January 26, 2004

By: Rex Lowe
Website: http://www.1st-in-toys.com

Take Science Home For The Holidays By Shopping At The Exploratorium Store

San Francisco’s Exploratorium is the world’s first hands-on science museum. Like the Exploratorium itself, the Exploratorium Store is full of fascinating things to look at, play with, and learn from. Some of the over 2,500 items on display include products related to the museum's exhibits and programs.

At the Exploratorium Store's website, www.exploratorium.edu/store, you'll find a large selection of the same cool stuff we sell at the store, organized into convenient categories. Using a credit card, you can safely choose your gifts, which we'll send off to you, pronto.

All proceeds from the Exploratorium Store support the activities of the Exploratorium. And all Exploratorium members receive a 15 percent discount on purchases. This holiday season, stop by often — in person or on the Web — and take the Exploratorium home with you. Some quintessentially Exploratorium gift ideas include:

Rainbow Maker

It doesn’t get any more California than this — and it’s good science, too. Hang a high-quality Swarovski crystal on your window, and refract the light of the sun. Keep it rotating with a small solar panel and rainbow-colored gears, which are built right in. The result is hundreds of rainbows and patterns of scattered sunlight moving gently and peacefully all over your room, with the movement powered by the sunlight you are busy refracting — all without any batteries! And as an added bonus, it’s good feng shui! Attaches to window using the physics of suction.

AirZooka

Laugh with amusement as, seemingly from nowhere, you are able to mess up a person’s hair, or ruffle their shirt, dress or office papers from a distance. Requiring no batteries or electricity, AirZooka operates simply by pulling and releasing a built-in elastic air launcher — like a sling shot on steroids that shoots only air. And here’s the best part: because it shoots a ball of air, you’ll never run out of ammo! Blast that harmless ball of air up to 20 feet.

Giant Microbes

Caution: cuteness can be infectious. Each one of these colorful plush toys is an anatomically correct microbe representing a different ailment at 1 million times its actual size. A set of four comes with Common Cold (Rhinovirus), Sore Throat (Streptococcus Pyogenes), Stomach Ache (Shigella Dysenteriae) and Flu (Orthomyxoviridus). These huggable microbes come in cuddly colors like turquoise, mint green, beige fringed in gold, and rose, and each microbe includes both a teaching tag and a set of glassy eyes.

Blokus

Named Europe’s Game of the Year in 2002, Blokus develops logic, strategy, tactical thinking and spatial perception. Players take turns placing their colored pieces on a board, starting from a different corner. Each new piece must touch at least one other piece of the same color, but only at the corner. Block your opponents while expanding your own territory. The winner is the player for whom the total area of remaining pieces is the lowest! (the mathematical aspect of the game.) Good for younger kids, as well as adults, Blokus seems to turn even the nicest people into Machiavelli.

River Crossing

Maze enthusiasts and puzzle nuts will love this perilous plank puzzle, where the object is to help the hiker cross the river without getting his feet wet (not to mention eaten by hungry crocks, snakes and piranhas). Just move the magnetized planks between tree stumps, and work your way across the river, basing your movements on challenge cards that range from beginner to expert.

Fun With Your Dog Science Kit

Fun With Your Cat Science Kit What’s going on in Fido’s or Fifi’s fluffy head? Learn how your pet perceives the world by doing interactive science with your cat or dog. Test your pet’s senses — sight, smell and taste. Each kit includes a pet-specific series of interactive investigations: an ultrasonic (silent) whistle so you can compare your dog’s hearing with your own; a doggy or kitty personality interview science guide to help you make observations of eyes, tail and body language, and learn what those observations mean; glasses you create to see the colors your pet sees; and healthy catnip treats or dog bones you bake or make yourself using the mold and ingredients provided, among other experiments.

Hokey Spokes

Night-time cycling has never been so bright. Hokey Spokes is a bicycle wheel lighting system that attaches to your spokes, and displays an image or text, perceived in part through persistence of vision, while the wheels are spinning. A computer inside the blade controls a series of LEDs that create the display. Available in a variety of colored LEDs, Hokey Spokes allows you to display stunning dynamic light shows while riding. Program your own message.

Cat-A-Pults

Marvel as Newton, the lightweight flying foam cat, soars to trigger the second Cat-A-Pult, to trigger the third, etc., in a chain reaction that sends cats flying. Suspense! Action! Reaction! The last Cat-A-Pult launches a cat aimed at your final target to complete the complex chain-reaction event. You design the layout of the Cat-A-Pults, and then set up and adjust them. Create chain-reactions that can actually go from room to room, up the stairs, or stay on a table. The possibilities are endless. Each catapult has 25 adjustment settings to control trajectory and distance. Launch your cats distances of up to 8 feet. Play games of skill and accuracy. Designed by Art Ganson, an MIT artist and Exploratorium Osher Fellow, who is known for staging large-scale, chain-reaction, Rube Goldberg events. Includes 5 high-tech catapults and extra cats. Ages 6 and up. Smaller, two-cat sets, perfect either for beginners or for advanced Cat-A-Pulters who want to add more cats to their arsenal, are also available.

Motor-Works

Build a real working model engine with 100 working parts, using a screw-together model that’s fun and easy to build. When you’re done, you can see through as the valves rock, spark plugs fire, and pistons drive the crankshaft, among other working-engine thrills and chills.

Secrets From An Inventor’s Notebook, by Maurice Kanbar

This is a book for all tinkerers interested in tinkering outside the box, and playing with the physical universe around them, written by a man who made lots of money doing so. An inventor’s master class in a book!

Also see: science online games

About The Author:

Rex Lowe is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-toys.com.  Find all the toys you wish you had as a kid. Fun and educational toys found here.