Scientific Explorer’s Mind Blowing Science Kit for Young Scientists

5 Comments

1. Rachel Rescorl says:

   April 23, 2010 at 4:41 pm

   While I am not a chemist nor a volcano expert, I am a certified teacher. This kit provided hours and hours of quality time for my 4 year old, my six year old and myself. We measured ingredients, mixed solutions, made predictions, learned vocabulary, and discussed results. Can you think of many toys that can offer all of that? I thought the booklet that contained instructions was well-sequenced, with simple experiments followed by complex ones and with a helpful parent script. There were two drawbacks: the activities required direct parent involvement and sometimes a 2 hour wait time was required for “reactions” to happen
   
   Rating: 4 / 5
2. Desrey26 says:

   April 23, 2010 at 5:24 pm

   The experiments are very simple. My son is 6 1/2 and is into science, so I thought this would be a great learning gift. It does teach about acids and bases and how they react, and asks questions about “what do you think will happen now”. However the BIG part of this kit is the volcano and that really left something to be desired. It calls for making a tiny volcano and watching the reactions of the chemicals. I guess we were really expecting more.
   Rating: 3 / 5
3. SA Mom says:

   April 23, 2010 at 6:47 pm

   My kids (daughter age 9 1/2 and son age 4 1/2 at the time) got this for Christmas last year and still enjoy the activities and science projects in it – and I have fun with them! It can get a little messy when my son wants to do some of it by himself, but we’ve learned a lot and had fun at the same time! My older daughter might be getting a little old for some of it, but she still liked it quite a bit. It was very exciting for the younger one, especially as he’s gotten older this year.
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Marga says:

   April 23, 2010 at 8:26 pm

   This is the sort of kit that you buy exclusively for the instructions (though you could buy a science experiment book instead) and a couple of chemicals that you don’t have in your kitchen (in this case red cabbage juice powder, goldenrod paper and crystals). $20-$25 is a bit too much for that, but I bought my kit at Michael’s with a 50% off coupon (so I only paid $14 or so after tax) and I think it’s not a bad value for that. It will make me go to the store for more supplies that are not included (baking flour and grape juice in my case). But I think the point is that it’s getting us started on doing science experiments together – maybe later we’ll branch out on our own.

   So far we’ve done two experiments. The first one is your simple mixing baking soda with citric acid and water, which most kids have done a lot, but the second one adds red cabbage juice powder to the mix, and that makes a lot of difference. My 7yo loved seeing the glasses turn different colors, and fizz or not fizz depending which ingredient she added to it. She started not wanting to do any experiments saying science was for boys – but by the end of that experiment she was hooked and ready for more :-) Now I need to find a supplier of red cabbage juice powder to repeat these experiments at her birthday party :-)
   Rating: 4 / 5
5. Rose says:

   April 23, 2010 at 10:24 pm

   This science kit is a great deal for families with children under 12. It offers parents an opportnity to enjoy teaching their children that science is fun. Easy, entertaining and educational. I highly recommend it.
   Rating: 5 / 5