Nüdel Kart is transforming STEM learning, offering hyper immersive activities that help educators develop students’ STEM, social skills and wellbeing through engaging, hands-on experiences.
Non-profit Playground Ideas has reached a significant milestone with another major exhibition at Scienceworks in Melbourne.
Scienceworks’ Tinkertown hands-on exhibition is offering schools an immersive STEM and social skills experience with Playground Ideas’ Nüdel Kart, available until February 2026.
Similarly, Nüdel Kart is featured at Questacon – an interactive science and technology museum in Canberra – every school holidays.
“Questacon has also now implemented our Nüdel Pods as well as the karts, our latest product specifically designed for younger children, into their operations,” says Playground Ideas founder and CEO Mr Marcus Veerman.
“Both represent major developments and we are super chuffed to have our two largest science museums taking the plunge. It’s a real honour that they can see the value in this kind of deep learning.”
“It represents a major validation of our approach to interactive, engaging learning experiences for children.”
Mr Veerman established Playground Ideas in 2007 to provide schools and communities all over the world with the free tools and resources they need to build a DIY play and learning space.
However, he saw a gap in their offering. With the help of a Belgian STEM toy designer, Ms Emma Ribbens, the pair co-designed Nüdel Kart, a deconstructable, mobile kart that explodes into a research-backed loose parts space that children can explore with billions of different combinations.
Nüdel Rover soon followed, a more compact and transportable version of the original Nüdel Kart, ideal for small groups and tight spaces.
More recently, Nüdel Pod has joined the set, which empowers children to create a limitless array of customised toys at home, based on their interests.
Nüdel Pod was recently named a 2024 Good Design Award winner in the Product Design Sport and Lifestyle category. It is not the first time the Nüdel brand has been recognised for its innovative design.
In 2020, Nüdel Kart received a Good Design Award Gold Accolade in the Product Design Sport and Lifestyle category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation. The deconstructable, mobile cart also won in the Social Impact category in the same year.
“Our Nüdel Kart and Pod have won the highest design awards in the country for their design, form and functionality,” Mr Veerman says. The 340-piece Nüdel Kart is about the size of a South-East Asian noodle cart, but it’s called Nüdel Kart because it supports children to ‘noodle around’ and to ‘use their noodle’ – two expressions Mr Veerman says he has always loved.
Cost-effective incursions
For schools which may not be able to visit Questacon or Scienceworks, due to distance or budget constraints, there is an affordable alternative.
Mr Veerman says Playground Ideas is well-equipped to help schools have the equivalent Scienceworks or Questacon experience with their students without leaving school, saving hundreds or possibly thousands on the cost of transport.
“Scienceworks is incredible but if schools in Melbourne go on an excursion to Scienceworks, it might cost $25 to $30 for each child, and that’s mainly because you have to add another $10 to $15 for the bus but we have an amazing alternative to help schools,” Mr Veerman says. In contrast, Nüdel Kart incursions, starting at just $14 per student, offer schools a significant cost-saving opportunity.
“It’s a really affordable and easy way of creating a high-quality experience in STEM, social skills development, and wellbeing,” he says.
The program delivers comprehensive 90-minute sessions that can accommodate up to three classes simultaneously, reaching up to 270 students per day.
“We can support from one to nine classes in a day, so we can often support every student in the school over one to two days,” Mr Veerman says, highlighting the flexibility and accessibility of their innovative learning approach.
“Right now, many schools are struggling with tight budgets for educational experiences but there is more desire for great activities. Our message is simple: funding can be challenging, but we have a solution,” Mr Veerman says.
For schools that have some budget and are looking for a long-term option to increase STEM, creativity, wellbeing, social skills and creativity, Playground Ideas is currently offering a series of three free resources to help schools make the decision of whether it is right for them.
Firstly, schools can download a free creativity manual to start to understand how to explicitly breakdown and teach this critical skill for the future.
Secondly, Playground Ideas has a free wooden desktop STEM kit based on its much larger Nüdel Kart and Rover pieces available to teachers and principals.
And lastly, Nüdel is offering free live incursions at schools or even shipping rural schools a resource to try for a couple of days to understand the power of their products with their own students.
This means schools can trial Nüdel Kart’s innovative learning tools and see the potential impact on their students with minimal risk.
Nüdel products are designed to be used and adapted across the curriculum, playground and for STEM and wellbeing, making them completely different to other resources which are used once a year and then spend the rest of their time cluttering up cupboards.
“Before purchasing other resources teachers can just think, how could I use our Nüdel Kart to solve this challenge first. Nüdel Kart has the ability to replace so many resources and free up space as well.”
For more information and to access free resources, email hi@nudelkart.com or visit www.nudelkart.com.
