How To Check Out
Users must have a library card to checkout STEM kits. If you do not have a card, view information on how to get a card.
To view STEM Kits inside your library, ask library staff. STEM Kits are checked-out under the following agreements:
- Check out for 14 days.
- 1 STEM Kit per card.
- Return all of the contents in the kit together.
- Return item inside branch to staff at desk.
Science - Learning at home with your library!
The Library District's STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) kits encourage scientific discovery. Each kit includes hands-on exploration with an interactive toy, book, and/or a DVD. The interactive toys include educational activities, learning games, or age appropriate scientific equipment.
STEM Kits were introduced to the Library District in 2021 and were designed to encourage scientific discovery in patron’s pre-school through 5th grade. After a refresh to the collection in 2025, the collection now has STEM Kits, for children age 8 and older, and STEM Kits Jr., for children ages 5 and older.
The kits enhance children's natural gifts in science by inspiring exploration. Using STEM concepts in play builds confidence, motivation, and knowledge in all science subjects.
The original STEM Kits were made available thanks to the generous support of the Rotary Club of Gainesville. The update to the STEM Kits and addition of the STEM Kits Jr. was made available thanks to the generous support from the Alachua County Friends of the Library.
Find all our available STEM Kit and STEM Kit Jr. Here
Astronomy
This kit includes a home planetarium interactive, a visual space encyclopedia for kids, a Magic School Bus film and a guide for ages 8+.
Electrical Circuits
This kit includes an interactive snap circuit, a book about electronics, Bill Nye the Science Guy’s electricity film, and a guide for ages 8+.
Electricity
This kit includes a circuit maze brain game, a book about Nikola Tesla, a movie on electricity and Disney Imagineering, and a guide for ages 8+
Flight
This kit includes a book on creating paper airplanes and a circuit kit for creating a paper airplane launcher, and a guide for ages 8+.
Human Body
This kit includes an educational squishy human body, a book on body cross-sections, a movie about the human body, and a guide for ages 8+.
Inventions
This kit includes a MakeyMakey computer key toy, a Bill Nye the Science Guy inventions film, and a guide for ages 8+.
Microscopic Discoveries
This kit includes a microscope, a book on Antony Von Leeuwenhoek, a movie about microscopic organisms, and a guide for ages 8+.
Money Math
This kit includes a book about money, a family math game that focuses on exchanging monetary amounts, and a magnetic money kit, and a guide for ages 8+.
Multiplication
This kit includes a graphic novel about multiplication and an interactive multiplication practice device to play and practice with, and a guide for ages 8+.
Prism and Light
This kit includes a flashlight, a set of prisms and a book about how light works, and a guide for ages 8+.
Rockets
This kit includes dueling stomp rockets, a book on rockets, a Disney Imagineering film on the laws of motion, and a guide for ages 6+.
Simple Machines
This kit includes K’nex building toys, a book about simple machines, a movie on simple machines for kids, and a guide for ages 8+.
Adding and Subtracting
This kit contains a picture book on counting, a family math game, and practice manipulatives for adding and subtracting, for ages 5+.
Animals and Environment
This kit includes a picture book about diverse habitats, a bingo and matching game to play with animals and habitats, for ages 5+.
Birding Adventures
This kit includes binoculars, a book on how to identify birds, and a bird-related DVD, for ages 3+.
Counting
This kit contains a family counting game, a balance and counting kit, and an early reader book about counting, for ages 3+.
Geometry
This kit includes interactive MagSnaps, a book about complex shapes, and a movie about common core kindergarten math, for ages 3+.
Health
This kit includes a Science Kit: Head-to-Toe Human Body, an informational book about health, and a DVD about sound, for ages 3+.
Life Cycles
This kit includes books about butterfly and frog life cycles, and a matching game for 10 animals, 10 plants, 10 bugs life cycles, for ages 5+.
Logic and Building
This kit contains a book about construction vehicles and their jobs, and a logic puzzle game with construction vehicle charting a path, for ages 5+.
Measuring
This kit includes measuring tool, a book on measurements, a movie on kindergarten common core math, and a guide for all ages.
Physics
This kit includes Wacky Wheels STEM challenge, a book about force, a movie on gravity by Disney Imagineering, and a guide for ages 5+.
Sound
This kit includes set of 8 palm pipes and a thunder tube, an informational book about sound, a movie about sound, and a guide for ages 5+.
Time
This kit contains a picture book about learning to tell time, and a clock and game to practice time telling skills, for ages 5+.