BEST SELLERS

The next best thing to lightning bolts! 200,000 volts of electrostatic energy created by our Van de Graaff generator. Measures 6-1/2” diameter by 15” tall, includes a spare belt and a set of instructions detailing lots of fun experiments. For grade 6 and up. This is not a toy and should be used under adult supervision. A great tool for teaching about electricity. For your convenience, we now have Lightning Belts: replacement belts to drive that overworked generator. Operates on Standard 120 VAC with the included 3' cord.

Of course you can buy science by the jar. Mason Jar Science is a 135-page hardcover with “40 Slimy, Squishy, Super-Cool Experiments” detailed inside. Includes fun with crystals, bubbles, slimes, liquids and gases, all made possible using common household items (assuming your household is common) plus, of course, the eponymous Mason jar.

Undated, universal calendar has (50) month-long sheets, so it's good almost until your brand new car's paid for. Stick it on the fridge with the strip magnet on the back. Sheets are 8" x 6" with a 5-week x 7-day matrix that you fill in. In two shades of blue with orange highlights.

…with a highlighter, you’d have one of these mega-handy and ultra-cute Mini Brightwriters®. Measure approx 2” long x 5/8” oval, with chisel tips, molded grips and pocket clips. Our each is (4)-pack in green, pink, yellow, and orange, with which nothing rhymes with.

Why does it do that? Develop an elemental understanding of magnetism, electromagnetism, electrochemistry, radio, thermodynamics, light and optics. Simon Quellen Field's 228-page paperback, Gonzo Gizmos, Projects & Devices to Channel your Inner Geek explains processes, equipment and scientific terms -- and then, for starters, tells you things like how to make a rotary steam engine in 15 minutes from a soda can, a candle and a few scraps of rubber tubing. It's the favorite of our resident geeks -- but not for kids unless they're working with an adult. That would be a mature adult. An insured, mature adult.

Actually, it's a Round Stic®, without the “k,” which is the name BIC® gives to its #1 selling ballpoint pen. They're black, and round, with black ink and medium points. Also have separate caps with pocket clips. Hard to go wrong at (10) for two bucks. “Writes First Time, Every Time®,” they say.

You don't have to be a scientist to love these science and lab notebooks. All new, mostly hardcover, most with graph paper pages, some with lines, all with numbered pages and room for project or experiment names and dates. In a nutshell, they’re big, blank books that are as suitable for your diary entries, drawings, poems, collages, shopping lists and hand-written great American novel as they are for science notes. A few have university, lab or drug company names on the front and most are 8-1/2” x 11” with some a little smaller and some a little larger. (But Surplus rules apply: you get what you get without throwing a fit) Can you say “assorted”? Our each is a pack of (2) different, at least one of which will be a hardcover.

You choose between our 2" square classroom demonstration slides. The diffraction grating slide has 500 lines per mm resolution and a wavelength chart; the linear polarized filter slide has a 1-3/8” x 15/16” window. Nice for classroom and home-schooling use. Made in the USA.

This political globe (i.e. with country boundaries) measures 11” dia, a tad larger than a standard basketball (which is 9.55” dia), and comes on a 7-1/2” base with latitude marked on its bracket. Shipped in two halves--all you have to do it push them together, although you should also feel free to use the halves as stylish bowls.

Says so right on the packaging. Measures (pun intended) 18” long x 1-1/2” wide. Has 1/32” increments for the first inch, then 1/16” on one edge and 0-45cm in 1mm increments on the other. Made in England of blue-tinted translucent plastic. (There is no legal penalty for using it at home or in a school.)

The Woodworker’s Shop Journal is a hardcover book with (100+) pages of 1/4" grids for project planning and sketches, plus (20+) pages of quick references, charts, lumber specs, tool guides, checklists and tips. Also a good place to keep passwords and other personal information because burglars are famous for not caring about carpentry skills.

If you make cool stuff, people will pass it on to your children’s children’s children and you won’t spend eternity as just an old picture on a lost thumb drive. We suggest: Making Inventive Wooden Toys, a 184-page paperback with plans for (33) toys, many of them ballistic, out of scrap wood and easily found hardware; or Making Poor Man’s Guitars, a 176-page paperback with detailed instructions for building string instruments out of cigar boxes, frying pans, tin cans, mailboxes and washtubs, with a beer-can microphone thrown in.

…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.

This is your chance to own a genuine cow magnet. Fed to cows by vets and farmers to attract the odd metallic parts of cows' diets (they tend to scarf up nails, staples and other stuff with the grass) and prevent bovine traumatic reticuloperitonitis, also known as hardware disease. Used for lots of magnetic lab experiments because they're so handy. In plated alnico, 3" long x 1/2" dia in a rounded tubular shape. Approx a 5-lb pull.

A must-have for micro-warriors; Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction by John Austin (author of the best-selling Cubicle Warfare) is 241 pages of detailed instructions for building (42) implements of spitball warfare from ordinary household objects and office supplies. With the caveat that this is written for responsible individuals who take reasonable safety precautions (don't do anything your mother would scream at) we have to say that we love the binder-clip crossbow and the tongue-depressor catapult. Volume 2, which is 251 pages, has a secret-agent flair with new gadgets like the push-pin dart, toothpaste periscope and cereal briefcase. Volume 3, 267 pages, continues with a Medieval flavor and over a dozen catapults and ballistae, plus a buncha bows and crossbows. Oh, just buy the whole 3-volume Library of Destruction and get it over with.

Same here, but we're just 150 miles from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, the troll capital of the world, so we have a special devotion to the little long-haired cuties. Troll along with us and grab anything that appeals to you: Good Luck Trolls is a “hair-raising journal,” an 8” x 6” hardcover book with scattered trolls and blank pages for you to write down your deepest troll thoughts; the Mad About Trolls activity book has (24) pages of fun, quizzes, puzzles, stickers and general trollishness; and the fun Trolls' card games and book of tricks includes a deck of cards with, yes, Jacks, Queens and Kings of Trolls, plus troll tricks. If all this makes you want to visit Mount Horeb, don't miss the National Mustard Museum, either.

You can’t beat the original, genuine, authentic, standard, classic, fine-point Sharpie® permanent markers with the pocket-clip cap. But maybe you can! Limited edition, color burst Supersonic Yellow and Power Pink! Packing a powerful punch. Accept no substitutes, unless we say it’s OK. Our each is a pack of two!

That's what you get with this tesla coil!! Brand new, commercial item, great for classroom demonstrations and experiments. The 50,000 volt capacity generator radiates high frequency energy through space... enough to light fluorescent tubes two feet away. It uses 115 VAC (60 Hz) with an electro-magnetically operated interrupter buzzer, high voltage capacitors, inductive coil transformer, and a monopolar high frequency transformer generator to do the trick. 11" high, with a 6" sq. x 2" high protective housing for the generator. Includes accessories and instruction booklet with 19 experiments. Pretty amazing. But please, this is not a toy and should be used only under adult supervision.