Abacus Brands Bill Nye VR Science Lab Interactive Book - Discover the Wonders of Science with Bill Nye in VR/AR

My 10-year-old son has done had many science kits over the years, so I hesitated with ordering this one since the list of 15 experiments wasn't in the listing. But, I got it anyways, because my son loves Bill Nye. The book is more reasonably priced at $20 than the Bill Nye's VR Science Kit which comes with plastic goggles, although that one has twice as many experiments and some of the needed materials. It looks like there's some overlap between them, so that's something to consider if you are trying to decide between the two or already have the other. A pro for this one is that it takes up less space, but a con is that it takes more effort to gather the supplies.Of the 15 experiments, we'd probably done at least 8 previously including the quick compass, dancing paper, chasing rainbows, and trapping gas. But, these are good experiments, and ones my son might even like to repeat. He actually won the 3rd grade science fair with a variation on the copper coins experiment. The ballon rocket experiment was new to my son, and he enjoyed it. There are several others that will make this worthwhile for us. The instructions and explanations are simple and easy to follow, but I think more detail could be provided at times.Since we already have multiple pairs of plastic goggles from other kits, we used those rather the paper goggles in this kit. However, I will say that my son prefers just viewing the content in the app in AR mode and holding the phone for the most part. I find that VR doesn't hold interest as well as you might think, but it is interesting if you're new to it. I've found that the Abacus kits are good quality and have good educational value based on the content, and I think of the video content as more of a bonus.I recommend this book for late elementary and maybe middle school students. The book is nicely laid out, and the experiements are appealing. Some materials are needed (see photo), but most are things I already had.

This is a really neat book of science "experiments" for kids. The VR portion is cute, though not quite what I was expecting. The app is over 2 gigabytes though! I will definitely be deleting it once we get through the projects my kids want to do.Note that the only thing included in this "kit" is the book and a sturdy cardboard VR viewer. No science experiment supplies. Pretty much everything needed is common household items though.

I got this for my son, a high school science teacher in the Boston area. He engages with his students through both a traditional curriculum and a collection of novel resources aimed at fostering a kid's sense of curiosity and wonder. I thought he would enjoy adding this interactive science lab book to his classroom, and it has proven to be a useful tool. Students are able to use the included virtual reality viewer (works with either iOS or Android devices) to participate in more than a dozen interactive experiences as well as an equal number of step-by-step experiments. This is truly an educational asset for the 21st century teacher and student...

My 7 year old daughter and I gave this a test run and it did not disappoint. You simply point the camera of your phone (we were using an iPhone) at the book and it comes to life with a little 3D, animated, augmented reality (AR) Bill Nye standing in the middle of the book explaining the concept. Then you point at each step of the experiment and an AR video of the step plays for it as it reads the step out loud. Lastly, at the end of the experiment you can point at the virtual reality (VR) box and use the goggles to step into Bill's lab and see a more full explanation of the experiment. It's very immersive and fun.A few small drawbacks that should be pointed out, though they don't diminish from the score of the product: First, it's a big download, so you can't just jump right into the fun unless you have a much faster internet connection than I do. Second, each experiment requires supplies, so it's easier to just step through the experiment in the AR/VR world, but much less satisfying. I recommend getting some supplies together and then walking through the steps.It's a really fun product, especially for young kids. Highly recommend.

Not many experiments. Most of this stuff my son already knew from his magic for kids book. I expected more from a science book

This is book is pretty interactive and immersive, with the VR viewer you can turn to a page and video comes up right away. It provides over 20 VR projects with a step-by-step guide with each experiment. However, if you have a larger phone, it will not fit the VR viewer, luckily in my family we had at least one phone that would fit the viewer allowing for to use it as intended. Overall, very fun and interactive book.