled with great scientific facts. When I asked Andy what the best part of building was he said:

“Building it was the most fun thing from the whole experience. Seeing the creation come to life once it was built was cool but the building was so much fun.” – Andy

The thing that I was impressed with was that the solar cell worked immediately. We took the solar cell and motor out of the box and immediately it started spinning. We had to flip it over so that the sun couldn’t get at it. We even noticed that if we flipped it over the reflection of the sun made it keep spinning. I had to place it directly face down on the table so we could assemble the rover. What I noticed was that any bit of shade made the solar cell stop. You can see how that works out when Andy runs the rover in the video below.

We’re excited to build the rest of the rovers together. If you are interested in picking up this kit for a kid in your life for Christmas please consider using our Amazon.com affiliate link below.

Photo-A-Day

Building a Dam for Class

Building a Dam

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00631

The kids were home today. They go to school every other day and when they are home they have projects to work on for school. Most of the time Andy has worksheets and things like that. Not today. Today he had to build a working dam. He did not tell me that this was his assignment. I found out because I heard brick hitting brick in the backyard. Andy was out there removing the bricks around the yard and making a dam. He was out there in his pajamas and bare feet. I had to gain my composure before I went downstairs so that I did not start screaming at him for being so careless.

I asked him what he was doing and he explained that he had to build a dam for school. Most kids made them out of LEGO and other things, not Andy. I had him put on clothes that he could work in and also shoes. It was okay if he used these bricks because I’ve never actually liked them in the backyard anyway but I did tell him that he could not throw them because the actual bricks of the patio could break. He spent a couple of hours making the dam and then filled up a big jug to see if it would hold the water. It did not. I suggested that he patch up the holes with mud to prevent the water from escaping. This held the water a little better.

His teacher loved his dam.