Jumpstart your study of mechanical physics by learning all about simple machines and how they’re used to make complex tasks easier to do. Through 26 model-building exercises, you’ll investigate all six classic simple machines — wheels and axles, levers, pulleys, inclined planes, screws, and wedges — as well as gears. Start off with simple models to guarantee a firm understanding of the basic principles at play, and then move onto larger, more complex models to push the machines harder and see how they can work together. Also included is a specially designed spring scale so that you can measure how the machines change the direction and magnitude of forces, making work easier to do. With this durable, modular construction system, you can see how the same basic elements combine in different ways to form each machine. The models can be assembled and disassembled again and again; combine the pieces to create your own configurations, limited only by your imagination! In addition to the invaluable hands-on experience you’ll get from model building, the 32-page, full-color manual also dives into examples of simple machines in action in everyday life. The seesaw at the playground, the wheelbarrow in your backyard, the flagpole in front of your school — all of these are examples of simple machines in the real world! So start building, investigating, and experimenting to discover how physics is all around us!

In this story-based STEM kit, Pepper Mint visits her aunt who is a scientist researching primates. She lives in a treehouse in the rainforest on the island of Borneo. The treehouse is not connected to the electrical power grid, but Pepper Mint and her aunt devise mechanical inventions to accomplish various tasks. They equip the treehouse with mechanical equipment using pulleys, winches, and gears, and learn lessons in physics. Projects include a rope ladder, a pulley to lift heavy objects into the treehouse, a rubber-band-powered lift, a rotating palm leaf umbrella, a zipline, a catapult, and a trap door. At the end of the story, Pepper Mint wires up a string of LED lanterns using conductive thread and a battery holder to light up the treehouse in the dark jungle night. While doing this, she learns about electric circuits. The kit includes materials to build the treehouse and do the projects, a full-color illustrated storybook and step-by-step instruction manual, as well as a scale Pepper Mint figurine.

Set the planets in motion with a flick of your wrist! Build a mechanical model of the solar system including the sun and eight planets (also known as an orrery), wind it up, and watch the planets revolve around the sun. Assemble this complex machine using snap-together plastic parts to learn how the gears and wind-up mechanism work to spin the model. Detail each planet with colorful, realistic-looking printed planet graphics. Discover how a special type of gear called a planetary gear is used to simulate the mesmerizing motion of the solar system. Learn about the order of the planets, their relative sizes, their rates of revolution around the sun, their appearance, and other planetary facts. Bonus: There’s a built-in expansion slot in case the mysterious Planet Nine is discovered! This kit includes full-color step-by-step illustrated assembly instructions.

+ Build a colorful model of the solar system.

+ Wind-up engine sets your planets in motion around the sun – no batteries required

+ Learn about the planets’ celestial orbits.

+ Explore fundamental gear mechanics; planets travel at different speeds depending on the gear ratio.

Astonish yourself with optical illusions and amazing visual phenomena as you explore human perception and the physics of light. Experiment with light and the color spectrum by building a color wheel, a fiber optic peacock, and diffraction glasses. Learn how the eye and a camera are similar and how they are different. Build a camera obscura and pinhole glasses. Investigate lenses and light refraction. Experiment with spatial vision and depth perception with 3D glasses and an Ames room model. Find your blind spot and watch things disappear.  View stunning optical illusions involving shapes, color, depth, and scale. Make a curved line look straight. Turn cardboard transparent. See the world shrink. Make white by mixing red, green, and blue, and see colors in black and white. See firsthand how your eye and brain work together to perceive color, light, depth, perspective, size, shape, and motion. Conduct over 35 experiments, guided by the 48-page, full-color manual.

Build a zany inflatable tube dancer that uses the physics of flowing air to perform its eye-catching moves. Like the air dancers and tube men you may have seen around your town, this motorized device uses a blower motor and a fabric tube to slink, shimmy, and shake around. Assemble the model to learn about its inner mechanisms, including fan and electric circuit, complete with battery, motor, and switch. Conduct four fun additional experiments that demonstrate principles in air pressure, air flow, and aerodynamics. Make a ball float on a stream of air, practice your aim in a game of air basketball, and launch balls into the air with the air cannon. This hands-on kit brings physics to life as it demonstrates the power of air pressure at work. An eight-panel, full-color manual guides your model building with step-by-step illustrated instructions.

+ Build a model that “dances” on air – over one foot tall!

+ Assemble and decorate your own inflatable tube dancer.

+ Adjust the blower to change the dancer’s motion.

+ Conduct experiments to learn lessons in air pressure, airflow, and aerodynamics.

+ Learn about gears and circuits as you assemble the fan.

+ Includes fun, hands-on activities like air basketball, a floating ball trick, and an air cannon.

Head into the lab for an in-depth investigation of genetics, the branch of biology focused on heredity and variation in organisms, and DNA, the acid that holds the blueprints for life. See genetic material with your own eyes as you isolate the DNA from a tomato in a test tube. Investigate inheritance and learn how traits are passed down from parents to children. Learn about dominant and recessive genes and play inheritance games to determine how traits will be expressed. Learn about the biology of reproduction, the components of cells, and how chromosomes are combined and copied. Assemble a model to see the elegant double-stranded helical structure of DNA. Then crack the genetic code and find out how the different parts, called nucleotides, fit together. Analyze DNA evidence to identify suspects and solve a crime. Breed your own bacteria colony to experiment with survival of the fittest. Read about how mutation affects genes and how scientists clone plants and animals. Full-color, 48-page manual.