Toysmith Mineral Science Kit

I bought this kit for my son who has suddenly taken an interest in rocks, minerals, and gem stones. He'd bought a different kit previously and, while he liked it, he found that he had a hard time really determining which rocks he had in his kit because they didn't seem to match the pictures on the back of the box. And then, we found this kit and the big plus is that it takes the mystery out of figuring out which rocks you have because each rock comes numbered and corresponds to one of the numbers in the identification guide. He loves it! This kit came with 15 rock specimens, a magnifying glass, and an identification guide. The identification guide is pretty basic but does provide a good start for someone just getting into rock collecting. My son especially liked the page of the guide that shows the names of the rocks and some specific information about each one. The box that the rocks come in is a good one for keeping them in for storage - of course my son had to have a special "rock sorting box" but this one would suffice if you don't have a picky rock collector. We are very pleased with this product and it's made our little rock collector a happy one!

I'm a college earth science professor and our supplier was one kit short for my online class. I decided to try this kit. It's about half the price and mostly the same minerals. For some reason not halite...oddly, and the one I got had rusted pyrite (I've never actually SEEN rusted pyrite before). But overall great quality. And for like half the price!

I homeschool and coming up with science experiments/labs isn't always easy. My 5th and 7th graders are currently studying rocks and minerals, so I thought ordering a mineral science kit would give them a hands-on lesson. I paid less than $10 for the kit and it came with a nail, strike plate, and 15 minerals. The kit also contained a magnifying glass, which as you can see from the photo, is tiny and pretty much useless. There's nothing clear in the magnifying glass - it's just a plastic, blurry lens. The minerals are labeled and can be found with descriptions in the included pamphlet. The booklet that came with the kit is pretty useful as it discusses topics such as luster, mineral hardness, among other things one could benefit in knowing about minerals. I wouldn't say $10 is a bargain, but at the same time, it provided us with a hands-on learning experience. Just make sure you have or buy a magnifying glass so your child/children can examine the rocks up close.

I got this kit when I was 12, now 72 I have a great grandson who is into rocks. I got it for him. I started doing lapidary when I was 16 and started selling jewelry I made when I was 20. Every relative I have has something I made. Right down to my grandchildren. It started with learning about the hardness of rocks, the steak test, and the magnetic test, in this kit and a basic rocks and mineral book. I highly recommend this book for any kid interested in rocks at any age 5-105 and please don't limit it to boys I was not a tom boy but I loved rocks and still do. I was involved in a Christmas give away to children they had science projects like building a robot out of an a can or a weather station out of a 2 litter bottle she said "oh that's for the boys not the girls. We give beads to the girls and dolls". When I took over the girls got science projects and some of the boys asked for beads.

I bought the Rock kit and the Mineral Kit. I definitely recommend both. My class had a unit on rocks and minerals. The kits added depth and hands on experience to the lessons. We used the kits in a variety of ways throughout the course. What I appreciated in these kits is that you get a specific set of minerals to show a variety. With other rock kits it sort of a gamble as to what you get. Fun tip. Some minerals fizz when you drop them in a cup of vinegar! That was a huge hit with my class. The lesson morphed into an impromptu walk outside to gather rocks from the playground to test. We found about 50% of the rocks fizzed most likely indicating calcite. FYI The magnifying glass is useless. The streak plate is tiny but useful.

This is a useful mineral kit that my 15 year old had fun learning about mineral identification with. There were a large variety of minerals to test, and the instructions were easy to follow. That said, the so-called "Pyrite" sample in the kit is definitely not Pyrite but is Pyrrhotite which is sometimes called Magnetic Pyrite, and has very different features from the normal Pyrite (which is fool's gold). Pyrrhotite is softer than Pyrite, and if you try to use the scratch test and nail scratch test comparing to the chart, you will not get the right results. Unlike Pyrite, Pyrrhotite is magnetic (hence the other name of Magnetic Pyrite). So if you get this kit and your #4 is brown, earthy, heavy, not gold metallic...and a magnet sticks to it...this is why.

I bought a couple of these kits for my Science Club students to use in their mineralogy study. The mineral specimens were approximately 1 inch in length, and were in good condition upon arrival. They are packed in open cells and jostle around a bit in transit, but they have numbered stickers on them to identify each mineral, so you can figure out which one is which and reposition them. The stickers do not tend to stick very well, and I replaced a couple of them. I like the fact that these minerals are in their natural state and not polished or cut. Instructions come with the kit, and there is a chart which identifies the hardness and streak color of each mineral. The kit also contains a scratch plate, nail, and plastic magnifying glass. I added other items from a Rock Mineral Test Kit (also available on Amazon at a reasonable price), and had a wonderful little mineral identification/test project for my students.

bought these for a rocks class I taught. Some of the rocks are smaller than what is in the picture on the front, but i don't think it detracts from the total package at all. The kids loved them!! This is a great resource to have and I would definitely buy this again. One note though: Don't expect the magnifying class it comes with to actually do anything. It's really worthless as a magnifying glass. This didn't bother me as I brought my own to class anyway. It does however, have a nice little ceramic plate to test streak color on, along with a steel nail. Additionally, I made my own little Moh's hardness testing kit to accompany this box that easily fit inside it. I went to the dollar store and purchased some glass decorative marbles (one side is flat) and a small bag of magnets. All in all, inside the plastic bag that comes with this kit, I was able to put it's own ceramic plate, the nail and added a penny, a marble, and a paper clip (just to have one more magnetic item for fun.) It all fit inside the bag in this box and was a great success. Fabulous resource!

Smaller than I expected, but is as described and functioned perfectly for college level Physical Geology class.

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I bought this to use at my lapidary club open day. We wanted an activity that would show how we determine what a rock is and this was perfect. Only criticism I have is that one rock was missing and another was duplicated in its place. It didn't stop us using it the way we wanted as we were limiting the number of rocks used anyway. I used the information on the accompanying chart to make-up a checklist for participants who seemed to find the information fun. It also got the tick of approval from some of our long time members.

Must have item for kids and senior if you love rocks and minerals and have interest in Earth science