This unique Mother’s Day gift guide for STEM moms features three STEM experiences and gifts of shared time, which are always moms’ favorite, in addition to six more traditional tokens of affection with a STEM twist.
Mother’s Day is a day to honor the women who made us and who helped make us who we are, and they’re as diverse as RS’s line card. So, here’s a special gift guide for all of the science-, technology-, engineering-, and math-loving STEM moms in your life. This guide starts out with experiences and gifts of shared time spent pursuing STEM-related activities and ends with traditional tokens of affection but with a STEM twist.
STEM Experiences and Gifts of Shared Time
Drones:
One thing that virtually all moms have in common is that one of their favorite things to do is to spend time with their kids, no matter how old those kids may be. So, why not invite your mom to try out a new hobby that you can enjoy together? Flying drones is an easy hobby to get into and can be tons of fun, giving you a good reason to get outside and enjoy some fresh air, an opportunity to take some amazing photos and videos and even an opportunity to tinker if you’d like.
According to KYOCERA AVX Senior Fellow, Technical Sales Group Manager and avid drone enthusiast Ron Demcko, who conferred with his wife MB, a retired software engineer and programmer, to come up with some unique approaches to giftable experiences and quality time, the best economy drone is the QuadAir Drone. “It’s got its limitations,” said Demcko, “but if you want good fun at an entry-level price point, it’s a pretty solid choice.”
The QuadAir Drone is designed for user-friendly flight, even for first timers, and is built to deliver competitively long flight times and great cameras at an affordable price. Highlights include:
- A sturdy, compact and lightweight form factor with foldable arms for enhanced portability
- Superior battery capacity
- Three handling speeds with a top speed of 12 meters per second and a maximum transmission range of two kilometers
- A gravity sensor for environmental awareness and collision avoidance
- A motor that’s almost as quiet drones that retail for five times as much
- A smartphone app and intuitive, plug-and-play flight controls that allow you to use your phone as a control or monitoring device
- Automatic flight assistance, auto follow functionality, trajectory flight paths and the ability to do loops and spins
- A three-axis gimbal stabilizer that can tilt in any direction and altitude-hold sensors for stable hovering and smooth photo and video captures
- And pre-programmed, professional-quality camera modes including slow motion, 360° capture, boomerang and asteroid, all available at the touch of a button.
The QuadAir Drone retails for $99.00 plus $7.95 shipping and handling, comes with a 30-day, hassle-free, full-refund return policy and offers an extended protection replacement plan that covers breakage or losses for a full year for an additional $19.95. The QuadAir Drone is also available in a two-pack for $138 with free shipping if you want to race and try to outmaneuver your mom or compete for the best photos and videos instead of taking turns.
“On the other hand,” Demcko said, “if you want a really solid entry-level drone that could satisfy users for their first three to five years of flying, look into the DJI Mavic Mini. They’re around $375 but are great, long-lasting drones with high-quality cameras.”
The DJI Mavic Mini is no longer in production and, as such, is unavailable from DJI, which suggests the $449 DJI Mini 2 instead. However, Drone Nerds offers DJI-refurbished Mavic Minis for $219.
Private Flight:
As another option for high-flying fun, Demcko suggests gifting your mom an introduction to flight package at a local flight school. “Private flight is another neat STEM activity,” said Demcko. “There is so much involved in getting a flight license: discipline, listening, situational awareness, confidence and a bunch of basic science. And while completing flight school and earning a pilot’s license can cost thousands of dollars, introductory classes typically range from $150 to $280. These classes teach participants the basics of flying an airplane, including how the cockpit controls affect the surfaces of the aircraft and how to perform a pre-flight safety inspection, and offer them 60 to 90 minutes of flight time with a trained instructor, as well the opportunity to take the controls for themselves, which promises to be an unforgettable experience.”
If private flight sounds like something your STEM mom would enjoy, you can introduce her to Stevie Treisenberg, a private pilot and software engineer with a flight-focused YouTube channel, and find your local flight school here.
Amateur Radio:
Another great gift of quality kid time for STEM moms — and especially those with kids in middle and high school who share their interest in STEM — is providing them with Ham radio equipment and either signing them all up for a local amateur radio license class (find yours here) or sharing a link to free online video lessons for those interested in earning their first Ham radio license, like this three-part Ham Radio Technician Class on YouTube presented by the Hurst Amateur Radio Club, along with the 2022–2026 Technician Question Pool release.
“Ham radios are great for personal safety, emergency use, and things like backwoods hiking,” said Demcko, “and earning a radio technician license teaches very basic electronics skills, hones patience and could even be used to launch a career in anything from being a radio DJ to an electronics designer or a traveling radio station operator who supports extreme exploration. I just recently worked with a retired couple who went to the Galapagos for that very purpose.”
The essential components for home-based Ham radios include a radio transceiver, a power supply, a VHF/UHF antenna, and a high-frequency wire antenna. The essential components for a car-based Ham radio include a mobile radio transceiver, a mobile dual-band antenna, and a mobile antenna mount, and the essential components for a portable Ham radio include a handheld radio and a battery pack. And according to Demcko, the total cost of these components is relatively low, “around $100 for great stuff or $50 for decent stuff.”
“Plus,” Demcko said, “there is pretty solid scholarship money available for kids who get their licenses and qualify for a Foundation for Amateur Radio scholarship.”
For more information about amateur radio, visit The National Association for Amateur Radio.
Traditional Tokens of Affection With a STEM Twist
STEM-Themed Jewelry:
Adorn your STEM mom with jewelry that reflects her hard-earned expertise, like this Ada Lovelace punch card necklace, this “sweet as 3.1415” necklace, this binary code “I love you” necklace, this motherboard necklace, these resistor earrings, or any of these many handmade circuit board earrings.
Women in Science Shirts:
Redbubble and Etsy both offer a wide variety of empowering, pretty, cheeky, and comfy STEM-themed shirts for women.
STEM-Themed Stickers:
Etsy also offers a wide variety of STEM-themed stickers perfect for adorning moms’ notebooks and computers.
STEM-Themed Word Magnets:
Genius Lab Gear’s STEM-themed magnet sets come in variants dedicated to themes including Science Basics, Academia, Chemistry, Microbiology, Neuroscience, Physics, Engineering, Ecology, and Mathematics. They match most other popular brands in size and font but are especially designed by experts in each field to offer the perfect mix of technical depth and lighthearted fun. Each set comes with 144 tiles and retails for $10.95, and you can add a 144-tile basic starter word kit for just $3.00 more. The company recommends one starter set for every four specialty sets, and if you bundle four sets, you’ll get $5 off plus free shipping to addresses in the U.S.
STEM-Themed Coffee Cups:
Etsy and Amazon both offer a wide range of STEM-themed coffee cups perfect for adding some style and humor to your favorite STEM mom’s daily caffeine ritual.
A 3D Printing Pen:
Invite your STEM mom to express herself and exercise her creativity in new ways by gifting her a 3D printing pen and a pack of 10-color or 32-color filament refills.
Happy Mother’s Day!
We hope that our Mother’s Day Gift Guide for STEM Moms helped you come up with some fun ideas for celebrating the STEM moms in your life. All of us here at RS wish all of the moms out there a wonderfully enjoyable Mother’s Day!
Special thanks to KYOCERA AVX Senior Fellow and Technical Sales Group Manager Ron Demcko and his wife MB, who spent her career as a software engineer and programmer at IBM and a programmer at Toshiba. The two of them enjoy tinkering in their garage, flying drones, playing with their mini Bernedoodle, Oliver, and traveling together in their free time.
