Welcome to Bleenies, the official product and book review site of Halushki.com

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Hey!

How about that fancy looking header up there? Sa-weet!

It's tres minimalist, wouldn't ya say?

Okay, so I'm still working on this site. Actually, I have someone else working on this site while I pig out on Reese's Pieces. However, until Bleenies is looking fan-freaking-tastic, I'm going to beg your forgiveness for the dust and debris, and just try to do your best to read around the big guy working the jack-hammer and with his butt hanging out.

And, no, that's not my husband.

Anyway, this very first review is brought to you by Parent Blogger Network and The Discovery Channel Store as Bleenies takes a look at the Solar Science Lab.


First, let me say a word about science and science experiments in particular:

I dig science. This, I think, I have adequately established to be true.

And what is science without the experiments? Nothing, that's what.

Ah! The smoking tubes and the crackling electrodes! The stinky chemicals and the embalmed pig fetuses! The exploding soda cans and the cantaloupes dropped from the second story window!

Sure, you could read about the effects of gravity and velocity on a falling melon, but could you every really understand just what those brainy science dudes were getting at without actually lobbing your own (mom's) fruity gourds from a great height and experiencing first hand the cause and effect as you watch the cantaloupe crash to the driveway and erupt into a bazillion fleshy pieces with an astounding sound not unlike a goopy M-80 going off?

No. Sometimes reading about it just isn't enough. Sometimes you have to experience science and put the experiments in motion for yourself.

But, let's face it, unless you have unlimited access to a supply of fruit to throw from high places, sooner or later, you're going to need to turn your attention to other important sciency questions. And you're probably going to need equipment other than an open window and what's in your fridge to conduct your scientific unquiries.

And that's where Solar Science comes in!

Packed into just one box, you have all the materials and instructions for 30 different "Sun-sational Activities".

This is what I thought was coolest (heh) about this kit: it comes with all the stuff.

Listen, I have about 20 different books in my house right now that are chockablock full of Fun And Fantastic Science Experiments For Kids. However, for almost every one of the experiments, there's two or three items I just don't have, and nor are these items that I could easily acquire with a few phone calls or a dash next door to the neighbors house (this may be different for you if you a) live next door to MIT or b) your next door neighbor is Bill Nye, The Science Guy.)

And if the required material is not something I normally have on hand, chances are that no matter how my Post-It notes I write or how many times I set the alarm on my cell phone to "Remember! Buy alum, thirteen feet of 18 gauge copper wiring, and an aluminum pie pan!" I'm just not going to remember to do it.

So that's the first best dandy thing about this kit - it's all there.

Well, except for the egg white, but that I can borrow from my neighbor. And one experiment calls for dried out markers, but, I ask you, who has markers that aren't dried out? Not me.

In other words, plenty of dried out markers to be had at our house.

The kit comes with a thermometer, a mirror, a test tube (score!), a mini solar panel, a motor, a propeller, a bunch of easily assembled cardboard supports, a bunch of wires and connectors, four colored filters, and - last but certainly not least - a magnifying glass.

Now, can you imagine if you had to collect all these things in your house and you didn't already have them laying around from other miscellaneous science kits? Where would find a solar panel easily and quickly? I mean, unless you live next door to Leonardo DiCaprio.

Nowhere! That's where you'd find one!

Good gravy, I now have my very own miniature solar panel! Opening this box of lab equipment is like being an actor in the first scene in one of those doomsday movies where later on - after the asteroid has hit and the nuclear bomb has gone off and the aliens have invaded - the mom is trapped in the basement with her kids and the power is out and the Radioactive Asteroid Aliens are upstairs and about to close-in and do whatever dastardly deed it is that Radioactive Asteroid Aliens do, and all seems lost, except wait! Remember in the first scene of the movie where the mom was opening the science kit box with her kids - the kit with the mini solar panel and the motor and the propeller? - and hey! Didn't the guy on that final newscast mention something about the RAA (Radioactive Asteroid Aliens) getting all freaked out by rodents, and what if we trapped a mouse in the basement and then hooked it up to the motor with the propeller and then charged the whole kit-and-kaboodle with the miniature solar panel held outside the basement window, and the rest of the movie writes itself! Happy endings all around!

That's exactly what I thought of when I first opened the Solar Science kit and found our very own miniature solar panel. That's how cool it is.

Part II - The Experiments (posted later this day)