Disclaimer: I received a box free of charge to review. I did not promise a positive review. STEM.
Science. Technology. Engineering. Math.
Now imagine all that educational goodness in a box that makes education exciting and fun. Is it possible?
Believe it or not, yes! And I don't know who was more excited about our trial box from My Stem Box --- darling daughter or myself. The box we got to try was all about bacteria and included six petri dishes (which darling daughter had been asking for), agar powder, tools, a cute pin, and a cute bacteria stuffy plus a marker that darling daughter loved. The one thing that was missing was the small pipette that it said was included but we couldn't find it; however, I cannot say with 100% certainty that the little thing didn't fall out in one of our many pre-looks before we buckled down to do our experiment.Since making the agar base involved hot water, I helped darling with this as she wasn't sure she wanted to do it alone PLUS the box did recommend having an adult helper. I was concerned our house would not be warm enough for the experiment as it gets chilly at night and we have no central air/heat but our samples grew beautifully! We put them on top of the fridge like they suggested.
We then examined them under our microscope (not included) and darling daughter figured out what bacterial shapes she was seeing. All of this was done with gloves on...that they provided...cute little purple gloves that fit kiddo hands perfectly.
All in all, it was a wonderful, educational time and we have enough agar to do a second experiment. They give you instructions on how to properly clean your petri dishes if you want to do another experiment PLUS what you can use in place of agar if you want to do more and more and more!
The subscription plan is a bit higher up on my budget for such things but for the value of the box, I think the price is understandable. A one month subscription starts at $30 and they have 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month pre-paid plans that give you monthly savings with the pre-paid cost for one year being $300 (the buy 10 get 2 free can be appealing if you are ready to make the commitment).
Daily Gratitude: I am thankful for the opportunity to grow bacteria at home and share stories with darling daughter about when I worked in the lab growing bacteria and yeast.
Daily Bible Verse: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ~ Romans 12:2
