Pop one of these roughly 1-1/4" dia stones into the toe of a sock, smash it with a hammer, and be the first person ever to see your real-as-Nature-makes-it geode!! Ninety percent of them have the familiar beautiful white crystals inside. Formed by volcanic action, they are found all over the world, but ours are from Mexico. There is no way to tell from the outside if they have crystal centers, but we will send you two just to raise your odds, and we haven't had a dud yet in our stores!! Much much more fun and satisfaction than buying one already cracked.

Just the one, actually, but it’s been sliced in half so the pair is perfectly symmetrical and mighty pretty. Although ammonites have been extinct for 65,000,000 years, we’ve got their approx 1” dia fossils for you. Our each is a book-matched pair of polished ammonites fossils of a single critter halved and polished to a bright symmetrical shininess. The colors vary from light tan to dark brown and we’ll pick because we have impeccable ammonitical color-shade taste. And yes, they’re just screaming to become cuff-links or earrings.

Based on drawings from Da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus, this Pathfinders catapult kit uses a pair of bent wooden arms as springs to launch clay balls (included) over (4) meters at enemy fortifications (not included, go make your own enemies). The assembled model will be approx 9" tall on a 10" x 7-1/4" base. Made from pre-cut, untreated wood from sustainable forests, and built with pegs for added strength and verisimilitude. A 2013 Creative Child Magazine Top Toy of the Year Winner and a great resource for STEM activities. For ages 12 and up.

These pretty, and pretty small, polished semiprecious stones include sodalite, tiger eye, quartz crystal, aventurine, amethyst, red jasper, fluorite, and rose quartz, plus a bonus assortment. You’ll get approx 1/2 oz of each in small corked bottles, 7/8” dia x 1-1/2” tall. The semiprecious pebbles are roughly 1/8” to 3/8” long.

Lovely to look at, delightful to make jewelry out of or placed as shiny companions of small plants. Our (20) piece set of polished gemstones can include: Carnelian, Chrysocolla, Aventurine, Hematite, Lapis, Amazonite, Pyrite, Citrine, Amethyst, Tige Eye, Garnet, Mookaite, Indian Agate, Botswana Agate, White Howlite, Rock Quartz, Apricot Agate, Rose Quartz, Leopardskin Jasper, Blue Lace Agate, Turritella Agate, Yellow Aventurine, Dalmation Jasper or Orange Calcite. All approx 5/8" across.

Keep your magnetic hematite. Keep it tight! And keep it close because word on the street is, it has potential healing powers, or at least the ability to possibly-maybe boost your mood. At the very least, the specimens we have are great for the fridge or the side of a file cabinet. They have a super-stylish and refined shiny-pewter look, and they’re each about 3/4" to 7/8" x 1/2" thick. Plus, they look super-cool in bunches. Takes about (25) of them to weigh 1 lb, and you’ll get a dozen per order. Never hurts to have some nice, small reliable magnets hanging around--especially these, which won’t lose their pull in your lifetime.

Could be a new line of cologne, but in fact, it’s a clever kinetic action demo kit called Wave Wires® with magnets marked for polarity, and mounted on (4) 8-1/2” long wires attached to a 4-1/4” square steel base. Includes a dozen 1/2” dia steel disc weights, an acrylic ring and an 8-page activity booklet. The attraction/repulsion magnetic properties cause the magnets to swing on top of the wires like old-time circus acrobats. Ages 8-14. Really cool, if we don’t say so ourselves.

From Brazil, rescued from the guts of quartz crystal antennae, these clear rock crystals are pebble sized (some maybe 3/8" long, most smaller). We're thinking classrooms and microscopes, small jewelry items, or, at these prices, a nice little bowl of crystals for the table. Each small box contains approx 2-1/4 oz of crystals. We'll send you (2) boxes, which will about fill a test tube if combined.

Crystals are for pointing toward you or away from you, depending on what you believe or want, or for polishing, or just for looking at. You get a 3-pack of quartz point crystals, approx 1" to 2-1/2" long, ready for psychic healing, jewelry, or plain old-fashioned lapidarian fascination. Your hunks of point crystal might have an actual point, might not: nature's like that.

