BEST SELLERS

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!!

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.

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.

This is your classic dual-threaded connector tube to link a pair of plastic bottles together, demonstrate tornado action and learn once and for all about the fluid dynamics concept of a vortex. In an homage to Dorothy in Kansas, this connector tube also comes with a tiny cow and a barn included. Also a lot of glitter, which we suppose is Oz-like. Includes instructions and a surplus-inducing QR code (to see a video) that's as dead as the Wicked Witch of the West.

These (7) small gemstones--quartz crystal, amethyst, tiger’s eye, sodalite, aventurine, orange calcite and jasper--are approx 1/2” to 1” and will serve as either geologic specimens, jewelry-making supplies, or help in restoring your harmonious flow of energy depending on how you roll and what you’re into.

From Zimpli kids we bring you SnoBall Battle Pack. A packet of Sodium Polyacrylate that turns Science into an all-out snowball fight. Just add water to create your own snow. Packet contains 2.82oz to create up to 60 snowballs. The rest is up to you and your kid's friends. Winter not included.

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.

You will take a look, you will color this book. We have (3) Dr. Seuss™ coloring and activity books, each 8-1/2” x 11” and based on one of the good doctor’s classics: ABC, Horton Hears A Who!, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. We will reach in the bin and grab one that works best for you. (Because we know what's best) All made in the USA.

Wood or wooden you like to never see another pun on wood or wooden? Too bad--we’re not even trying to quit. Meanwhile, you can try these wooden wiggling fish, caterpillar contraption, winged wooden dragon ad b-plane  automaton that you crank to move. Made from laser-cut pieces that you peg or glue together, they will measure about 10-1/4” x 8-1/4” x 4-3/8” when finished. Come with instruction booklet, glue, sandpaper and wax.

Heat-sensitive duct tape changes color and gets lighter the more heat is applied, as from sunlight or your paws. Why, you ask? Billy, our social media guru, says if you ask why, you don't deserve it. Just accept that it's cooler than all of the other duct tape, especially if you make a prom dress or tux out of it. And yes, if you had a broken chameleon you could try fixing it with this, but don't tell anyone we said so. Tape is 1-7/8" wide and 30 feet long.

You would be a fool to pass up this deal. These nice sized chunks of Iron Pyrite, aka fools gold, are about 1" so you'll feel like you hit the mother-load! Size is approximate so yours maybe a little smaller or larger. Bury some in your child's sandbox, leave footprints with boots and tell them pirates buried gold treasure for a fun backyard adventure. Don't have kids? They also make great decorations in all those succulent pots you have. Now get yourself some and get in on the gold rush. 

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.

Electronics fans, musicians and budding Sci-Fi sound engineers will love this little starter electronics kit for making a mini version of a theremin, the venerable capacitance-based instrument that’s synonymous with eerie sounds. This one skips the volume antenna, but has a quantization mode as well as a continuous swoop via the pitch antenna. You add a 9V battery and some minimal soldering skills. Includes all parts, including IC sockets. Measures 2” square, and includes excellent instructions. You might want to get a little project box for it. Made in the USA for Madlab/Velleman.Ages 10+.

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.

Shoot one of these little plastic arrow-helicopter-rotor gismos straight up with the included rubber band launcher and watch it soar as far as 300 feet! A fun outdoor toy that grows in sophistication as you learn how to adjust the arrowcopter for wind conditions and flight patterns: distance, return, circular descent etc. Our "each" contains a package of two (2). Recommended for kids over the age of 9.

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.

No need to limit the numbers you paint by. These kits all include 8” x 6” canvases, (6) acrylic paint pots, a #2 brush, color key and guide, plus tips for blending colors--a major improvement in the paint-by-numbers game. Packaging is also an easel, and becomes a self-adhesive hanger, which gives you a big leg up on the original artists. You pick: Van Gogh’s Starry Night; Sunflowers; Irises; Monet’s The Japanese Footbridge or Water Lillies.