Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start off by saying that I am a teacher so I'm a bit of a tough sell when it comes to learning kits and lesson plans. So many of these sort of things are not created by educators and/or are not tested on kids. I plan on updating this review as we delve into each project (hoping to give a detailed review of each theme), but I have to say that so far I'm sort of disappointed. My first impression was that for the most part, the instruction cards seemed fabulous (with the exception that I could tell that maybe 1-2 things weren't going to function exactly right), FYI, there are about 12 themes-- each theme may have 3 activities with it, however, I would definitely do all 3 of the activities in one sitting-- so if you're looking for a summer enrichment program or something, I'd say it will maybe last you 1 hour each of 12 days. The first projects we did were: making a car out of dowel rods (axels), straws, cardboard, cardboard wheels, and stickers. This project was a flop. The kit came with pre cut cardboard wheels but they were useless because the cardboard was so thin. I had to find thicker cardboard to cut while my son lost interest and waited for my to use my "engineering skills" to fix what they gave us. Pretty sad for a first project. Ms. Fizzle and mommy lost their credibility during this time. Also, the sticks/dowel rods really should at least have been pointed (skewers) because the instructions said to push the dowel through (puncture) the cardboard wheels, but the fact that they weren't pointed further compromised the integrity of already flimsy cardboard (even the new wheels I made from cardboard shipping box). The second project (balloon taped to straw strung on string) worked OK, but again, I'm sure that the kits materials had been tested before hitting the shelves. The string included was nice and thin, but fluffy in nature and very hard and time consuming for even an adult to thread through a straw. This portion also came with a small clothes pin that was not carved correctly and I guarantee was never in a state of function. Lastly, the 3rd activity to this theme was taping a balloon with straw to the cardboard car to allow the car to move by means of the air blowing backwards. This was the worst! This really made me realize that these activities have not been tested. The force of the air against the friction of the wheels and light weight of the cardboard car-- smallest size for sticker to fit over it-- all properly installed according to instructions--were not enough to move the car AT.ALL. I don't know what kind of engineering this kit teaches other than the trouble-shooting involved with how badly these activities work compared to how they are designed to work. We have moved onto a 2nd theme-- solar energy. I did decide to opt out of the 2 mini-experiments leading up to the making of our own solar oven. (These experiments were just shining a flashlight on foil to talk about reflection of light and putting white or black paper over a water balloon to learn about heat absorption and I would assume expansion of air. I just didn't think it would hold my son's attention while they are both things you learn while just wearing a light or dark shirt on a hot day or watching a floaty pop because you left it in a hot car.) The solar oven, however was a success! Other than the fact that the cardboard wasn't exactly where the card said it was, we were able to create the project with some glue I already had (didn't use the cheap bottle provided because it was taking too long to get going). We put the graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows out on the front porch on a warm afternoon and it wasn't long before the chocolate was melting and not long after that the marshmallows were puffy. We didn't have to worry about the bugs or birds finding them because it functioned quickly. During this time we could also talk about the reflection of light from the tin foil sides (again, didn't need the flashlight or mini-lesson). Anyway, on a positive note, we have not trashed our solar oven and may use it again with the remaining chocolate or try making nachos.