Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Here are some of the problems we encountered: 1) We went through our list of materials to make sure we had everything we needed and saw that we had an extra piece of plastic wire that didn't belong with our experiment. 2) The experiment consisted of three parts (yellow, green, and blue) and yet there were only two mixing sticks included - which promotes cross-contamination! 3) Since Science Experiments are supposed to teach children about exact measurements and being precise, I was disappointed to see the directions(step 2) simply say to use 2/3 of a bag of Golden Citrine. This is very hard to calculate, especially in a non-clear bag! 4) Step 4 specifically tells the child to measure 68 Milliliters of water. However, the measuring cup provided only gives ounces and CCs. Neither of these measurements were needed for the experiment. Are we to assume that milliliters are the same as CCs?? Not exactly scientific nor accurate. 5) Step 5 tells you to pour the boiling water into the size "C" plastic cup. When I did this, the water simply melted the cup and leaked boiling water all over my table and floor. My son could have been seriously injured with this part of the experiment. Using hot water should involve at the very least - heat rated plastic!! Safety should be a number one priority. In addition, it dyed my table blue and took off the wood finish!! 6) Step 7, we were told to put 2 of the Base Rock fragments into the plastic cup for the first experiment. Since there are only 3 rocks in the whole package, that means that you cannot repeat this step for the last two colors of crystals as there are no more rocks!! In conclusion, I would NEVER by this toy again and probably nothing else made by this company! I can't believe the Smithsonian would want their name associated with this product!