Science Mad Chemistry Lab

My 12 almost 13-year-old daughter is homeschooled so when the opportunity to review Science Mad Chemistry Lab from TrendsUK came up I just had to review it for her, We do science lessons but most are textbook learning and the odd experiment, like making a volcano. I thought this would be fantastic for her.

Inside the box is; 1 x glass spirit burner (it requires methylated spirit which is not included for safety reasons), 1 pair of safety goggles, 1 x 100ml glass beaker, 1 x 100ml glass conical flask, 1 x 120mm glass stirring rod, 2 x 100mm glass tubing, 2 x cork stoppers, 2 x cork stoppers with holes, filter paper, universal indicator paper, 1 x plastic funnel, 1 x measuring spoon, 1 x plastic dropping pipette, 1 x 100mm rubber tubing, 1 x small scoop, 2 x glass test tubes with caps, 1 x metal test tube holder, 1 x test tube cleaning brush, 1 x test tube rack, instruction manual. The chemicals are; Ammonium Chloride, Calcium Hydroxide, Copper (II) Sulphate, Iron (II) Sulphate, Litmus Blue, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Hydrogen Sulphate, Sodium Thiosulphate and Tartaric Acid.

It is suitable for ages 10 years and over and should be out of reach to any child under this age.

As my son is only three and only at preschool for a few hours a week we do find it difficult to find the time to get everything out while he is not around especially when he has been poorly the last few weeks so we couldn’t get it out at all. So we have only done a few experiments to date.

The instruction manual is very thorough and all of the safety information should be read properly before even starting the experiments, I made sure that both I and my daughter read these and understood them before moving on.

What I like about this is that Dr David Webster has written the instruction manual, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry & Chartered Chemist, therefore we know that my daughter is learning from a professional. He states that you should keep a record book, and to write up experiments in the following format;

-when you did the experiment (the date)
– what the experiment was about (it’s the title)
– what you did (the method)
– what happened (the results)
– why it happened (the conclusions)

I liked that it was laid out like this as this is the way I would have chosen too.

Now I will warn you, in addition to the chemicals included in the box, you will need other things to complete the experiments, there is a list in the book, although you may look at it and think Oh My God, they are easy to get hold of and most are cheap too.

The experiments we have completed so far are;

Testing Soil from the garden, this uses no chemicals at all, no burner and it very safe. You just dig a bit of soil from the garden, it shouldn’t be surface soil so you need to dig a bit deeper. Add a big spoonful of soil into a cup or much, then add twice the amount of water, stir it up and then leave it to settle overnight. You then take a small sample of the clear liquid in the morning with your dropping pipette and test it on the universal indicator paper. You will then find out whether you have acid or alkaline soil. Some plants grow better in acid whereas others grow better in alkaline. We had acidic soil.

We also tried Oxidation of Fruit, where you cut an apple in half, crush a Vitamin C tablet and rubbing it over one of the apple half’s flesh. Leaving both halves of the apple for a few hours and then seeing what has happened. You should see the half that had nothing on will be brown whereas the one with Vitamin C may have started to brown but it is very light still compared to the first half.

Even though we haven’t actually used the chemicals to experiment with yet, we have tried some experiments and they were interesting. My daughter has written up her experiments and I know it is a brilliant educational tool.

We have so much more to do, once I get some methylated spirits so we can use the burner, I know she will be learning a lot.

If you are home educating but struggling with chemistry I would definitely recommend this Chemistry Lab. It does cost around £30 but well worth it, I think. You can purchase it from Amazon, Smyths and Very.