**December Special: Free shipping for orders over $30**
If you follow my blog then you know I homeschool my two girls. So, I am always on the lookout for fun kits and educational products to use with my girls. A recent search for STEM kits introduced me to Magical Microbes, an award-winner company offering 3 STEM kits (last month they had their bio-luminescence Bio Glo campaign funded) for families to do together at home. I reached out to the folks at Magical Microbes and asked if they could send along the DoughLab and MudWatt STEM kits for me to try out with the girls. I was so happy they wanted to have their kits reviewed, and included in my holiday gift guide. I don't know about you, but I love gifting the girls fun, educational products for the holidays. When the toys get old, the girls are always up for doing fun, hands on things, and kits likes these are just what they need to keep busy and entertained, while also learning something new.
What is so great about these two award-winning STEM kits is that all the experiments are hands-on and fun. With the DoughLab kit, you complete 5 experiments to find the perfect bread recipe, while also learning about yeast and gluten, and seeing how dough rises, especially when you have "happy" yeast. These experiments are not ones that you can sit down and complete in one day, and be done. Instead, they stretch out over weeks, which makes for long-term fun. We recently completed the DoughLab kit and I loved seeing how the girls wanted to learn more and more about yeast and bread making, because they had to check out the experiments we were running on daily basis. I shared with the girls that if they were a scientist in a lab conducting experiments, that they would repeat their experiments over and over again until they get the results they want or expect with their hypothesis, and many of these experiments day a few days, a week or longer to complete.
The DoughLab is the ultimate STEM kit in that it covers microbiology, chemistry, physics and food science all in one kit, that the whole family will enjoy together. Not only are the experiments fun to do, but the reward in the end is creating delicious loaves of bread for you to enjoy with your family -- it is like a tasty reward for a job well done! We ended up making spaghetti dinner and had the loaves of bread on the table to dip into the sauce. Yum! Who knew making bread would be so much fun and educational at the same time.
While my girls really enjoyed the DoughLab kit, they both agreed that the MudWatt STEM Kit was their favorite of the two, as they couldn't believe they were able to make their own living fuel cell, which is powered with electric microbes in mud, at home.
They thought this was the coolest thing ever. And, the other day they took their MuddWatt living fuel cell to their co-op Mad Science class to show it off. They showed off the living fuel cell along with the FREE app that brings this STEM learning kit to a whole new level. This kit includes 3 experiments for kids to complete and includes all the main supplies you need. And, like the DoughLab kit, these experiments need to be tracked over a couple weeks. Kids will have to check their MudWatt fuel cell once per day for 2 weeks, and documenting and analyzing their daily findings take about 30 minutes. We had so much fun checking on this kit every day and talking about differences we were seeing, and posing questions that we tried to answer as the experiment period went on. The girls really loved measuring the power of the fuel cell using the FREE MudWater app you can download to your phone or iPad. There is also a fun comic available FREE through the app that tells the story of microbes.
These two STEM kits from Magical Microbes were so much fun to do. They exceeded my expectations, and compared to other STEM kits we have done in the past, these are so much better. Again, being able to stretch the learning over a few weeks works great for homeschooling families like ours as we can really focus on the topic and learn all we can about it. And, by checking on the experiments daily, the girls get excited and look forward to analyzing the changes, and then talk all about the different changes they are seeing as times goes by.
If you love doing fun STEM kits with your kids, or are looking for fun activities that you can do as a whole family that are not just entertaining but also educational and can gets kids excited about science more, then you will want to check out these hands-on award-winning kits from Magical Microbes today. And, right now if you spend $30 or more through their online store, you will get FREE shipping. :-)
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Here is more about the MudWatt and DoughLab STEM kits, which are available on the Magical Microbes website, and that would make great gift ideas for kids of all ages this holiday season...
MudWatt is the scientific method in action: you and your kids can
design and run real experiments together right at home!
"Did you know that pretty much all of the world’s mud has little organisms in it that produce electricity when they eat? Pretty sweet, right? Well that’s not the magic of MudWatt (that’s the awesome science behind it!). The magic comes in when a kid gets a hold of a MudWatt. Eyes and minds expand. Curiosity is stimulated. Creativity is activated. The natural world suddenly looks more complex and exciting. The future looks a little brighter. That’s the magic of MudWatt.
The MudWatt kit empowers kids (and kids at heart) to become scientists and engineers, teaching them important STEM skills while engaging their curiosity, their creativity, and their appreciation for the natural world around them. It merges topics like energy, biology, physics, chemistry, and engineering to generate the spark <--pun b=""> in STEM learning. The MudWatt is not a "build it and forget it" kit; it encourages kids to get creative with science and offers long-term engagement over weeks, or even months, through the MudWatt Explorer App.
Within a few days of building your MudWatt, the LED will start to blink using the electricity generated by your bacteria! This blinking rate will increase over time as your bacteria population grows.
The MudWatt Explorer App detects that blinking rate and (using our super special algorithm) tells you how much power your MudWatt is producing AND an estimate for how many electric bacteria you've grown! Use the App to track your MudWatt's growth over time, analyze your data, and unlock a comic book! This offers long-term engagement with the MudWatt, spanning weeks to months! (Available for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.)
At the end of the MudWatt experience, your kid will understand:
- What is electricity?
- What is renewable energy?
- How do you design an experiment?
- What is soil made of?
- What are bacteria?
- What do bacteria like to eat?
- How does a biobattery work?
- What is bioenergy?
- How does energy flow through nature?
- And much much much much more..
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"DoughLab is packed with fun, tasty, and educational experiments with yeast, dough and bread. It comes with everything you need to perform over 5 experiments in your kitchen or classroom and learn about gluten, yeast, and how to create perfect loaves of bread. You can even inflate latex gloves using the power of yeast!
- * The perfect STEM activity to do in your kitchen!
- * YUMMY: Create delicious loaves of bread while learning awesome science.
- * FUN: Race to inflate gloves using the power of yeast! Once the gloves are waving at you, then your loaves are ready for baking.
- * ENGAGING: Perform over 5 experiments to find your perfect bread recipe and learn about yeast and gluten
Activity Time:
- Preparing your dough: 30 minutes
- Letting the gloves inflate: 30 minutes
- Baking: 30 minutes
- Tasting the yummy results: 30 minutes
- Total: 120 minutes
Key Features:
- Create delicious loaves of bread while learning the awesome science of yeast.
- Inflate plastic gloves using the power of yeast!
- Perform over 5 experiments to find your perfect bread recipe and learn about yeast and gluten
- * Single Kit Includes: 1lb high-protein flour, 7G dry yeast, 3 baking tins, 3 graduated mixing containers, inflatable gloves, wooden mixing sticks, measuring spoon, sugar and salt"
Stay up-to-date on all things related to Magical Microbes including new STEM kit additions, special offers and promotions, and more....
Disclosure: I was sent samples from the vendor in exchange for an honest review. All views shared are mine and mine alone.
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