National Geographic STEM Dig Kits Review

Two National Geographic STEM Dig Kits rest on a wooden surface: the Dino Fossil Dig Kit with a dinosaur image, and the Real Bug Dig Kit featuring plastic bugs. Both boxes highlight "3 genuine specimens" inside—perfect for any STEM review!.

My sons love STEM toys, and so I try to encourage educational play as much as I can. The new STEM educational kits from Bandai are a great way to teach children about fascinating subjects with exciting experiments from their The National Geographic range. There’s so much out there for children to discover and learn about.

And that’s why, I am happy to announce that we’ve been chosen as Bandai STEM Ambassadors for the next few months to show off this amazing range, and for our first post they’ve sent us the National Geographic Real Bug Dig Kit and the Dino Fossil Dig Kit to review.

Close-up of hands using a small tool to excavate a toy dinosaur skull from a block of plaster—dust and debris scattered—as part of a National Geographic STEM Dig Kit.

The National Geographic Dino Fossil Dig Kit gives children an exciting hands-on adventure as they become real paleontologists, exploring fossils that are millions of years old. This science kit includes a digging brick which contains 3 ancient fossils instead which need to be excavated using the digging tools.

A magnifying glass, a small brush, and a partially unearthed rock or fossil from a National Geographic STEM Dig Kit are placed on a wooden surface covered in dust and debris.

The fossils hidden inside are a dinosaur bone, mosasaur tooth, dinosaur poop which children can study with the included magnifying glass once they’ve revealed them from the dig brick. Digging them out can take a little while, and although my very hard working 9 year old gave it his best go, it took him a few attempts to get into the whole brick, and dig the fossils out.

A boy wearing glasses and a red shirt sits at a table, dipping a piece of food into an orange bowl. Sunlight streams in from the window behind him as he focuses, looking like he’s reviewing instructions for a National Geographic STEM dig kit.

With the addition of the included full-colour learning guide, this allows children to identify and learn all about each specimen they uncover, as they do. It is a great way to spark your child’s love of history as the book explains about everything they’re doing with the kit, and where each item is from.

It’s a great way to use science, and teach them all about dinosaurs with the help of The National Geographic.

A close-up of hands brushing dust off a small fossil or artefact on a wooden surface using a fine paintbrush, similar to the experience offered by National Geographic STEM Dig Kits.

The Real Bug Dig Kit is brand new but the premise is similar in style. The tools remain the same as you really don’t need anything else to get into the brick, so a digging tool, brush and magnifying glass. This brick comes with an image of a scorpion on top, but don’t worry, this is purely decorative and can be dug straight into.

A black toy scorpion is partially embedded in a chunk of plaster, surrounded by broken plaster pieces and dust on a wooden surface, with a plastic digging tool nearby—perfect for your next STEM Dig Kits review.

Each of the 3 tiny bug specimens inside this brick are encapsulated in a bead of acrylic to protect them which was good to find as T did dig into this one very carefully so as to not damage any of the specimens inside. Inside there are 3 bugs, a perfectly preserved Spiny Spider, a Fortune Beetle and a Scorpion.

A pale, sandy block with black fossil-like shapes and a clear sphere embedded in it sits on a wooden surface, surrounded by scattered dust and debris—an exciting National Geographic STEM Dig Kit ready for discovery.

Personally, I think these kits are great for children who love to learn about STEM, and any that just love to dig. It’s a very different way for children to learn with hands on experience to gain. And I love the way the bugs are presented, in a way that makes them collectable and easy to study with the magnifying glass.

Three glass spheres with insects encased inside, reminiscent of National Geographic STEM Dig Kits, are placed on a wooden surface scattered with broken white plaster and dust.

The Bandai National Geographic STEM kits are available to buy, although the new bug kit is only just coming into store now so might be a bit harder to find. Suitable for ages 8+, the National Geographic Kits retail at around £10 and are a brilliant tool to get children thinking about the world from a different angle…