Have you wondered how to add some education over summer break or expand the learning experience with fun hands-on activities? Well, now you can, with MEL Science! MEL Science is a STEM box subscription that brings science to life in your very own home.
Our MEL Science review will show you how this STEM box subscription can help move your child’s science education forward.
What Is a STEM Box?
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) boxes are plastic school boxes that arrive with learning manipulatives inside. They contain a variety of items such as toothpicks, playdough, pattern blocks, and more. The box also holds a set of task cards and photos containing a selection of engineering structures.
These kits are popular with teachers, who keep them handy for students to use during quiet time. These often prove valuable when a student completes work sooner than their classmates. The STEM boxes provide them with an educational activity while they wait.
Parents find STEM boxes an excellent way to help kids learn at home while keeping them entertained educationally. Imagine the excitement your child will feel when their science kit arrives each month with experiments they can perform.
Why Use MEL Science?
Beginning at age 5, you can introduce your child to science through MEL Science hands-on experiments. The program emphasizes physics or chemistry.
Your child will have fun learning by creating things such as hot ice, copper coral, tin dendrite, martian rust, tin hedgehogs, and a galaxy in a bottle. The beauty of this program is your ability to select from hundreds of experiments that grab your child’s interest.
Every month your child receives a box that includes 1-3 hands-on experiments. Knowing that mistakes can happen, the kit will include enough of the chemical reagents for your child to make a minimum of two attempts on each experiment. In addition, the box includes step-by-step instructions, access to the MEL Chemistry application, and AR lessons.
Your child’s introduction to this wonderful science kit is their first experiment. Next, they will learn about the chemistry of monsters through a foam eruption and carbon snake. The fun continues to grow from there.
Review of MEL Kids
These kits are created for kids age 5-10+. The in-depth projects include augmented reality (AR) lessons plus live science projects. Augmented reality allows students to overlay information, visuals, and other content into reality. This helps to enhance understanding and learning.
Each month your child receives a box that includes a project they build. The projects are easy enough that some kids can work without adult assistance. In addition, the visual instructions allow non-readers to follow the directions on their own.
High-quality materials such as durable wood, plastic, and other materials mean the child’s completed projects will last. When your child reads the comic, they learn about the scientific principles of the project they are creating. They also can experience the project in AR using a downloaded app.
Review of MEL Physics
This subscription is geared toward children between the ages of 8-14+. They will receive 2-3 physics experiments every month. These kits provide children with experiments that challenge them and make them think.
Your subscription includes a mobile app that lets your child dig deeper into their projects and obtain more detailed scientific explanations. The beauty of this team of STEM box creators is that collectively they have 10 Ph. D.s in science and prizes in chemistry and physics. Your child is learning from kits that are the creation of professional scientists.
When your child opens up their kit, they will have experiments, instructions, components, and hardware necessary to complete the projects. Topics these projects cover includes luminescent lighting, electric motors, hydrophobic sand, and more.
Each component of the experiments your child receives each month is separately bagged. Instructions are both written in detail and shown in kid-friendly photo steps. It doesn’t matter when during the year you begin your subscription; the experiment topics are looped so that your child will eventually receive every experiment in the program.
Review of MEL Science Chemistry and Chemistry Lite
The starter kit is the main difference between these two chemistry subscriptions suitable for kids age 10 and up. The regular MEL Chemistry kit includes a free VR headset and other reusable starter kit items, including:
- VR headset
- Safety glasses and a tray
- Macro lens
- Glass beaker and Erlenmeyer flask
- Phone/tablet stand
- Solid fuel stove/burner
The Chemistry Lite box does not contain these items. When your child is performing the experiments, they will likely need additional gear, chemicals, or ingredients you probably have around the house.
The VR headset takes what your child is learning and provides more information about the compounds in their experiment. Using this in conjunction with the kit is easy.
- Download the MEL VR app onto your cell phone
- Unfold the VR headset that was included in your child’s kit
- Open the app you downloaded and drop it into the headset
- Navigate using the silver button on the top right of the device
Taking learning further into the virtual world, MEL allows you to use a separate application to scan the chemicals and other items. The kits include warning labels and safety instructions, and the application provides information for doing additional research beyond the experiment kits.
One thing you can be sure of, MEL Science boxes are not a toy. These learning kits are the real deal when it comes to chemistry instruction. The projects use real chemicals, which is why adult supervision is recommended.
You will be pleased to see the scientifically accurate information presented for kids to understand and, at the same time, question what they are doing just like a professional scientist does.
Hands-on Learning Helps Students Retain Knowledge
When learning through hands-on experiences, students have more fun and retain what they learn better. The results are far better than simply reading the information. That is what we like about MEL Science.
Your child will learn what happens on a molecular level by providing 38 hands-on chemistry kits and a 3D microscope phone/tablet app. MEL Science has raised over $26 million to move its educational platform to the next level. It is interesting to watch your kids combine their attachment to smartphones and tablets with the hands-on process of learning chemistry.
Rather than reading about processes in their textbook, your child’s eyes will expand with wonder when they see how the actions they take with the chemicals in the kit produce true chemical reactions. This will help them understand the logic and principles behind how items are built.
The funds acquired for expanding the educational platform include moving from the main target of parents and home-schooled children to marketing within schools. They also plan to expand beyond chemistry to include biology and physics.
The incorporation of virtual reality into the learning process allows students to see processes that they might not otherwise be able to see. Virtual reality also impacts the ability of the brain to absorb and process the knowledge it receives. Virtual reality places you in the action, and through that process, you experience and understand what you are seeing.
This combination of hands-on and virtual learning allows the child to memorize and understand the things they are seeing, expanding their ability to move beyond basic chemistry in their educational and personal lives.
Kids Learn More When They Are Having Fun
It doesn’t matter how often you tell your kids that education is important and that it will help them move into adult learning for a profession they want. If your child is not having fun, they don’t care.
Science is important for understanding the way things work in all aspects of life, from machinery to the weather and more. That is why MEL Science combines modern virtual reality technology with hands-on chemistry experiments, bringing these things to life through your child’s actions.
MEL Science Subscriptions
When considering a MEL Science subscription, you will have decisions based on the age range and type of scientific learning you want to provide your child with.
They offer boxes in age ranges:
- MEL Kids—ages 5-9
- MEL Chemistry—ages 10-14
- MEL Physics—ages 8-14+
All levels require some parental involvement. The area of focus is chemistry or physics.
Various payment options are available, including getting one month free if you prepay for nine months. There is also the option to get three months free when you prepay for twelve months. The latter is a savings of $104.70, so an excellent choice.
MEL Science Review Summary
Our Mel Science review shows that the best use of MEL Science is not dependent on any one factor. Rather it is the desire to show your child how to advance their knowledge through fun hands-on activities that help them learn about science, chemistry, and physics. This is important for helping them develop an interest in science that will benefit them later in life when making decisions about their adult education.
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