They might as well learn something while they're trying to outlast you on eating those lima beans. Set the table with educational placemats and they'll be at least a touch smarter after dinner, even if their vegetable intake is low. These laminated, 12" x 17-3/8" mats have full-color fronts, black-and-white backs. Choose the United States Map, Stars & Constellations, the Periodic Table of Elements or The Metric System.

We just learned that. You’d think we’d have known. Now we do. They’re sort of like round dreidels, with a hollowed-out middle around the stem, which causes them to turn themselves upside down while they’re spinning. Great lesson in center-of-mass instruction for physics teachers. Includes an explanatory booklet with activities and discussion topics. You’ll get (3) wooden tops at 7/8”, 1-1/4” and 1-1/2” dia.

Nice little teaching magnet set for the primary grade classroom has (6) magnets in star, two-bar, horseshoe and ring shapes, all plastic coated in silver and red to mark the poles. Range in size from 1” to 3”, and include a few paper clips and small nails for demo purposes.

Classroom and Science Fair alert: Now you can order an 8-pack of metals and metal alloys for demonstration purposes. Each pack of 1" dia x 1/32" thick discs includes aluminum, bronze, brass, copper, n/silver (w/nickel), m/steel (mild: low carbon), stainless steel, and zinc. Composition of each is stamped on one side of the discs.

Begin their microscopic education here, with this 40-640X student microscope from Levenhuk®. Featuring an adjustable eyepiece, variable white LED illuminator, and adjustable iris. Comes with a cover; (5) blank and (5) prepared slides; pipette; brine shrimp, yeast, sea salt and glue samples; forceps; a microtome; 58-page user guide; and a 23-page manual. Includes (2) “AA” batteries and a lifetime warranty through the manufacturer.

You like to scratch off stuff and see what you haven’t won? Get ready for some serious scratching with this full-color political world map, approx 36" x 20", where all the countries and islands start out gray until you scratch-off to reveal their colors. No Antarctica, sadly, but it’s mostly white anyway. Except for the penguins.

…when you crank up this 13-1/4" tall, hand-cranked Wimshurst generator. They were the toast of the 19th Century, and remained the hottest thing around, electrostatically speaking, until Bobby Van de Graaf came along. This one works like a top, zapping sparks to a fare-thee-well with very little cranking. It's mighty pretty too, in acrylic, white and silver, and will dress up a dull physics or electronics lab.

Same here. Try the Ferrofluid Magnetic Display, a little sealed bottle with virtually fluid nano-particles of ferrous metal suspended in liquid. You’ll get (4) powerful 1/2” dia x 3/16” neodymium disc magnets, (2) of them attached to chess-pawnish holders. Move the magnets in assorted combinations around the bottle for fascinating effects. Sort of the marriage of science with desk toys, but students can’t spill these particles all over the place.

Sounds like a Portuguese percussion album, but it’s just an alnico bar magnet in a mount that lets it rotate freely to demonstrate the three-dimensional magnetic field. Ideal for experiments about forces between magnetic poles, fields around wire and coils, and the properties of fields produced by electric currents. Also handy as part of your ghost-hunting gear.

If the question is whether to tie a bunch of these giant latex professional weather balloons to a lawn chair, the answer is no. (The balloon bursts at about 82,000 feet anyway.) This is a true high altitude weather balloon, with plenty of fun, nonfatal uses. The cream-colored latex balloon is approx 60" dia when flaccid, you should pardon the expression, but has an 14-foot dia when inflated. The neck is 9" long x 3" dia. Scientists and meteorologists launch balloons to measure atmospheric conditions like wind speed and air pressure for weather forecasting, but clever inventors, teachers and the imaginative filmmaker are warned to launch the balloon carefully. The synthetic rubber material is delicate and not made to survive brushes with pavement, pine branches, or clumsy physics students. Have fun, and launch safely.