Chemistry Sets Review

If you’re shopping for chemistry sets, chances are you already know how valuable they can be for enriching a child’s scientific education and you hope that education will come along with hours of fun that keep your child interested. Chemistry sets offer a hands-on learning style that many kids find more useful than lectures and essays. While performing neat chemical tricks, your child will be learning scientific principles and coming to better understand the world around him/her.

Chemistry sets can foster an existing interest in science, or they could make the difference for a student who’s having trouble picking up lessons in the classroom. Whether your goal is to provide entertainment or education, a chemistry set could be the answer. The top set on our list, the CHEM C3000, is designed for advanced users or kids who are already comfortable with experimentation. The next two sets, the CHEM C2000 and CHEM C1000, are part of the same line of products by Thames & Kosmos. Each step up in the CHEM series builds upon the preceding kit, so for example, the CHEM C3000 contains everything from the CHEM C2000 plus a lot more. Be sure to take a look at our articles on chemistry sets.

Chemistry Sets: What to Look For

For each of the sets we reviewed, we examined several features including experiments, supplies, chemicals and learning materials. When examining the products in our lineup, be sure to note the age group for each kit. Some of the lower-ranked kits might not offer the same comprehensiveness of our top-rated kits, but they would be more appropriate for beginners.

Experiments
First, we compared each kit’s list of experiments. The kits on our survey cover a wide variety of experiment types, including many that aren’t listed on our matrix. Some of the most common types of experiments involve acid/base reactions, crystals, chemical identification, element properties and states of matter.

Supplies
The next major component we evaluated for each set was its supplies. Our survey includes many common lab items like beakers, measuring spoons/cups, safety glasses, pipettes and more. Some of the more specialized kits on our list have custom supplies that are not standard lab equipment but are designed precisely for particular experiments.

Chemicals
Next, we examined each kit’s chemicals. This section doesn’t actually list the chemicals included with each kit, but whether the kit includes all required chemicals to perform the listed experiments. Many kits come with some chemicals but also require you to purchase some chemicals (both household and specialty) to complete or repeat certain experiments. Some kits don’t include chemicals at all and you have to provide your own from around the house. It’s likely that for these kits there will be at least a few things that require a trip to the grocery or hardware store. For specialty chemicals, we recommend ordering from Best Science Supplies.

Learning Materials
Without learning materials, these sets wouldn’t provide much more than mysterious concoctions. In order to really learn from a chemistry experiment, you have to perform it correctly and understand the underlying concepts. Every kit on our survey comes with an experiment procedure manual and some explanation of the scientific principles involved in each test. Other kits take it a step further and provide more detailed background information about each experiment, and in some cases, general scientific background information as well.

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