Thames & KosmosForces & Interactions: Middle School Classroom Kit | NGSS-Aligned for Physics & Engineering Classes| Teacher Guide & Lesson Plans | Durable, Timed for Classroom Use, Includes Storage

My grandson needed a good science kit for middle school this year. It arrived at his home and he loves it. Actual science items and not cups and bowls from the kitchen. His other Grandmother said it is really working out well.

This is a good set between Lego and K’nex in building difficulty. Middle school students will have no issue (upper elementary kids with some patience will do fine with the building part as well).The pieces are sturdy and fairly easy to put together.The activities areVisualizing Forces (a basic intro to vectors)Newtons 2nd lawCollisions (one moving one stationary)Collision 2 moving carsNewton’s 3rd lawMagnetic FieldsElectric FieldsElectromagnetic ForcesAnd a challenge thing about applications of electromagnetsThere is a page with NGSS alignments for teachers.You can download digital version of the lesson plans via QR code in the book.The concepts are at upper middle school level.BTW, check out phyphox app online, great for students to use their phones to take measurements.This is listed as for up to 4 students, and I think that is a fair assessment.If you are planning on using this for homeschool, you yourself need at least some basic physics knowledge so you can explain the concepts (or you will need to go to another source). The book itself is not that detailed.The AA batteries needed for E&M are not provided.In comparison to the other two standard building systems (outlined below) this is a nice kit with sturdy construction suited to the middle school level.Docking a star for cost. This needs to come it around 100 dollars for the value for the cost.I have used both Lego educational products and K’nex in my science and math classrooms. My general preference is for K’nex for middle school and up and Lego for elementary school (with the exception of the MindStorms Lego sets which are excellent for computer programing at the high school level). This is actually based on the physical difficulty of assembling K’nex vs Lego, which is probably why K’nex is marketed as age 10 and up. K’nex takes more physical force and dexterity to assemble, but the type, size and physical integrity of the of structures are much better with K’nex. One can build very large structures with K’nex (such as meter long bridges, meter high roller coasters and so on) that are precluded by the weight of the bricks for Lego.K’nex lends itself far better to engineering and physics problems as it is much sturdier (although not a sturdy as Erector sets!) and one can build cars and structures that will hold together throughout testing. For physics and engineering projects (motion, machines, conservation of energy, structure building) K’nex is clearly better than Lego. I also use K’nex in my math classes when I need to show 3D structure. As a teacher you can register on the K’nex education site and receive access to lesson plans which are useful.

My son was all excited about this kit because it looks a lot like the name brand building blocks, but we quickly discovered that you have to be very sure before connecting anything because they're difficult (some of the smaller pieces are impossible) to separate. The good part is that my 10-year-old was able to put all of the devices together himself, following the picture directions.But the lessons are way too basic. You spend 30 to 45 minutes building a device to show that putting 2 weights on one side of a scale will be heavier than the 1 weight on the other side of the scale. Or that hitting one object with another will cause the first object to move. Maybe I'm missing something, but it just didn't seem to present anything that wasn't like "duh" material.Especially for the price of the kit, I was expecting a lot more.

Years ago I reviewed some Thames & Kosmos sets and while they seemed decent at first, it became obvious over time that the quality wasn't awesome. Pieces would snap and crack with use. I was hesitant to give this set a try, but my 15 year old thought it would be something she and her younger siblings would enjoy playing with to do some science and engineering projects. My initial impression when I opened the box was the plastic pieces seemed like the same so so quality as the last sets, but I kept my opinions to myself to see what my 15 year old thought as she tried out several of the designs. It didn't take long for her to start making comments about pieces not holding together properly and the quality not being great. We have a lot of Lego and K'Nex sets and we feel this set is not up to the level of quality as those brands. We never have issues with the components or Lego or K'Nex staying together. But with Thames & Kosmos, it seems like having the pieces stay together is not the norm. The set has detailed instructions, so it has that going for it. The container it comes in has a tray for organizing some of the pieces, and the container could be stacked with other similar containers if used in a school setting. We were hoping this would be a fun hands on kit to use for our younger kids who are homeschooling this year, but I think we'll be better off using some of our K'Nex sets to make simple machines instead.

Great resource to use in my classroom!