SIXTY JELLY BEANS and a tube of cocktail sticks might sound like leftovers from a postlockdown party, but this is actually all you need to give your kids an understanding of engineering that ties in with what they will be learning when back at school. As a fairly new STEM ambassador and a parent of a 10and 12-year-old who have very different enthusiasm levels for schoolwork, I decided during the Covid-19 lockdown to put some STEM resources to the test. I was joined in this venture by another STEM ambassador with younger children, aged six and three. The lockdown has resulted in raised awareness of online learning resources, some of which have been made freely available recently to help teachers and parents during this challenging period. Schools are also making good use of Google Classroom to post STEM learning topics alongside other curricular and optional fun activities for children. For example, my children decoded Morse as part of their work on VE Day. My main criteria in choosing activities were picking ones which did not require a great deal of components or resources that I would not already have in the house, and ones which were not likely, at an educated guess, to immediately turn off my children. I know from experience that what may look interesting to me can be boring or impractical for children. For example, my elder child was not at all interested in watching a programme about the rise of the microprocessor, and while a DIY dodecahedron may look impressive in a handout illustration, it rarely looks like anything more than recycling material when made in my house.