Customer Reviews

Scientific Explorer's My 1St Science Kit - The Science of Color

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I agree with all the reviews here - the good AND the bad. The set is cheap, chintzy, and NOT worth the money for the materials. The magnifying glass is...well, I wouldn't even call it cheap plastic. Just impossible to see anything through it. The droppers are cheap and I am sure will not hold up to repeated use. The plastic cups are the kind they use to give you 2 pills in the hospital - disposable plastic.

The entire kit is based solely on color mixing using Crayola tub tints! I almost had a fit - I have a jar of 50 of them in the bathroom! Color mixing is all you get here.

That being said - my 4 1/2 year old loved it. Felt like a real scientist with her dropper and what-not. So, was it worth the twenty dollars? Not from a materials stand point. But for watching my daughter learn and discover and become jazzed about experiments even more than she was (if that's possible), then yes, it was worth it.

It was definitely worth Mom learning a lesson on buying good quality materials and borrowing experiment idea books from the library!

I am a microbiologist and worked years in a lab and know exactly how cheap these materials are, BUT the kids loved it! The bottom line is that if I had brought them the same materials and used food colouring in the pantry, they would have not have had half the interst. Is it the box, the wrapping? Who knows. My hope was to have some fun with science and to introduce the idea of scientific exploration as a joy and this silly kit works. The lesson ideas help you guide them in an age appropiate way and along with extra food colouring from my pantry (arguing over the yellow) we have been able to use this 3 time on rainy days with much enthusiasm. If you want to introduce science as something fun, these kits do the trick. I will certianly purchase more in the future.

I cannot believe that other reviewers gave this cheesy so-called science kit 5 stars. I gave it to my almost 5 yr. old grandson for Christmas. His mom & I decided that one does not need the junky things included in this set to do these experiments. For instance the little plastic food coloring bottles available at the grocery store are perfectly suited for mixing colors either on paper towels or in custurd cups. The chrystal making stuff is what is used in baby diapers and for $.26 (the cost of one diaper) you can make chrystals easily. The magnifying glass is so chintzy--very small and hard to see through the murky plastic.
Get your child an inexpensive real magnifying glass. No more packaged so-called science kits for us. Most kids really interested in science would find little inspiration in this kit.

I did this kit with my 4-year-old daughter and she loved it! There are various activities within the kit -- she expecially liked making the rainbow of crystals. She also enjoyed mixing the colors and even wanted to write down the results. She's now 5 and still remembers the experiment and thinks science is fun. Well worth it!

I bought this for my son's 4th birthday and he loved it! My husband and I spent several evenings doing the various experiments with him and we had a great time too. My son really enjoyed learning about mixing colors and the whole "experiment" aspect of it. The materials, such as the droppers and test tubes, are reusable so you can make up your own experiments too.

I bought this for my 3 1/2 year old son. I read many of the reviews and decided it was an easily packaged few hours of fun. It was what many described...basic and low quality. But in the end, my son has enjoyed playing with it.

I was really disappointed. My 6 year old thinks it's neat, but doesn't understand how limited the learning possibilities are for him. The box claimed 10 different experiments. They are primarily about mixing colors...so not as educational as we'd hoped for. There is one about hot vs. cold water activity with the colors, one using milk and another one with the crystals...the rest are basically just color mixing. So I'd say really about 3, just OK experiments. Knowing this I think it's not worth over $5...if you can get one that cheap and you're children are young, then it's worth it. Otherwise, it's a waste of time and money.

I bought this kit for my kids as a homeschool science project and they really loved it.

It was just the right educational level for my 5 year old, but my 8 and 10 year old enjoyed it just as much.

Unlike everyone else, I really enjoyed the contents of the kit. I plan on re-using most everything, especially the test tubes. Although I should note, we used our own magnifying glasses and not the one in the kit.

The only thing I found lacking were the tub tints. We didn't seem to have enough for all the experiments in the book and I had to use liquid food coloring from the pantry to finish them. Make sure you save a few tub tints for the last 2 experiments. While you can substitute the other experiments with liquid food coloring you need the tub tints for the last 2.

Overall, I felt it well worth the money

You will find this set everywhere -- Michaels, etc

But it is really not worth the time or effort.

Basically it is a little food coloring.

Look for some other science set.

F

My son and I had a pretty good time doing the experiments in here - they were simple, but with excellent written verbiage to go along with each in order to actually teach a lesson. Unfortunately my son doesn't exactly like to listen and pay attention, so mainly we just had fun! I was disappointed with the quality of the test tubes - the instructions said to use the caps to stand them up in - they wouldn't stay up, forget it! and you couldn't screw the caps on and lay them down - not watertight at all! So, we improvised with a big clear plastic tumbler to hold all three upright. I might not use it again for a year and see if my son gets more knowledge out of it, but the good thing is we can use it again, and it was fun. I will very likely try one of the other kits they offer.