Everything you need to build a little DC motor is included in this kit (except sandpaper, screwdriver, scissors and, of course, an AA battery). The instructions are simple and explain the theory as well as assembly. Fun and educational for ages 12 and up.

Simple, yet clever 1" dia. by 3" long plastic device to demonstrate the vortex effect of a tornado. Partially fill with water one of the two half-gallon size plastic soda bottles which you supply. Screw the bottles into opposite ends of the tube which we supply. Tip so the full bottle is on top and give it a circular starting whirl. Presto! You have a vortex. Call it a tornado if you're a meteorologist, a Charybdis if you're a classicist, or a whirlpool if you're into oceanography. Lots of fun and a fine opportunity to attempt to explain the effects of the earth's rotation on water draining out of a bathtub. The phenomena are related we're told, but good luck!!

Actually, it's a set of (36) different little polished gemstones and minerals from around the world, all identical sizes (1/2" x 3/8" x 1/8" thick), mounted and identified by name and origin on an 8" x 10" card. Super nice at a super price, for teachers, designers or jewelry makers. The set includes amazonite, amethyst, aventurine, black obsidian, blue lace agate, buttermilk jasper, carnelian, Dalmatian dacite, dumortierite, fancy jasper, fluorite, gold stone, hematite, howlite, jadeite, lapis, leopard skin jasper, mahogany,obsidian, moss agate, nephrite, Picasso jasper, orange calcite, picture jasper, rainbow jasper, rose quartz, rhodonite, rock crystal, rhyolite, red jasper, snowflake obsidian, sodalite, serpentine, tiger eye stone, turquoise and unakite.

Maybe. Could also be a stegosaurus, triceratops or something else--that’s part of the fun of paleontological parenthood. Just submerge the 4-1/2” tall ersatz dinosaur egg into cool water and wait 48-72 hours while it cracks like a real egg and the baby dino grows to a be a foot long. If your mother won’t let you skip your bath for a few days (they’re like that, mothers, no scientific discipline), just use any container bigger than a 12” dinosaur.

A good basic kit with everything you need to build a very simple crystal radio. This is not hi-tech hi-fi. Geared for ages eight and up, it is a complete kit with wonderfully straight forward instructions which walk the experimenter through hooking up wire coil, diode, variable capacitor and earphone, and experimenting to find useful antennas. Excellent education, recreation and discovery device all at the same time. A simple kit with hours of fun in it.

When you peer through your magnifying glass at this specimen, or focus your microscope on it, even at the lower magnifications which work best, you're looking at one big bug. Make that (4) big bugs. The insects are real, encased in clear acrylic blocks 1-3/4" x 1-1/4" x up to 11/16" thick, and ready for inspection. Set 1 includes a scorpion, giant ant, wasp and a flower bug. Set 2 is a cricket, locust, yellow leaf beetle, and crab. No, not a crab louse or a crab spider, but definitely a crab ugly.

Physics faculty alert: It's very small, but teaches a powerful lesson, this little diamagnetic-properties demo kit. You get (4) plated magnets, each 1/4" square x 3/32", and (2) 1/4" square pieces of graphite to float above them. The graphite may have slight chips along the edge but that won't affect the effect. Includes instructions/fact sheet.

The budding home scientist and horticulturist will both delight in the ease with which this self contained soil test kit brings discovery. The kit measures not only ph., but also Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash content and contains material for 40 tests. Since these are the essential ingredients affecting plant nutrition, we see a science project in the making: experimental plant growth in soils with different amounts of acidity and/or nutrients. From Luster Leaf(tm), the kit is entirely self contained and includes complete instructions for use and explanations. Be careful, please, the kit does have chemicals and should not be used by young children without supervision.

Geology for those with short attention spans? The original Magic Rocks®, of course! Mix the solution in a jar of water, drop in the pebbles, and watch them grow into a forest of multi-color stalagmites. Growth starts in 10 minutes, is impressive in 30 minutes, and complete (up to 4" tall) in 2 hours. Extra credit if you can make it grow stalactites by gluing the pebbles to the bottom of a jar, then pouring the solution in and turning it upside down. Who knows? Maybe it will work. Comes with a set of marine decals to decorate the jar. Definitely not for use with living fish. For ages 10 and up.