Build an Inventor's Box: A STEM Activity Station for Kids

Disclosure: This is a sponsored campaign with Camp Invention, all opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate Links are used in this post.

Encourage your children to tinker and invent with this open ended inventor’s box. It is an easy way to bring more STEM activities into your every day play.

Why I Build an Inventors’ Box

Sanity. Yes, that is really the primary reason. Oh, and it does encourage my kids to think creatively to build new things.

My 4 year old son is a tinkerer. He likes to build things and take them apart. Thanks to a week long Science and Invention Summer Camp: Camp Invention, my 8 year old daughter has caught the tinkering and inventing bug too. Between the two of them, they spend many afternoons designing and creating their own inventions.

This means

1. I NEVER have any tape available for wrapping presents in the house. It seems like it is always being used for “inventions.”

2. There are little inventions EVERYWHERE in our house. In fact, my daughter just brought up the fact that there are so many that we should set out a shelf to showcase the inventions. (We’ll see about that idea).

3. I NEEDED to create an inventor’s box or I would lose my sanity with them “upcycling” anything and everything they could find into an invention. This inventor’s box has not only encouraged them to design and build, but it also stores items for building with AND solves the problem of mom’s missing tape.

The rule is, if it is in the box you can take it apart, put it together, and invent with it. If it is NOT in the box, you must get permission to disassemble it.

So What Do you Put in an Inventors’ Box?

1. First you throw in a bunch of recycled materials. Nothing spectacular is needed, just a variety of different materials that can be used for a bunch of different things. Some ideas:

small boxes
oatmeal containers
plastic lids
egg cartons
toilet paper tubes
paper towel tubes
empty spools of thread

2. Next, add in Broken Toys or Toys with Parts. Anytime a toy breaks, we try to fix it. If we can’t, but it still looks like we can use it in another way, it get thrown in the inventors box.

3. Last, your inventor’s box must contain things for Attaching parts

rubber bands
scotch tape
masking tape
painters tape
tape (yes, my kids would go through a roll a day if I let them!)
glue
clips
string
rope

4. Paper and Pencil (for recording designs)

Best of all, this STEM activity is FREE! You just gather every day materials around the house to create this extremely powerful, open-ended learning tool.
My kids have had their inventor’s box for over a month. We had a place-mat break apart into a ton of tiny sticks. The kids took one look at it and said, let’s put it in the inventor’s box! I love that they are looking at materials and objects with a new set of eyes, “inventor’s eyes!”

Here are how other parents built their take-apart inventors box and open ended inventors’ box for kids.

About Camp Invention?

Created by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, CampInvention is the only nationally recognized summer program inspiring inventive young minds by fostering creativity, innovation, real-world problem solving and the spirit of invention.
Partners with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Collegiate Inventors Competition to create curriculum inspired by the world’s most well-known innovators.
Last year, Camp Invention helped to inspire the next generation of innovators by holding 1,200 camps serving nearly 80,000 children.
Sponsors make Camp Invention possible in many communities. For a full list of sponsors, including government support, click here.