A short while back I was looking for science kits for my children and found several good options on Ebay.
This one seller’s products really stood out to me and the auction started at .99 cents each. She had seven kits, slightly used. These kits were called Science in a Nutshell by Delta Education. It is basically several supplies for experiments on a given subject and it comes packed in a plastic tote/shoe box.
I had never used Ebay before, so I joined the auction with a bid for .99 cents each. Can you believe I won all seven kits I bid on? The challenge for the seller was the shipping as she had offered to combine shipping if you got multiple items. The whole thing including shipping, ended up costing me around $38. I decided to look up the kits new online. I found they retailed for $39 each plus shipping. So I was quite pleased.
The kits were slightly used and a few years old. The seeds in the kits are dated from 2005, and even though they are a few years old, they were still viable. They grew with no problem.
The kits came with most of the supplies needed, and three journal/workbooks per kit and a teacher’s activity guide. The teacher’s activity guide includes a lesson and the steps and materials for the experiment. Each kit has 8 to 12 experiments to do, and there are enough supplies for up to three children. But if you have more kids, you can make it work for them too! This was definately a good investment and will keep us busy for a long time.
These science kits will work great to enhance our unit studies, and are basically a unit study by them self. It is amazing how much lesson plan material is included. These are great resources to build lapbooks out of too.
I plan to share our science learning adventure here, including the experiements, sites we found to be helpful, and lapbooks we put together to show what we have learned. I may post some entries before I have all the pictures complete, and if so, I will go back later and edit them and upload more information. Sorry about that, but I am just too excited about it to wait till it is all done for you to see.
The first experiment we did was on the water cycle. The children learned about :
Water
Rivers
Lakes
Oceans
Underground Aquafers
Clouds
Rain
Evaporation
Transpiration
Dew
Condensation
If you are interested in buying Science in a Nut Shell kits for your children, check out the Delta Education website:
http://www.delta-education.com/siansplash.aspx?subID=5
and you to can get busy learning about science in an easy and fun way.
Be Blessed!