The Magic School Bus Weather Lab

We bought this for our grandaughter's 8th birthday and although she's delighted with it, we are less than impressed! Having paid over £50 for it we were astounded to see the customs declaration sticker say it was worth $9.00. Having seen the contents the $9.00 seems a more realistic price.

A lot of people whine that all the materials aren't present in the kit. Okay people, if all the materials were here it would weigh a ton. Yes, you have to use your OWN vinegar and baking soda and other minor things. The kit comes with the necessary tools to properly do some science with your kid.I am an environmental scientist and find myself in a lab daily, where my 7 year old son is not allowed. This kit allows him and I to connect by showing him some practical experiments and why they are practical. This kit begins with taking measurements. I think a kid who can measure something is worth his or her weight in gold. I cam now ask him to get me a certain volume of wage while I am cooking.There are also experiments dealing with the nature of acids and bases and pH paper is included to check things out. My background allows me to put these concepts into context for him and he loves it!Some children's science kits contain toxic materials, especially some at hobby shops where the stock my not move too quickly and they are shelf filler. This is all non toxic and still allows a kid to try some science with the supervision of an adult. Keep that in mind. No one want their kid losing hair prematurely because they played with mercury.Buy the kit. Its cheap. Throw in a DVD of Magic Schoolbus prior to doing an experiment to get them jazzed up and ready to learn!

I have to first start by saying for the price, the materials provides are really cheap and disappointing. The beakers, petri dish and others are really the cheapest plastic that one could find......very poor quality and many have already cracked or broken. Now for the actual materials for the experiments, again, little bots of the cheapest of the cheap that they could provide. Basically, I feel as though you are paying for the experiment cards, many of which you can find on the internet under science for kids. Moreover, these experiment cards are so cheap once a few drop of any liquid get on them, they come apart. I must say my little ones were excited for their own chemistry lab but even they noticed that everything was cheap.I had initially thought of getting a new lab each month but after seeing the poor quality, I decided against it. Disappointed that a great show such as the Magic Schoolbus would license their good name and reputation to something so poorly made. Had I paid under $10 for this, it would seem fair but for this price, it is a complete rip-off. Save your money and go online and find experiments with your own materials. Will not purchase any more of these again.

As a former science teacher, I can say with 100% certainty that this product is NOT worth it. It is not as many experiments as you think, and the directions are lacking, unless you understand what is going on. We did 5/6 experiments with our niece and she wasn't impressed either. I know that sounds snobby, but save your $37 and buy something non name-brand.

I personally felt like the experiments were all pretty basic (or acid lol) because most that we have done so far have been very simple baking soda and/or vinegar based which do not take a lot of time to explore. BUT... that is my adult take on it. In the eyes of my 10yo this thing can’t be beat! I knew it would be a hit because he already loves the Magic School Bus but it is so great to watch my normally hyperactive child zone in on each concept and follow each step exactly as written. He is learning the basics of the scientific process and not just how to test the alkalinity of baking soda but how to document his findings in and organized manner and to become familiar with the tools involved with experimentation. I highly recommend to anyone who has a child who is interested in science.

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.

I got this for my 6 and 7 year old girls for Christmas since they're showing interest in science , but still have the attention span of 6 and 7 year olds :)This is a great kit. It has sample sized bags of almost all the things you need to do these experiments, so there's not a lot of waiting until mom gets back from the store with something to do them.I'd say they are right at the perfect age for this. I can't imagine it being too interesting for a child 9/10 or above. There are tons of Simple experiments that they are living to do.

Absolute rubbish. Product contents were very poor "quality". The motor was not working, ingredients were very flimsy and cheaply made. Rather than a gift for my Granddaughter, this package may as well have been empty. We went from puzzled, to angry and to "Oh boy did we get gypped by this so called learning tool.

Santa brought this to our 6 year old daughter who loves science. We had a great time during the Christmas break! She loves sorting our the cards and preparing her experiments.That being said, some parts are missing or damaged (a ballon couldn't be inflated because damaged) or are inaccurate. So be ready to be creative and help your child finalise the preparation (she is an excellent reader and couldn't understand why she could not do it the way it said but the measuring cup didn't match the description in some experiments). You'll also need to buy extras (baking soda, food colouring etc)

This product is great. My only wish is that it included a lack of baking soda and food coloring. While both are easy to find at a store, it was a bit disappointment for my son that we couldn’t get to doing several experiments until after a trip to the super market on the weekend. It was a little bit like “batteries not included” problem. I still have it 5 stars because the product is just a delight compared to many others in the category that I have bought. Adding just a few more ingredients can make it self-sufficient and the effect will be the same as how Apple ships their phones pre-charged. The customer excitement doesn’t die out. But still, overall worth our money.

My four year old absolutely loves this kit! Every day he asks me to do an experiment. Some of them have been duds, but for the most part they've been really fun. And even I've learned a lot from doing this. I plan to pick up some more of these from the serious. Not all of the ingredients are included so just make sure you look through the instructions before promising to do an experiment with your little one, lest they get very upset that you are unable to do it.

This has given my little sister hours of fun. I was nervous she would run out of experiments in one sitting, and she would skip the experiments she didn't think were interesting. Her favorite was trying to find all kinds of liquids throughout the kitchen and testing them on the pH paper. She even liked the milk/food coloring experiment, although I thought it was a stretch of an "experiment." I would still consider this a great buy for an 8 year old!

This was such a great choice! My son (8) is getting more and more interested in science, and this seemed like the best bang for the buck. It arrived in excellent time. I was worried about how difficult each project would be, but those worries were quickly dismissed as the cards are legible, even for us dumb ol' parents. The kit comes with 90% of what you'll need, and the "home" items are all well within reason. I had to pick up fresh baking soda and food coloring. So far everything else we've had on hand. If you've got a science lover, or are uncertain on what to get someone in the age ranges.... I don't for a second think you'd be disappointed in choosing this! I highly recommend! Besides, who DOESN'T love The Magic School Bus!?!? Am I right?

Bought this product for my child for Christmas. He's very interested in STEM and thought it would be fun for him to go through projects. He had fun but quickly lost interest after running through a couple projects. We've gotten box sets through other STEM monthly delivery services that are better for kids to do hands on and so I rated this only a 4 because it was less fun in relation to those other projects.

This is a really great way to get your kids inters ted and science. There are lots of little experiments for them to do and get hands on. You will need some house hold things that are not included like vinegar, baking soda, milk, and pepper. In fact the only thing I could complain about was the little measuring spoon thats included broke after just a few minutes, but you can do everything without it.

My son enjoys this kit...and I especially like that it's something EDUCATIONAL and FUN that we can do TOGETHER. He gets to satisfy some of his constant curiousities about the world; and I get to delight in watching his lightbulb brighten and beam of awe and wonder.