Maker Studio: Winches Set an Awesome STEM Activity

We made Winches

What are winches?

This set from Think Fun allows you to make a tow truck, a jeep, a well, or a crane. 

Comes with essential engineering parts hook, gears, rods, spool, wheels.

Also comes with little book of challenges for when you complete your build… designed to encourage the child to explore the possibilities.

Penny ready for winching!

Do you know what a STEM Activity is? 

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

If you have young children, particularly young girls this kind of activity is so very vital.

Activities like this one help kids build problem solving skills and to use logical, critical thinking. 

All you’ll need for this is a popcorn box or a tin can

So I asked them (I included both my daughters however this set is intended for 7+) what would you like to build first? Of course they couldn’t agree but finally settled on the jeep.

It was simple enough to assemble. 

Little note though, it says a popcorn box and it means a popcorn box. I didn’t have one so I used a box I thought would be comparable and I should have just gotten a popcorn box!

So we built it and it was simple enough, although because the box we used it was a little wonky.

Don’t laugh guys… my Mom didn’t do STEM activities with me

I thought for sure that the fact that it wasn’t “right” would put the kids off from it. I offered to take it apart and do the well because I knew we definitely had a tin can. Nope, they were unphased. My daughter got the flipbook and started looking at the challenges. And all day I would see her sitting and playing with it. I forget sometimes how truly inquisitive they are. 

The best part about the winches set is that once you are done you can take it apart and reuse the pieces for one of the other projects. It’s totally reusable!