My kids and I recently had an opportunity to try out a few different versions of these kids science kits, and this one was tons of fun. This Pan for Gold kit is well suited for kids who like spending time doing hands-on projects. My daughter is the kind that can easily spend an hour sitting, carefully looking though things. She loves "projects" so this was just perfect for her. My son has a shorter attention span, so the Real Bug Digging Kit was better suited for him. He knew exactly how many things he was looking for, and had fun finding them. This kit, you never know how much or little gold you will find, and my daughter loved the hunt.
Almost everything you will need is included in this kit. They provide a pan for "panning" the gold, the sand to search through, tweezers, a mini magnifying glass and a little vial/container in which you store your treasure. There are included booklets that explain how to pan for the gold, and also some education materials on the history of panning for gold. There is even a large chunk of fools gold included, which will appeal to younger gold prospectors out there using this kit. About the only thing you will need in addition to the kit is some water and a bucket or tray in which to swish/pour the water into from the pan. We used a large cake pan, and switched out the water a few times as it got cloudy. There are 2 packets of sand included in the kit, with one packet having slightly more and larger gold nuggets than the other. This is the kit you start with, to get the idea of how panning works.
This kits is a terrific idea for a kids gift. It's a great way to make sure you're not buying someone something they already have, or are likely getting from anyone else. This kit was very age appropriate for my 11 year old daughter. I could see kids from about 8-9 years old, up to 11-12 enjoying this set. Any younger and they may not have the patience to enjoy the panning process. My daughter spent about 2 hours working on it before she felt she had found everything there was to find.
A sample of this product was provided by the manufacturer for an unbiased and honest review. My daughter had a lot of fun working with this kit, and I would high recommend this to anyone who's looking for a unique kids Christmas or Birthday gift!
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It just so happens that my family has been gold panning a lot lately -real gold panning at the rivers and streams in the wild. I was interested to see how Dr. Cool's Gold Panning Kit would mimic real gold panning.
Impressive. The kit comes with a gold pan that's about the same size as one of our small gold pans. We will be adding it to our collection of pans and using it on our future gold panning excursions. That's how authentic the gold pan is.
There's one small bag of beginner sand and another small bag of prospector sand. You'll need to provide the large plastic tub of water.
Instructions are quite accurate. Gold panning takes lots of practice, easier said than done; but the basic idea is to agitate the pan so the gold moves down to the bottom and the sand moves up. Wash by letting it float over the pan's ridges, repeat.
My son did all the panning. He said the prospector sand has more pyrite than the beginner sand. The nuggets were big enough to pick out with plastic tweezers (included). Other than the pyrite, that was probably the least authentic part of the gold panning. Generally, we get flakes, not nuggets, and they're not usually big enough to pick up with tweezers. The kit comes with a vial to store the pyrite, the same type we use for real gold flakes.
I panned the sand after my son was done. I didn't find gold, but there was black sand and more pyrite. Pyrite, black sand, and gold are often found together, especially black sand. No black sand, no gold. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those little bags of sand have specks of real gold!
Even though the children were initially reluctant to pan for gold ("it's just pyrite"), they did enjoy this kit. It feels just like gold panning, except we were in our own backyard. My son was more successful than he is with real gold panning, and that did make his day.
In case you're wondering, pyrite only looks like gold when it's reflects the sun. Otherwise, it looks more like silver.
Happy panning!
This product was provided for review by Discover with Dr. Cool.
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I bought this kit for my 10-year-old son, and he had a blast with it. He practiced his gold panning over and over, and now he thinks he's ready to go prospecting! The Adventure Guide booklet that came with the kit was really informative--lots of historical info about gold and gold mining. We both learned a lot. Plus there was also an Activity Book that had really fun games and puzzles. All in all, I felt I got a lot for my money. Not just a one-time experience.
Honest reviews on Pan for Gold Science Kit
This kit is mediocre at best. The size of the Pyrite nuggets in the kit I received were considerably smaller and less in number than that shown on the box. In short, they were very hard to find the only few that were there. I do not recommend this.
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This kit requires you to fill up your own large basin with water and add a small packet of sand/gold dust to it. It wasn't much fun for me or my son. His interest in it lasted only a short while and I'd rather spend that amount of money on something that he'll enjoy longer.
