Easy At-Home Science Experiments with Amazing Science – Review

I loved science experiments when I was a child. You can imagine my delight when we received the Amazing Science, Volume 1 DVD from ScienceandMath.com in the mail and my oldest son immediately wanted to watch it. I was also delighted to discover that I could easily do one (or several) of the experiments immediately after watching the DVD!

What’s Amazing Science all about?

Amazing Science, Volume 1 is designed for children in grades 1-3. Your child will be led through step-by-step instructions for each of the science experiments by a real Rocket Scientist! Jason Gibson has advanced degrees in both Engineering and Physics and has actually worked for NASA. At the beginning of every demonstration you will be given a list of the materials needed. Your child will do simple science experiments that teach about electricity, pressure, surface tension, and a lot more.

How We Used the Amazing Science Experiments

As I mentioned, my son immediately wanted to use this DVD and start the science experiments as soon as we got it in the mail. I have not seen him so excited about something in a while! We used the DVD over a six week period and did many of the experiments in the evening after Daddy got home. I was able to get pictures of two of our experiments.

First we have the floating eggs experiment!

We actually did this experiment twice! Bug was fascinated by it. We learned that an ordinary egg will sink in tap water and float in saltwater. Why does this happen? Salt water has a greater density than plain tap water. When salt is added to the water, the salt packs into the water and increases the density, which also means its density is greater than that of the egg. This makes the egg float! Gibson does a much better job of explaining the why than I can!

Next, we have the color changing milk experiment!

 This was my favorite experiment. It is just so cool! You pour a little bit of whole milk onto a plate and place a few drops of food coloring in the milk. You wait for the milk to settle, then dab a cotton swab with a little bit of dish soap. Then, you gently touch the cotton swab to the drops of food coloring and watch the milk quickly move away from the cotton swab! It creates some awesome colors!

Why does this work? Well, milk is made of water and fat. The dish soap will actually bond to the fat molecules in the milk. The water and the food coloring will be pushed out to make room for that bond. Gibson explains that this is why soap works to clean your hands of grease. The soap will bind with the grease and then wash off down the sink! Pretty cool, huh?

There are 23 awesome experiments to try and they can all be performed with common household ingredients. A few others that we enjoyed were the matchstick speedboat, the invisible ink, and the make a lemon battery experiments.

Our Opinion of Amazing Science, Volume 1

We have greatly enjoyed the Amazing Science DVD and will continue to use it. My kids are actually a little bit younger than the recommended ages and they had a blast with it. I will say that their ages made it difficult for them to sit through the explanations of the experiments. They are all ears when watching the actual experiment, but when Gibson explains why the experiments work they usually start getting fidgety. That’s okay! If they were a little older it wouldn’t be an issue. Each little episode is only about 10-15 minutes.

I liked that there were multiple camera angles during each experiment so we could really see what was happening. My only complaint is that I wish the DVD came with a sheet that listed all of the materials needed for each experiment. I certainly recommend Amazing Science, Volume 1 for homeschooling families, and I think it would be fun to use in a co-op!

You can buy Amazing Science, Volume 1 for $17.95.

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