Microchem Kit from Home Science Tools

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Has anyone used the Microchem Kit from Home Science Tools?  https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/microchem-kit/

Is it worth the $150?  We've been doing chemistry all year and I'd like to do some advanced chemistry after Christmas.  I'm thinking about buying this, but it's only 17 labs.  We're almost finished with another kit that had almost 30 labs, but the labs are a little basic.  I don't regret doing the labs, but I wanted to do some more difficult ones.  The Microchem Kit looks just like the labs we did in college chemistry.

Also, I'm wondering how long these chemicals would last in storage...

[klmama]

4 hours ago, Evanthe said:

Has anyone used the Microchem Kit from Home Science Tools?  https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/microchem-kit/

Is it worth the $150?  We've been doing chemistry all year and I'd like to do some advanced chemistry after Christmas.  I'm thinking about buying this, but it's only 17 labs.  We're almost finished with another kit that had almost 30 labs, but the labs are a little basic.  I don't regret doing the labs, but I wanted to do some more difficult ones.  The Microchem Kit looks just like the labs we did in college chemistry.

Also, I'm wondering how long these chemicals would last in storage...

I'm wondering about storage, too.  I purchased this in 2014, but then my dc did labs elsewhere and we didn't use it.  Is five years too old?

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2 hours ago, klmama said:

I'm wondering about storage, too.  I purchased this in 2014, but then my dc did labs elsewhere and we didn't use it.  Is five years too old?

 

I'm thinking 5 years or less is probably ok??  I'm going to try to email them and ask how long the kit stays good in storage.

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3 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

That’s what we’re using for Connie’s chem class! 

 

Is it worth the 150 bucks?  Do all the experiments work ok?

[Roadrunner]

We used that in Clover Valley Chem as well!

I am no judge of chem labs, but they worked. 

[Dicentra]

7 hours ago, Evanthe said:

Has anyone used the Microchem Kit from Home Science Tools?  https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/microchem-kit/

Is it worth the $150?  We've been doing chemistry all year and I'd like to do some advanced chemistry after Christmas.  I'm thinking about buying this, but it's only 17 labs.  We're almost finished with another kit that had almost 30 labs, but the labs are a little basic.  I don't regret doing the labs, but I wanted to do some more difficult ones.  The Microchem Kit looks just like the labs we did in college chemistry.

Also, I'm wondering how long these chemicals would last in storage...

I think it's a good kit. 🙂  If you store the kit at room temp and make sure all the vials/dropper bottles are tightly closed, it should be fine.  There really isn't anything in there that would decompose over time - the only worry is the solutions evaporating.  If the dropper bottles are tightly closed, that shouldn't be a problem.

Because it's microchemistry, the student won't get the experience with various pieces of lab equipment that they'll encounter in college chemistry but, then, most public/private high school chem labs don't necessarily have that equipment, either. 🙂  To me, the most important part of the lab experience in introductory chemistry is analyzing the data, not the doing of the labs themselves.  I have my Honors Chem students do a formal lab write up (and I mean FORMAL as in they learn how to write an abstract, etc. :)) on a thermodynamics lab where they, literally, watch ice melt. 😄  Difficulty at the high school/undergrad level of chem labs is always going to come from the analysis, not from the topic of the actual lab. 😉

Having said all of that, I wrote up my own lab handouts for the labs I assign from that kit.  The procedures and results questions from their manual are fine but I wanted more/different analysis than what they provide in the manual.  The only experiments that I've found to be fiddly and hard to get to work are the two gas law experiments but I've had students run them as bonus labs and they find them OK so it might just be my older, clumsier fingers. 😉

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So, I emailed HST and they said there is "no specific shelf life for these chemicals".  Hope that helps, klmama.

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16 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

Because it's microchemistry, the student won't get the experience with various pieces of lab equipment that they'll encounter in college chemistry but, then, most public/private high school chem labs don't necessarily have that equipment, either. 🙂  To me, the most important part of the lab experience in introductory chemistry is analyzing the data, not the doing of the labs themselves. 

 

That actually was my first thought.  You're doing titrations, but on a tiny scale.  What the heck does that look like??  Lol!

My main goal for chemistry is for them to understand everything conceptually - like why are these molecules behaving the way they do...what's actually happening in these reactions, etc.  We also cover a ton of history of chemistry.  No one ever covered that in school and it's a big deal.  You learn a lot of actual chemistry by reading about the history of it.

[Dicentra]

Just now, Evanthe said:

 

That actually was my first thought.  You're doing titrations, but on a tiny scale.  What the heck does that look like??  Lol!

My main goal for chemistry is for them to understand everything conceptually - like why are these molecules behaving the way they do...what's actually happening in these reactions, etc.  We also cover a ton of history of chemistry.  No one ever covered that in school and it's a big deal.  You learn a lot of actual chemistry by reading about the history of it.

The above is one of the toughest parts of the lab program for any introductory chemistry course.  Chemistry is weird in that it happens on a macro scale (i.e. I mixed vinegar and baking soda and it fizzed and bubbled and produced some kind of gas) and a sub-micro scale (i.e. 5% of vinegar is acetic acid, which is a weak acid.  That means that only some of the acetic acid molecules will donate hydrogen ions (so a small percentage of the 5%).  Those donated hydrogen ions are immediately picked up by water molecules to form hydronium ions.  Those hydronium ions are the functional part of the "acid".  The baking soda is actually a bicarbonate called sodium hydrogen carbonate.  The hydrogen carbonate radical is an amphoteric species that is capable of acting as a weak acid or a weak base depending on the situation.  In this case, it functions as a weak base and accepts the hydrogen ion from the hydronium ion and forms hydrogen carbonate.  Hydrogen carbonate (when in water) is also known as carbonic acid which is a weak acid in its own right.  It exists in equilibrium with carbon dioxide when in water (which is a weird bit of chemistry itself and I won't go into it here :)) so the gas produced by the vinegar/baking soda reaction is carbon dioxide.)  The explanations for the macro and micro can be very different and what students see happening on the macro scale is often not terribly helpful in understanding the micro scale of things.  The "why" of most simple chemical reactions can be surprisingly complicated and complex which is why introductory chemistry can be so darn difficult to teach - there is no "simple" starting point. 🙂

Glad to see that you want your students to understand the "why", though - very important!

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I wanted to update my own thread on the Microchem Kit.  We're almost finished with it and we loved it.  It's a great kit!  It comes with everything you need for all the labs.  All the labs seem to work.  The lab manual explains everything very well - even has the chemical equations for a lot of the reactions in the reading before you do the lab.  The labs are very similar to labs we did in college level chemistry.  They are more time-consuming than labs from other chemistry kits we've done.      

Anyway, just wanted to update my own thread.  I've been very happy with this chemistry kit!