Explore Chemistry At Home With Chem C200 By Bosoxy on - Updated Oct 15, 2011
Although the home school laws in my state do not require science to be taught, my son loves science. Plus, science is really important in our everyday lives, so I require it.
One problem that I was not sure how I was going to handle was Chemistry. There are quite an array of Chemistry books available for home schooling, however the actual experimentation equipment and supplies are another story.
With some research I was able to find the CHEM C200 Chemistry Experiment kit by Thames & Kosmos.
At the time I had the choice of the CHEM C100, with 75 experiments, and the CHEM C200 (which includes all of the experiments from the CHEM C100) with 250 experiments. There is now a CHEM C300 available which has 360 experiments, including all those from the CHEM C200 kit for less than $100 more. If that one had been available I would have gone for that, not that I am unhappy with the one I purchased.
The CHEM C200 has quite an array of tools and chemicals. It even includes a burner to use with experiments. You will need to provide a few household items for some of the experiments like hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol and vinegar. I would just read ahead a bit to ensure that I had what we needed on hand as once we got started with the experiment book it was really hard to put down. It would be a real bummer if we had to stop because we didn't have what we needed. While we could skip around, there is a progression to the book that makes sense, so we followed that.
The kit is labeled for ages 11 and up. While some 11 years olds may be very interested in a Chemistry kit like this, the experiments progress up to a realistic high school level, in my opinion. Actually the high school in my area (and many others) no longer has a lab so even those with children in public schools may want to expand their child's interest and excitement in Chemistry with one of these kits. You don't even have to tell them it is for their education… just tell them it is for fun!
Do keep in mind, however, that adult supervision is strongly recommended. There are a variety of chemicals in the kit, plus some of the experiments work with flames.
Overall this chemistry kit is one of the best, if not the best, that is out there. The educational value is very high.
NOTE: Please do not misunderstand my rating under “Ease of use.” The chemistry kit is set up very well and the instruction/experiment manual is well written. I rated the ease of use a 3 because there is some level of difficulty, but there is supposed to be!
About The Author:
Thames & Kosmos CHEM C200 Chemistry Experiment Kit Purchased at: http://www.arsatoys.com/ Price: $125 with shipping on sale - Goes for @ $155
This sounds like a lot of fun, I'll have to remember this in a few years when my son is old enough to enjoy experimenting!
What a fun kit! In using it, it probably doesn't even seem like this is stodgy & educational (heaven forbid!)!
When I was 10 I sold greeting cards all one summer to earn enough points to get a real chemistry set that was about the size of the one you describe. It was SO awesome. My mom even cleared a flat space in the kitchen that I could use for my chem lab, and I know that I did a lot of the experiments. I felt very professional and grown up, not at all like just mixing stuff in the kitchen to see what happens.
Sounds like an amazing tool for homeschool as well as fun! I used to teach high school science at a small private school and would have loved to use something like this too.
Totally awesome! Chemistry lab was one of my favorite classes in high school. I begged my mother for one of these kits, but she was afraid my brother and I would blow the house up. And we probably would have :)
This sounds like a great Chemistry set. Thanks for sharing.
This sounds like tons o' fun! Thanks. ;)
This looks like a cool fun thing to do. :-)