Kids Electricity Science Kits

Electricity is a mysterious, but exciting area of science for kids. Typically, training for electronics and electrical circuits does not begin until college or post-high school training. Many of the concepts of electronic circuits, however, are not very complicated. Providing kids with safe, but educational electronic gifts and toys is a great way to introduce kids to electrical concepts that they can grow with as they improve their math and science skills.

Arduino Uno Kit

The Arduino Uno is a very popular open-source programmable electronics board. Since Arduino is open-source, the price of the circuit boards are cheap. The software to program the board is free and it is easily programmed from a computer using a USB cord. The Arduino Uno offers a very low-cost way to get kids introduced to programming embedded electronics. There are many middle school, high school and college clubs and classes offered that focus around the Arduino platform.

Age 10+

Elenco Learn to Solder Kit

Learning to solder is the first step to designing and creating your own circuits. This kit offers instructions and tools needed to start to learn to solder. The kit also includes a practice circuit board and enough electronic components to make a circuit. It is a good starter set, particularly for the price.

Age 11+

Elenco Practical Soldering Kit

If you already have a soldering iron and want to learn soldering, but save money on the entire Elenco Learn to Solder Kit, this is a good purchase. This kit provides electronic components and a circuit board with detailed instructions. Kids can try out soldering and de-soldering components to a real circuit board and test their results. Recommended for beginners.

Age 11+

Thames and Kosmos Motors and Generators

This set by Thames and Kosmos allows kids to build and test both a motor and a generator. The mechanism has see-through parts so kids can see how it works! Learning about electrical motors and electrical generators (motors in reverse) is a great way to help kids understand electricity.

Age 8+

The Science of Disney Imagineering: Electricity Classroom Edition

Disney Imagineering created a little-known, but very good series of science videos called the Science of Disney Imagineering. This video teaches kids about electricity. It uses science principles designed by the imagineering in Disney's theme parks including the Spectromagic parade at the Magic Kingdom in Florida and the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland.

Age 5+

ScienceWiz Inventions

This is one of the better science sets made by ScienceWiz. It offers good hands-on activities as kids can build a spinning electric motor, telegraph, radio and generator that powers a small light. These are all science experiments that you could go find the parts for, but the reasonable cost of the materials and instructions included with the Inventions set makes it a good buy for people looking for a good starting electronics science kit for a child.

Age 6+

Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100

The award-winning snap circuit line of electronics toys from Elenco offers kids with an easy way to learn about electronics without needing to use a hot soldering iron. The electronics components are simply snapped together like LEGO blocks to form a circuit. The SC-100 is the basic starter set. Elenco also offers more sets with much more parts capable of building many more types of circuits. There are also sets to upgrade the SC-100 basic set to add more advanced features.

Age 6+

CanaKit Raspberry Pi B+ Kit

The Raspberry Pi is one of the most popular DIY electronics boards for hobby electronics. The great thing about this board is there is tons of information online to get started. It is very easy to use, can output video to any HDMI device and is easy to program.