Customer Reviews

Scence Wiz: Electricity

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This kit is rather overpriced, in my opinion. The accompanying book is extremely skimpy. The components are cheap. The LED doesn't work and the buzzer doesn't work. (Yes, we tried connecting in both directions. And I've done this before with other kits, and have gotten LEDs and buzzers to work, so this isn't a lack of knowledge on my part.)

Age-wise, this is at best suitable for a 5 or 6 year old. It doesn't offer enough for my 7 year old.

I'd recommend getting an electricity kit from Snap Circuit instead. They come in a wide price range. Even the simplest is a bit more expensive than this kit, but they're far superior in terms of fun, durability, and educational value.

We got this for my 5-year-old son for his birthday, and he absolutely loved it. He wanted to linger on each activity for hours before moving on to the next one. The book isn't a complete textbook on electricity; it's meant for young kids, but that was exactly what we wanted. When he's a little older we'll get him something more complex and he'll understand it much better having started with this kit.

I bought this for my friend's 6 year-old daughter, and she was intense on wanting to get through everything in one night. It took about 2 hours each night for 4 nights to get through the whole set of experiments. Although the book was not engrossing, it was interesting and provided enough guidance that the daughter's parents and I were able to show her how to do the basic assembly of the different battery-powered experiments, and then she was able to complete them herself. It continues to be brought out and re-experimented with...

My son got this kit when he was 5 years old and now he is 6. We come back to the kit every so often to try it out again. Its great to see what he can do and what he understands as time goes on. And he *loves* it. The book is simple, but its all you need. The fun is in the hands-on approach to science. I totally recommend this kit because it's not only fun, but reusable, unlike alot of kits that have a one-time lifespan.

My 6 yr old received this as a gift, and it was possibly one of his favorite gifts. The book was very elementary so he could read it. We had to help him ensure good connections to the battery, but then he could do most everything else himself. Some of the connectors were a little too short to actually hook the alligator clips to, but he understood he only had to touch the connectors to make the components work, they didn't have to be attached. Agreed with others: the LED does not work with one D cell - ours required lining up 2 D cells to produce a noticeable light. All the other components worked for us.

{Additional note: Our son later received the "Snap Circuits" SC-300 set. It completely blows away this "beginner set". I'd highly recommend taking a look at that one if you're looking for a set that's going to keep a child's interest longer.}

The book accompanying this kit is very skimpy on actual facts. It does explain that electricity needs a circuit and that a battery needs a load, but really it was very light on facts about electricity. The LED never worked either. IMO, the price is exhorbitant for what you get. I'd skip this and find something better.

My 5 yr old son liked it. I agree with the critical reviewers that it is a bit skimpy although all things worked for us.
You hook up a regular household battery to a load - a light, buzzer, LED, and a simple electrical motor that rotates things. First you observe how the electricity runs these devices. Then you add a primitive switch to be able to turn the electricity on & off. Then you try to close the circuit with various materials to see what conducts electricity. (Kids liked to do this.)
I felt that the kit got its point across to my son, he enjoyed it and felt a sense of accomplishment. So I am happy with the product.

I bought this kit and used it with an entire program full of kids (ages 7-10) in an afterschool program. The book is terrific and really explains the more critical concepts in electricity in a way that kids can understand and be comfortable with. The kit is really cleverly designed and is easy to supplement with whatever is around your house (such as if the rubber band breaks or gets lost) and is completely flexible for maximum design and play options.

The difference between this kit and kits like Snap Circuits is that in this kit, kids really assemble everything in a very hands-on way with very few pieces. It's conceptually very clean and makes it easy to understand what each component of the circuit is doing or not doing. With the basic components in this kit and some basic supplies around your house like paper clips and aluminum foil, kids can make steadyness testers (like in the game 'Operation'), fruit batteries, homemade flashlights, and a coded communications game that should keep them busy for hours and teach them about codes and communicating non-verbally. Some good instructions for activities like the above are available at pbskids.com.

The kids in my group willingly played with this kit for many hours and were pretty creative with it; most importantly, they really understood what they were doing, and how the circuits worked, and the speed with which they picked it up was amazing.

My son received this kit as a gift about a year ago when he was nearly 8 years old. He played with it two or three times, doing all the experiments included in the book during each play session. The instructions are straightforward and well-illustrated so he guided himself through each experiment. It's a fine kit for building interest in Electronics but we've found that Snap Circuits is a better educational value when it comes to exploring Electronics (more appealing to my daughter for some reason). While we're on the topic, I also recommend Popular Science DVD Lightning & Other Forces and a website called [...]. Hope this helps encourage other young minds out there!

Pros: This kit is perfect for my 6 year old grandson who immediately became interested in the book and how everything worked. The delivery was very quick. A great starter kit and easy to understand.

Cons: The product was not very well packed and moved around in delivery. I discovered a broken light bulb and the electric motor did not work properly when I tested it. I emailed the company I purchased it from to have a replacement sent out and they responded by saying there was nothing they could do and instead gave me the number of the manufacturer. I find this very unsatisfactory and a poor customer service response. I can not use the kit until I find replacements and 6 year olds do not understand this.