SolarLab 1.0 Science Kit Review & Giveaway! {closed}
If your kids love science, like mine do…then they will LOVE this SolarLab Science Kit. When a box of Solar Science-goodness arrived on our doorstep on a Tuesday, thanks to Edmund Scientifics, my four young scientists eagerly opened it up and we were off. We didn’t waste much time as they couldn’t wait to begin their first SolarLab. There are nine labs total in this kit, each one building upon the last.
This kit is made for children ages ten and up, however my three younger children under eight were able to help and really enjoyed the lessons learned as well. I put my almost-ten-year-old son in charge of each lab. We loved that the directions were so well laid out as this gave him clear expectations and told him exactly what he needed to do. He was able to really practice some independence with these lessons while I gave him help as needed.
The manual is filled with easy to understand instructions and clearly illustrated diagrams. My oldest son was easily able to follow each direction while I supervised. We loved that in between each lab, there is further information and clarity given as to how and why each lesson worked. I was really impressed with how understandable each lesson was.
In our neck of the woods, we tend to have a lot more cloudy and rainy days, so my sons wondered how well we would do getting solar power to work for us. This was an excellent learning opportunity for all of us as we were able to do so much more than we expected with this science kit.
The SundanceSolar Kit includes the following lessons:
Setting up a Solar Module and building a simple circuitFiguring out how the amount of light affects the amount of electricity produced by the Solar Module
Measuring voltage and polarity
Series circuits
Wiring loads in series
Measuring current
Adding current with parallel circuits
Measuring current with parallel loads
Building a solar-powered battery charger
Don’t let any of this sound at all intimidating. As a homeschooling mom, I am so thankful there are science resources available like this that we can take advantage of and not only use to teach our children, but learn right along with them. We all learned so much and have truly enjoyed this Solar Electricity Learning Kit by Sundance Solar.
Buy it:
You can purchase the Solar Lab kit from Edmund Scientifics for $49.95. Edmund is graciously offering HHM readers an exclusive gift of a Weather Bureau just for ordering the Solar Lab kit. IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to receive this exclusive gift, you must put the Solar Lab kit AND the Weather Bureau in your cart, and then enter the promotional code HHMSBB. Only one promotional code may be used with each order. Offer good through 11/2/2013. These promotions cannot be combined with any other offers.
Win it:
One lucky reader will receive one Solar Lab 1.0 kit from Edmund Scientifics. Enter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: One HHM team member received a copy of the solar lab 1.0 kit to review in exchange for an honest review.
What a great looking kit!! We are studying weather right now too, so that weather bureau will be a great bonus!! So far we created a model to understand how the Sun effects the seasons; a wind sock, weather vane, and rain gauge. We are keeping weather journals. I hope we win 😀 thanks for this review & giveaway!!
this looks like so much fun. My kiddos would love this!
We haven’t studied any type of alternative energy yet (unless cooking with a woodstove counts). This looks like something my kids and I would LOVE!
Solar and wind power is something I have been reading about with kids. A project is in our future, maybe even large scale! We are in sunny florida on a marsh that can harness a lot of sun wind and from what we just read marsh GAS? A school room in the trees completely off grid,..(except wireless hehehehe) That is my big dream!!!!
My kids are younger so we haven’t actively talked about it yet, but this would be a great opportunity to show them hands on how solar energy works.
WOW! My 13 yo loves science of any kind but this is an area we have not delved into yet! Too busy doing all the other things she has to try!!!! Would love to try this!!!!
I am doing electricity with them. we love doing things like this
We have talked about alternative energy, but we have not done any experiments.
We studied alternative energy in my high schoolers’ Environmental Science course last year. Just began a weather unit with my three youngest; we’re planning to make a weather station. Both of these kits would be invaluable!
This would be awesome to have! My 5th grader would love this.
We haven’t studied about this but this kit looks so cool!!! I would love it!
We live in an area perfect for teaching about alternative energies. We have just begun introducing those ideas to our children as they are just now old enough to start understanding the concepts. This kit would be awesome to help with those lessons.
We are weather obsessed around here! The whole kit seems amazing!
My kids would just love this!
