Thames & Kosmos RoboRails STEM Kit, Toy of The Year Winner, Build a Robot Monorail System w/Splitters, Cross Switch, Seesaw Mechanism, Modern-Day Model Train Set, Explore Physics, Gyroscopic Forces

This is an educational kit that goes together much like a model airplane, but with no glue. Pieces are either screwed down or snap together.There are a LOT of pieces, so one of the first things you and your young person will learn is organization. There are 6 frames (marked A through F) and each frame carries pieces that are marked with numbers. The instructions clearly show the frame letter and number of each piece. Also, the frames are different colors, and the color of the piece you want is shown in the instructions as well as its shape and letter-number designation, so it should be easy to find the right piece to use next.The next education experience will be following directions. The directions are mostly pictures but there are a few critical instructions written in boxes along the way that should also be heeded. In addition, there is a lot of general information that is very useful before the beginning of the instructions themselves.You will be building a little "robot." It's not actually a robot, it's just a battery-powered gyroscopic vehicle that is designed to look like a cute little robot. Along the way, there are opportunities to learn the basics of electrical battery power and gyroscopes, and there are some gears to mesh and some other fun details. Then you can put together the track in a large number of different configurations (many suggestions are included, but you can make up your own) and watch the "robot" vehicle balance itself as it runs along the monorail track.As an adult, I found that quite a lot of manual force was required to screw in the screws, and in some cases I don't feel like I ever got them in and all the way tight; this may be an area where a (physically strong) parent's help might be required, but otherwise many 8 yrs+ students would probably be able to follow the directions alone.This would make a great gift for an interested student, or a project for parent and child(ren) to work on together. In the end, you have a fun toy that even little ones can appreciate.

We included this as part of our study of physics and building it has been a blast. A few of the screws were a challenge with regards to positioning, applying pressure, and screwing them in while holding everything together so adult help is a good idea for younger builders. The engineering is really nice overall. It's fun to run the little bot now that it is built too.

So the STEM concept they learn after all the work is gyroscope stabilization, so one concept for a lot of assembly work, surely seeing the balance is good learning experience, I wish the robot was transparent so at least they see the action going inside.

It is a great STEM toy for teenagers with lots of parts that take time to get from the frame one by one. The toy is mainly made of plastic, but doesn’t feel cheap. It also comes with lubricant, and you’d use during assembly. You can find step-by-step assembly video by searching for “RoboRails: The Robot Monorail System - Step-By-Step Assembly” or scanning the code in the manual.Regarding assembly:I’d suggest having your kid build this with at least one friend, as the process takes a lot of time (2-3 hours) and building it alone might get boring. However, the assembly process is a learning experience that helps kids understand how mechanical systems interact. While time-consuming, the assembly is easy thanks to the detailed instruction manual. Watching the final robot move along the monorail gives a satisfying sense of accomplishment. I’d say that for a kid who likes STEM toys, the building and assembling is more fun than playing with it.How to explain the gyroscopic effect to kids:I explained why the robot doesn’t easily fall when it has a rotating disk inside it by talking about the conservation of angular momentum. I said that when the internal disk spins, it doesn’t like to change the direction it’s spinning in (which is vertical in this case). Similar to a bike, when you're going fast and the wheels rotate fast (wheels spinning in horizontal), it's easy to keep your balance, but if you’re not moving, it's really hard to stay. This is called the gyroscopic effect. Due to the conservation of angular momentum, it requires more work to change its status. This toy also added small weight balls at the edge of the disk (rotor) to increase the moment of inertia. The heavier it is (for the same rotating speed), the harder it is to change its current state.I hope this review helps!

Honestly, this thing is so difficult to construct I'm concerned it would actually discourage curious children rather than encourage them. Prior to exploring anything about gyroscopes or motion, this toy requires full construction, including--bafflingly--a gyroscope rotor that comes in several pieces. Many, many tiny screws are required on the journey to construction, and there is no appropriately sized screwdriver included and NO spare screws in case of loss. You're on your own! The screws aren't breezy, either, even assuming you have a nice screwdriver to hand. They are all extremely tight fits with a large number of turns, to the point where both I and my teenage son had exhausted our forearms by the end of it. But don't worry--if you get tired and miss FULLY tightening a single screw, the gyroscope will rattle and whine and shake like crazy so you know you did something slightly under tolerance and have to disassemble it an tighten everything all over again. All of this is in addition to the mind-boggling number of sprues you have the DIY STEM fun of clipping yourself! Every single piece of this is in a sprue to the point that I'm surprised they didn't figure out how to make the screws sprued as well. I'm just genuinely concerned that this barrier would be impossible to overcome by many curious kids, and even those who really relish this sort of manual process might find this one to be too much or too difficult.Even after you overcome the construction, the result is not mindblowing. Hopefully you tightened all your screws many times so there is not a huge amount of grinding or wobbling, but the motion is neither smooth or stiff. It's not a terribly satisfying monorail in and of itself. The best part of the exploration comes from holding the gyroscope robot while it's running and turning it to experience the angular momentum yourself. Watching it go in circles is underwhelming.Overall, I'm just disappointed in this overall. It's a great idea that could have been executed much, much better. Don't make your STEM curious child fret over having the right tools or enough screws, for one thing.