**********THIS GIVEAWAY HAS EXPIRED****************************
Welcome to Engineering Week here at The Homeschool Scientist! I am excited to kick the week off with our new friends at Bionic Blox. My goal for the week is to introduce you to some interesting, fun ways to incorporate engineering concepts into your homeschool science studies. Bionic Blox are a great way to start!
We have been looking at different building blocks for our kids for a while now. Everything we have seen is either geared for a lower age group and were merely stacking blocks to build structures or were too complicated with many small pieces and complex directions. Then, I was contacted by Bionic Blox to check out their product. (Disclosure: Yes, I was contacted by Bionic Blox and given a set for review purposes. However, that never sways my opinions. They are all my own.)
Bionic Blox has wood stacking planks like other similar toys, but adds an important component that makes all the difference – the connectors. These 4 sided connectors allow for more diverse building opportunities.
Instead of being limited to structures or buildings, my kids can create airplanes, rockets and geometric shapes.
Last week, we used the Bionic Blox to learn about bridges and building structure. After talking about structure and strength and observing some local bridges, my seven year old son built his own bridge with Bionic Blox. He made it to be very strong. He tested it with a load of books. It passed.
Next, we played around with design. I told him to make another bridge but with fewer planks. He carefully examined his bridge and came up with a plan that he thought would use less materials, but still be strong enough to hold the books. The bridge held, but he could see some weak parts of his design.
We did the same kind of strength test with a taller structure. My son tested his creation with the books and looked for weaknesses in the design. He, then, made corrections.
Needless to say, the Bionic Blox are a huge hit! My 11 year old daughter even used them to create 3D shapes for her geometry study. I’m sure you will like Bionic Blox as much as we do. That’s why I want you to win a set of Bionic Blox of your own!!
Bionic Blox is giving a 100 piece set of planks and connectors to one The Homeschool Scientist reader!
Just fill out the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win the Bionic Blox Visionary Set. There are several entry opportunities! Contest ends Thursday March 14 at midnight!
You can, also, follow Bionic Blox on Facebook, Twitter and You Tube for updates and great product demos.
My son would live to build with this, prob make something for his cars to park in.
These look fantastic, and great math/science/history/art resource! Thanks for the offer.
pick me!! i have a few kids that would love this!!!
My son would absolutely love this!
These are awesome! I have never seen them before. My guess is my son would build bigger buildings for his Lego minifigures, animals, and cars.
I have not seen these blocks before, I can see so many uses even from the box display.
We are homeschoolers with four creative kids who love to learn with hands on. They would experiment with these to see what they could do with them and what can be built.
So cool! Never heard of them but my son would love to build with them… I’m thinking the flying shapes would interest him!
To build, build build–we love to that at our house!!
These look like so much fun! Thank you for the giveaway.
My son’s favorite thing to do is building or creating. He would LOVE this set, as well as his sisters
.
These would be a delight for my kids! They love to build but the other building sets (not Lego) get destroyed to easily.
My kids really like the look of these. What a great idea!
I’ve never seen these before. They would be great for a future engineering student- my son.
My youngest son has shown great interest in all kinds of engineering concepts. He would love to build and experiment with them!
My boys would love these…
My hands-on learning daughter would love these. She just asked me last week if she could build a bridge and she’s only 6.
My 6 year old twins would love this!!!! They love creating things!
My son loves to build. These would make a great addition!
I can’t even imagine all the things my son would do with these. He builds all manner of inventions. I’m sure he’d want to build the bridge and see how many books he could stack on it.
Would love to see my girls use these for engineering units while homeschooling.
My son would use these to build bridges like his dad, an engineer, designs. They could build them together!
These look so great! Especially for my STEM bent 10 year old. She’s obsessed with KNEX and LEGOS – this could be a welcoming addition to our collection.
What an awesome giveaway. I know a few kids in our homeschool who would LOVE these!
these look awesome for the kids and the adults in our home.
My son has always struggled with his fine motor skills,but high-interest activities like this keep him going! We would love to try them:)
My son would love these. He loves legos and these look awesome. He would just start building. He loves to get creative!!
My son and girls would use these for homeschool science projects. I can see them experimenting with their regular wood blocks and build towers and see which can get taller and still be sturdy. Great post and thanks for all the visuals. I’ll be looking into getting a set even if we don’t win!
These look like so much fun – all my kids love to build!
Thanks for featuring this building toy! I haven’t come across them before and I’m intrigued.
These look AWESOME!!!! I can only begin to imagine all the cool things my kids would build with these!
My boys would love to build bridges with these.
Wow! What a vocal group! Thank you for all the comments.
Good luck for winning a set!
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us!
Happy Building
BionicBlox Support
support@bionicblox.com
http://www.bionicblox.com
facebook.com/bionicblox
These look wonderful! I like that they are not all plastic, unlike most building tools. A bridge building ” competition” sounds like a great place to begin.
Wow- my kids would be using the Bionic Blox to build all sorts of things. They would add a new dimension to the huge toob animal parks they like to build. What fun!
Mine are currently into playing alien invasion and make ships &guns out of anything that doesn’t move! These would be a fun new building medium.
With boys, building stuff is always fun and doesn’t seem like “school.” I wanted to share with you and your readers a wonderful book I got via interlibrary loan about building bridges. Its titlted, “Bridges: Amazing structures to design, build, & test.” by Carol A Johmann and Elizabith J. Rieth. It has so many great idea and helps kids (and us) to see the complexity of all kinds of bridges. I think I’ll be buying this book. Here is the amazon link in case you want to take a look.
http://www.amazon.com/Bridges-Amazing-Structures-Design-Kaleidoscope/dp/1885593309/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363103889&sr=1-1&keywords=bridges+amazing+structures+to+design
These look fabulous! My girls would love to explore these.
These connectors are cool!
My son says, “cool, I want some!” So, here we are.
My five boys would love this product!! They are involved in robotics and really enjoy building. I could probably us this in our homeschool also.
Well, it could be a little scary to ponder what they might come up with…. I’m guessing a catapult or doggie treadmill (why do they complain about walking the dogs?) Thanks for offering these!!
Either invention would be awesome! lol
My son loves this kinda stuff!!!
These look wonderful! I’ve never seen them before. My kids love K’nex, but they are only plastic and not very strong, so there are limitations to what they can build. My kids would learn through designing and building anything and everything they could think of during their play periods.