Ever wanted your own meteorite? Now you can have one!

On Tuesday, I published a post about the National Geographic geode kit. We've got another National Geographic kit that's a Meteorite dig kit. Read on for more: 

This is a fun little kit. I did it with Froot Loop back when he was still 4. He enjoyed it for the most part. The plaster brick is smaller than I expected, especially since we’ve done another excavation kit (post HERE), and that one was a lot larger. 

The kit comes with a plaster block with a meteorite and a tektite buried in it. There is also a small brush, a small double sided chisel, and a small magnifying glass, which is practically useless. The chisel is plastic and pretty flimsy. One side is angled and the other is straight. It takes a lot of effort to use it efficiently on the block. The areas with the orange and yellow paint were especially difficult to work on. We fixed this problem by turning the block over and chiseling from the bottom. This made it go faster and I recommend it unless you want your hands to be covered in blisters. 

The magnifying glass is pretty small, but it was my son's favorite part of the whole kit. He went around looking at practically everything in the house with it. It is essentially worthless, but hey, he had fun with it. (I mention in my other post that it’s probably worth investing in a decent magnifying glass if you do a lot of these types of projects.)

I wish this kit had goggles in it. The plaster does get everywhere and it is also possible that small chips can fly off. I have a pair of goggles from a different kit that I can use. 

I also recommend using an old toothbrush to work on the meteorite and tektite after they are freed from the plaster block. The included brush gets the majority of plaster dust off, but there's still a lot more that needs to come off. A toothbrush gets a lot of it out. I would also give it a quick rinse under warm running water.

I love the learning guide that came with it. It is 14 pages long! The learning guide includes information about meteors, the differences between the meteor and a meteorite, how big meteoroids are, a page about the largest known meteorite (Hoba), what meteorites are made of, how fast meteors travel, why meteors light up the sky, where meteorites come from, how old they are, meteor showers, if the dinosaur extinction was caused by a meteorite, what the chances are of being struck by a meteorite, what happens when a meteorite hits the earth, what a tektite is, where they come from, and what they look like and how old they are. The guide was packed with information and also had lots of pictures and scientific facts. I learned a few things from this, and I took several astronomy classes!

There is a pretty bad typo in the book. The header "Where do meteorites come from?" appears on two different pages, when the passage underneath the second page is about shooting stars and meteor showers and how many meteors you might see at a time. This is pretty disappointing for a company such as National Geographic. Then on the next two pages, "What are meteor showers?" appears on both pages. The first page with this heading is about constellations and the next page is about what meteor showers are and when you can see them.

Other than the issues with the guide, this kit is great. I can picture home schoolers using it, preschoolers, or really anyone with a love of science.

The meteorite and tektite were on the small side, but that's okay. We stored them in a clear box up on a shelf so he could look at them but not play with them. It made for a fun afternoon project on a rainy day.

Clean up took a little bit since the plaster got EVERYWHERE and when you have young kids, it takes twice as long to clean up as it normally would since of course they want to HELP and by help, I mean dump the tray three times and decide to play with the pile of plaster. Hey, it is all learning, right?

Do your kids "help" around the house?