We haven’t really learned about energy much yet.
We haven’t learned much about alternative forms of energy yet, but we sure will start soon if we win!
This is so cool! 🙂
Our co-op has had trips to windmills, water generator, and under ground home. I plan to take them to a sat farm as well. Thanks for the chance.
We have recently installed solar panels on our house, so this kit would be really great to do with our children! Thanks for the chance to win! 🙂
We have touched on alternative energy. We made a solar powered grasshopper, they bought it was pretty neat.
Love all things science! I’ll be teaching an energy unit come Jan. In the past, we’ve toured a hydro-electric dam and made posters illustrating path of electricity from the source to our home.
We love learning about alternative energy. Besides studying about it online and in books, we visited nearby wind turbines.
I have not taught anything like this, but I bet my kiddos would love it.
We have not covered this topic yet, but this would be a great tool to help us teach it. Thanks for the chance to win.
We would love to have this as an addition to our education. Our daughter is very interested in alternative energy. This would be a blessing for her.
We haven’t taught anything specifically. Science is my weak point.
My kids would love this!
My kids would love this!
This is really cool! I think my husband would geek out with this and we’d all learn something! 🙂
We teach our boys about wind energy a little but mostly it’s solar power they are interested in. We now want to build a playhouse/fort that is solar powered and our oldest wants to build/ create a solar powered vehicle.
We are currently studying natural science, but earth sciences are up soon! This would be a great addition to the curriculum!
No I haven’t…we are considering a solar panel for science fair this year which will involve quite a bit of study and teaching.
No, we haven’t yet.
My son has autism and ADHD but science is the one thing that can keep his attention. He loves found experiments like this.
I have not taught about this subject yet!
-Gena
We haven’t dealt with this subject yet, but saw a great exhibit called Unplugged at Science City in KC.
We’ve discussed alternative energy, especially if we see solar panels or if we drive through the area of our state that has wind turbines. We’ve never done any activities with it, although we are studying physics this year and energy will come up. So we might explore alternative energy a bit more!
We havent taught this yet, but we’d like to start!
My kids and my husband would love this!!
I talk about our other solar devices, and the impact of using other energy sources to much.
We haven’t studied alternative energy yet, but what an exciting way to introduce it!
We talk about alternative energy a lot. My son is loves experimenting with everything.
My son built a solar house kit and designed an efficient home for a science fair exhibit.
We have discussed this topic but have not done anything beyond that yet.
This looks great!
We haven’t talked about it too much yet. My kids love experimenting and would love this!
What a great giveaway!
We have done a little bit with solar energy but nothing in great detail. This would be great!
My kids would love learning about other energy sources
Thanks for the opportunity to win this. It looks like so much fun!
I look forward to teaching them about alternative energy. We have talked about solar panels others have on their house but my 6 year old would love to dive into it.
Sounds like a wonderful kit! My kids would love it.
What an extraordinary gift it would be to use this kit. Nothing teaches better than hands on!
We have been learning about green lifestyles and alternative energy sources a lot this year. My kids would love this kit!
This would be great for homeschooling.
I am new to hiphomeschoolmoms and am enjoying your posts and fb questions! Keep up the great work!
We have not done much on energy yet, but they are aware of solar, wind, etc.
Looks like a lot of fun, my kids would love this!
This sounds great! Even better if I can win it, right?
We haven’t done as much as I would like, but we are getting solar panels installed in a few weeks. I would love to have something like this to go along with it!
We haven’t studied this topic yet in our homeschool, but I know my kids would love to. They love anything to do with science. 🙂
We have briefly discussed wind and solar energy. Would love to add a kit like this to our homeschooling this year 🙂
We are just starting a unit on electricity and this would be an excellent way to demonstrate anternative sources of energy.
This looks like such a cool kit!
Great giveaway! This would be so helpful with teaching my children!
I haven’t intentionally taught my children anything about alternative energy, but they have picked up some things just through life experience.
sounds like a wonderful kit to have in any homeschool family
have just touched on alternative energy sources but no projects yet
Love it!
This looks like an awesome giveaway! Would love to have this for our homeschool.
We are just now going to start homeschooling, so this will come in very handy!