Lego's new toy train is a STEM tool for preschoolers

Twenty years ago Lego introduced Mindstorms as a way to engage kids who were becoming more interested in video games and the internet than plastic building blocks. It was successful enough that the kits became a regular sight in robotics classes and competitions. Now the line is on its fourth generation, and it's been joined by other STEM-friendly Lego kits like Boost and Powered Up to bring tech skills to many different types of kids. Now Lego's educational division goes even younger with Coding Express, a set that will teach 3- and 4-year-olds the basics of programming while they construct a world of trains, picnics and wandering deer. This isn't going to teach your kids popular coding languages like Python or Swift. Coding Express is firmly for the preschool crowd, so the idea here is to just get kids acclimated to concepts like loops and subprograms.