K'NEX EducationIntro to Simple Machines: Gears Set – 198 Pieces – Grades 3-5 – Engineering Education Toy

This is amazing no words very nice

K'Nex has done an amazing job with their educational sets, and we have been using them as a supplement to our family homeschool program. The K'NEX Education - Intro to Structures: Bridges set is an excellent way to teach how different types of bridges are built. As we take family car trips, my kids always notice the bridges we cross over. We have some really neat ones in Maryland, like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the Bay-Bridge Tunnel, and various smaller bridges all around the area. This set helped my kids learn how all of them work.First, the set comes in a nice red plastic tray with a tight fitting lid, so all of the parts stay together. It stacks easily with other K'Nex education sets in the series. There are 7 types of bridges, with a few variants, for a total of 14 structures you can build. Each of the 7 types has an explanatory paragraph to describe the technology.The first bridge is a simple beam bridge. There is a second variant, a long-span beam bridge, useful so you can observe how it flexes under a load. The beam bridge is then improve as a truss, with examples of a Warren Truss, Howe Truss, Baltimore Truss, and K-Truss. The neat thing is that the trust could be attached at the end, so the children could see the weakness of the bridge before the truss and the strength once attached.The kit also covers the cantilevel bridge (a special type of truss) and the bascule bridge (movable bridge). The arch bridge was particularly fun, with three variants, the arch under, arch over, and arch through. Finally, the kit ends with three modern bridges, a suspension bridge, a single-tower cable-stayed, and a double-tower cable stayed.My only negative on the kit is that the instructions are not like lego instructions with many steps. Many instructions are nothing but a single picture, and it can be hard to see how all of the pieces fit. I built the bridges with an 8 year old, 6 year old, and 5 year old. Only the 8 year old fully understood the instructions without help, but my 5 year old could do it with a little assistance. For instance, bridges are symmetrical, so I would build the left while my 5 year old copied me and built the right. A few pieces required a bit more finger strength than the 5 year old could must, but the 6 and 8 year olds were fine.Once built, my kids had fun experimenting with different toy cars (not included of course) to see how the bridge could hold them. These are functional bridges that really demonstrate the concepts well. There is also a teacher's guide on CD with additional information and activities.This set is quite a good buy for the money - lots of education and fun all in one box. Plus most of the parts are made in the USA, something that can't be said for a lot of toys today. A recommended buy!

Our 8yo grandson LOVES it.

Instructions are tricky to follow. There are color inaccuracies, lack of guidance on what size pieces to pick while there’s similar pieces of differing lengths etc. Compared to a Lego instruction booklet, this leaves a lot to be desired.

I bought this for my granddaughter who will be 7 next month. I was not home when she opened it but my wife said she worked with it for an hour without stopping. She was not able to complete the first project she tried, but came close. With a little help she finished the project and was happy. The instructions are good. She was just old enough to connect the pieces together although she had to strain. The use of gears in the design was interesting to her and to me. I believe that the set is worth the money I spent and I expect that it will last a long time.one month update: My granddaughter and I have made three of the machines: a fan, a car window, and a staionary bike. In each case she worked alone and in each case she made a small mistake that kept the project from working. It was not so easy to find the proper solution, but working together we did. I think this is a great set, but it will be a challenge for the younger ages.It is now eight months since I wrote this review and we have completed the seven projects. My seven year old grand daughter needed help on some but not all of them. You might need to explain what a phonograph is!! We have now bought the levers and pulleys set and look forward to doing those projects.

I got this set for my homeschooled 10 year old daughter who was learning physics this year for science. The designs included were very relevant to her lessons and are regular objects which made it more interesting for her. At first she had some issues with getting the pieces to fit together, but once she figured it out there were no issues. Each design took about 30-45 minutes to put together and directions were easy to follow. She got a kick out of the fact all the cranks really work. This turned out to be much better than I anticipated which makes me very happy. It's a product that can last since she'll happily rebuild the 7 suggested designs and she's working on coming up with some of her own. I'm happy the quality if good and the case it comes in will help keep all the pieces together so my younger daughter can use them when she's ready.

I bought this for my 7 year-old at the same time I purchased a K'nex generic set and then we pooled the pieces. She hadn't played with them before and decided on a bridge to build first. The pieces are a little stiff to put together but there was only one point in the assembly that she needed help figuring out the picture. Other times she knew what she needed to do but needed help snapping the pieces together. I think part of that is that we were both new to K'nex and didn't realize how sturdy they are, now when we build things we don't have any qualms about using a lot of pressure to snap things together or pry them apart. It's been three months now and anytime we pull them out it's at least two hours of fun building off of each others projects or working out ideas, but left to her own devices thirty minutes max is about her limit. She gets more time out of items that are built that she can then use with her other toys, like matchbox cars on the bridge or miniature dolls on the planes or merri-go-rounds that we build together.