Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've been an Amazon customer for years, but this is the first time a product stood out enough for me to write a review. I bought this for my 8 yr. old daughter and I figured my 6 yr. old son could use it later.
I was very hesitant, because there aren't a lot of reviews and it's expensive.
Well, we've had it a few days and my daughter has been playing more with "Secrets of the Master Magician: An Apprentice's Manual", which I also bought at the same time (another great gift). My daughter is interested in this and it's easy for her to put things together.
My son is obsessed with it! It's similar (for him) to the Lego creatures he puts together. He needs a little help from time to time, but he can certainly follow the very well laid out diagrams. So far they've created an FM radio, a scifi noise maker, a sound detecting space noise maker thingy, a propeller that spins and flies into the air, a seven segment display, a volt meter connected to the solar cell. After connecting the solar cell, I realized my son thought the solar cell would come on like a computer screen or TV! After explaining it and putting my hand over it; now they both know what a solar cell does.
- There are 5 books of experiments.
- Each project has a nice simple color picture of how to connect all the components.
- All components are clearly marked.
- The diagrams are a top view. Since the connections are layered on top of one another 2 and 3 deep, it takes a little figuring as to what's on top and what's on bottom. It's easy for an adult. It's part of the "puzzle" for the kids. After we put a few together, they both got it.
- The pieces seem sturdy enough and snap together easily
- There is great assortment of parts to create lots and lots of very interesting projects.
- My kids love the projects. I've been very impressed.
- It has a cable that you can connect to the microphone port of a PC sound card. I haven't played with this. There is software, it looks like you can turn your PC into an oscilloscope. Looks interesting. There's a whole book for these projects. I just saw the cover, so it's likely that there's even more to it.
My kids are learning a lot with this. While they are putting things together, I can explain how these different parts work. There are lots of opportunities to take the project and modify it by replacing parts, change a light out for the speaker, etc.
For example, my son put the 7 segment LED together. I wasn't impressed. I was hoping to put together a counter, but it just connects each segment to ground to turn all the segments on. There are 750 projects, so maybe there is a counter project. Regardless, my son was fascinated. He changed all the connections manually to count from 0 to 9. He changed the main power resistor to see it go brighter with a smaller resistor and dimmer with a bigger resistor. Lots of implicit learning going on. I pointed to the microwave display and said, "See, that's how it works!"
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Snap Circuits Extreme SC-750The SC-750 is packed with action, featuring more than 750 experiments including 73 computer-interfaced experiments. Young builders will learn about electromagnets, solar-powered experiments and vibration switches. Projects involve Strobe Lights, Transistor AM Radio, Electromagnetism and Rechargeable Battery. Kit contains over 80 parts. Requires 4 "AA" batteries, not included.
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