Review: EEME Project Genius Light

This fall the kids and I have had the chance to check out a fun electrical engineering project from EEME, entitled Project Genius Light.  We were sent it for the purposes of review.  EEME has been getting plenty of positive press from groups including the Wall Street Journal and the Maker Faire!

EEME was started by a father, Jack, who was having trouble finding the type of fun and educational engineering related experiences that he wanted for his son.  He decided to take action, and EEME was born!  Their goal?  To help inspire kids to think critically and to promote more interest in STEM fields.

The company offers a monthly subscription service.  Every month, for five months, you get all necessary supplies (including batteries!) to built the kit of the month.   You will then have access to the project videos online.  The how to videos for each particular project are broken down into short (3-7 minute) segments making them easy to do in small chunks or all at once if you have an overly ambitious child.  The program is aimed at the 7-12 age range, but my 6 year old didn't have any trouble with it either!  The cost is $18.95/month and this includes shipping.

The project we were able to sample involved building a small LED light detecting circuit board.  I was expecting the boys to jump at the project and was a bit surprised (happily!) when Viva also thought it looked fun and jumped in!  The videos provide not only instruction on building the project at hand, but are also providing a good foundation in general electronic theory.  As is often the case, I think we sometimes learned more when we had a circuit connector in the WRONG place than when we did it all right the first time!

The videos feature close ups of the pieces you are working with, as you are guided step by step through the building process.  The lighting and audio quality are good.  Although the continual close up of the board may not be extremely exciting I did find it helpful to keep us on track and in the right rows/columns!

The project took us about 2 hours in total.  It was an enjoyable experience and definitely did a good job of piquing the kids interest in a new topic.  You can sign up, for free, at EEME's website to do an all digital lesson and get a great feel as to how the program works.  If you have kids that like to tinker and want to know how everything works I think they will enjoy this program!  Are the projects with it complex and large?  No.  BUT - there's much to be said for "all parts included", and then just needing to hit the play button and sit back while your kids get busy!  I think EEME is worth it for the convience factor and as the spring board to other learning it will surely provide your kids.

 If you'd like to read more reviews about this fun program, you can check them out here.