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Green Science Kits: A Hot Topic Whose Time Has Come

Sometimes we forget how intelligent and well-informed today's children are, and when it comes to global warming, they're not only aware of the issues our planet is facing, they're eager to do their part to help.

Take Alec Loorz, a 14-year-old high school student in Ventura, California. When Alec was 12, he was so moved by Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth he created his own presentation, specifically designed for kids, to spread the word about global warming. And he didn't stop there. Alec founded the nonprofit organization Kids vs. Global Warming with the goal of educating other kids about climate change, keeping the focus on hope and empowering children to stand up and take action to protect the planet and their own future.

It's really no surprise that children are among the most vocal and the most active environmental stewards. Not only can kids of all ages understand how our actions impact the environment, it's easier for them to develop eco-friendly habits than it might be for older generations to change our wasteful ways. Building on that natural enthusiasm, there's been a boom in green-focused science kits in recent years, kits that introduce kids of all ages to topics from recycling and gardening to climate change, alternative energy and more -- all through engaging, entertaining hands-on experiments.

Bonding With Nature
The Young Scientists Club has been creating green science kits for years, even before environmental awareness became such a hot topic. Among the first kits they ever released was Science on a Nature Walk, which has remained popular for nearly a decade. The kit exposes young children to basic science concepts through nature in their own backyards and neighborhoods.

This year, Young Scientists Club introduced Science on a Gardening Adventure, teaching children about plants and how important they are to the health of the planet. The kit "teaches them about plants and flowers and hopefully inspires them to do their own gardening and to really appreciate nature," says Young Scientists Club founder Esther Novis. "I really feel the younger you expose them to those topics, the more they respect the environment."

Alternative Energy
Renewable energy also has been a popular topic with kids for many years, combining the fascinating (almost magical!) ways we can harness nature's force for our own use with the positive message of conserving the planet's precious resources.

Thames & Kosmos is a leader in renewable energy education kits. In fact, the company was created because the owner found a fuel cell kit made by the German company Kosmos so intriguing he decided to begin translating and publishing it for a U.S. audience.

"We were a science center in Newport, (Rhode Island), when the owner went to Toy Fair and saw the Kosmos fuel cell car and loved it," says Thames & Kosmos Product Marketing and Experience Manager Stephanie Gerson, "so that's how we got into the business of translating and publishing their kits in the U.S." That first fuel cell kit was released in 2001 and the company has been on the forefront of alternative energy kits ever since.

Thames & Kosmos's second kit was the Power House Kit, which they launched in 2002. "Back then we didn't even know if we should put the world ‘sustainable' on the box because we didn't know if the U.S. audience was ready for that," Gerson recalls, "so we called it ‘Experiments in Future Technologies'." As it turns out, the nation was ready for it, and the kit has since been renamed "Experiments in Sustainable Alternative Energy."

This year, Thames & Kosmos is releasing a new version of the Power House Kit called Power House Green Essentials, which includes basic experiments targeting a younger audience. They're also coming out with a Hydropower Science Kit. In addition to kits specifically focused on green topics, Thames & Kosmos incorporates environmental sciences in chemistry and other types of kits as well.

Global Warming
Building on their long histories of environmental education, both Young Scientists Club and Thames & Kosmos are releasing kits specifically focused on global warming this year.

"Our first kit ever was on recycling about 10 years ago," says Novis. "The children designed their own recycling bins in that kit, before people were given recycle bins by their communities, and they made their own paper." This year, she adds, the company launched a Going Green kit as part of its Magic School Bus line. "That kit also talks about recycling but it also exposes the children to more concepts about the environment."

Novis was careful to stay away from politics when designing the Going Green kit. "There are two distinct views on global warming," she says. "There's a group of scientists that believe it's caused by human activity and then there's a group of scientists that believe it's just a natural cycle that happens every 100,000 years. I'm not going to go into that. These children are young so we're merely exposing them to the sciences. If the parents want their children to learn more on the political side of it, that's really up to them."

Novis is working a few new kits focusing on global warming, climate change and alternative energy sources as well. "There are other kits on the market too," she says, "but ours are more geared for younger children (5 and up)."

For older children (10 and up), Thames & Kosmos introduced a Global Warming science kit this year with a focus on climate science. The kit guides children through climate modeling experiments and allows them to observe how the climate reacts to different chemicals and conditions. In one experiment, kids create carbon dioxide by combining vinegar with baking soda, then they release it into their simulated global environment to see what happens. Using water, ice and dye, the experiments demonstrate how water and air currents flow around the planet.

"You're basically learning about the science of the climate in order to understand how the climate is changing," says Gerson, "then you're learning a little bit about what we can do to alleviate that."

Why Green, Why Now?
Climate change isn't just a hot topic these days, it's an urgent issue that requires swift and significant action. So why is it taking so long for significant change to occur?

"There's been resistance to even changing the way we think about this because we learned about it differently when we were younger," says Gerson. Children haven't yet developed the wasteful habits of their parents and grandparents, so it's imperative that we educate our children to develop earth-friendly habits and a global awareness as early as possible.

"You have to start when you're young learning to think in these global ways," Gerson continues, "learning to think about the environment as a whole, as an interconnected system where what we do affects other people, affects animals, affects the climate. …It's just learning to think in a more holistic, systemic way about environmental science."

"A lot of changes can be made just by habit," agrees Novis. "Then it just becomes natural to them. I think it's easy to teach them young. It's much harder to change bad habits when they're older."

At Discover This, we're doing our best to support the future of environmental stewardship with a comprehensive collection of engaging green science kits for all ages!

Nature and Recycling Kits:

Alternative Energy – Fuel Cell Kits:

Other Alternative Energy Kits:

Global Warming Kits:

Other green resources for kids:

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