Gadgets For a Budding Geek?

fprintf writes "As much as I hate to admit it, it looks like my 13-year-old son is following in my footsteps and preferring interesting, science-based toys. In the past he has been really interested in Lava Lamps, Newton's Cradle, and anything magnetic. It seems the knick-knacks that have generated the most interest were small and relatively inexpensive. For example, a small laser pointer keychain I bought him a couple of years ago still provides tons of entertainment. Yesterday I showed him ThinkGeek and he really liked the Levitron. I wanted to ask the Slashdot crowd what were some other really neat, interesting gadgets? Is there anything cool in the under-$50 range that you would like in your stocking this year?"

Comments

United nuclear

[bgalehouse]

Assuming sufficient and sufficiently geeky parental involvement, there are lots of cool things from United Nuclear. http://www.unitednuclear.com/

A collection of the smaller magnets and some ferrofluid are a pretty good combination. Ferrofluid has aproximatly the same danger and potential for mess as old engine oil, so depending on the kid you might need to supervise it. A variety of magnets also add variety to a ROMP set. http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp?eid=EID02&pn=3082172

You might also try throwing some mechanical puzzles at him. One that I particularly like can be found at http://stores.brilliantpuzzles.com/-strse-212/Internal-Combustion-Metal-Puzzle/Detail.bok but there are many.

Make Magazine

[xhamulnazgul]

When I was that age, which was about 10 years ago, I built my first computer. I was also tinkering with the infamous 'bread board' circuit test beds and random resistors and chips that I could get my hands on.

I would have loved to have a subscription to something so amazing as the Make Magazine at that time. It has some amazing bits in it about almost anything that I could ever have wanted to do or make. Besides that, it would have allowed me to find out about some crazier things to do in your own kitchen or garage to make something fun long before I would have played with it at school or college.

All in all, I can't recommend Make Magazine highly enough.

Cool Science Stuff

[Phat_Tony]

The Mirage optical illusion is pretty amazing. I have it, and a Levitron, and while they're both really amazing for a while, there's not a lot of stuff to keep doing with them.

Those electronics kits from Radio Shack and other places with the resistors, diodes, etc and little springs and wires to use for breadboarding are pretty cool and educational. If he actually digs into those, it's pretty cheap to buy a real breadboard and a power supply and a bunch of real components and he can start making real stuff. If he graduates beyond the lessons in the book that comes with the electronics kit, pick him up a copy of Horowitz and Hill's The Art of Electronics, and let him get started with real stuff.

I think they're over your price range, but Lego Mindstorms are great.

You can always get him started with elementary computer programming. If "real" languages seem too challenging, HyperCard is great for starting programming, especially since pretty soon you start to find stuff you want to do but can't, and then find out that HyperTalk is a real programming language that you can start adding in piecemeal to your project, gradually learning programming.

If there are local scout troops, building and racing Pinewood Derby cars can be great if you get serious about going for either style or speed.

A basic model rocketry kit can be fun. It's cool to see it launch.

There are lots of cool science related toys/kits/gadgets here.