STEM at home

National Geographic Magnetic Marble Run

by Blue Marble

Ages: 10+ years

Build a marble maze on your fridge. With 75 pieces — magnetic tracks, connectors, and trick pieces like funnels, spinners, and catapults — this set turns any vertical magnetic surface into a hands-on engineering experiment. Kids design a course, test it, watch what happens, and rebuild. The included Learning Guide connects the play to real physics: gravity, motion, and chain reactions. Less floor clutter, more figuring things out.

Why we like it: The vertical, magnetic format removes the usual setup barrier — no floor sprawl, no frustrating reassembly. The design-test-redesign loop is genuinely built into the play, not just claimed on the box. Kids who need to move things to understand them will find this hard to put down. Good Play Guide testers noted it works just as well in pairs as solo, which makes it a rare find for collaborative building play at home.

Magna-Tiles Classic 100-Piece Magnetic Construction Set

by Magna-Tiles

Ages: 3-99 years

One hundred magnetic tiles in bright, translucent colors — squares, triangles, and more — that snap together to build just about anything a child can imagine. Towers, animals, geometric shapes, sprawling structures: the only real limit is the floor space. Tiles are sized and weighted for young builders, with magnet strength that holds without frustrating. Each build quietly practices spatial reasoning, geometry, and problem-solving.

Why we like it: Magna-Tiles have earned their reputation the old-fashioned way: kids keep coming back to them. The 100-piece set hits a sweet spot — enough pieces to build ambitiously, with the same satisfying click that makes even the simplest structure feel like an achievement. They work just as well solo as they do with a sibling on the other side of the floor. A genuine STEM at Home staple.