The Purple Cow The Crazy Scientist Lab Young Detectives Science Kit, Model Number: 5522023...

I ordered this for my Forensic Science curious 11-year old home schooler. She's a highly-engaged, independent learner with a very high interest in the subject matter, so I only interacted with her when she wanted to show me what she'd accomplished, which is typical for how she learns. She also had some experience with the subject matter. Other kids her age might need more support. Based on the product name, I expected it to be more than just fingerprinting, but that was the full extent of the activities in the kit and I wish it had been titled: "Fingerprinting Science kit." She said felt like she was engaged by the product for about a week, practicing the skills she learned and repeating the experiments. The kit's appeal ran out when the materials were mostly used up. She never managed to make the fingerprint replica. She claims that the alginate never set and that yes, she read the instructions and, yes, she claims she timed it, but it is possible that she might have been more successful if she'd had supervision or asked for assistance. (We'll never know!) However, I bought the kit intending for it to be a low-risk, completely independent activity. For this reason, AND the fact that it was fingerprints-only, AND that it seemed a bit expensive for what was included, I rated 3-star. I asked my daughter what her rating would be and she rates it as a 4-star. She definitely liked it, but was frustrated with the replica-mold portion. I would also like to have seen them include a dust mask for the iron particles and talc experiments, and some safety goggles, and I might have felt it was a better value overall.

The Young detective kit is great. I bought it thinking of my daughters being bored on a rainy day. Wanted them to spend some time not in front of screens. That was a very good call. It was so much fun, and the instructions were easy to follow. The kit contains different ways to see your finger print, the directions were simple, and the part that they liked the most was making a mold out of your finger and actually creating a plaster finger. I highly recommend this kit, my girls loved it.

The good news is that it kept my two kids engaged for 20-30 minutes. The bad news is that I had to stay involved and do a lot of explaining to avoid total disappointment. None of the 6 fingerprint exercises worked well (or I could say, All of the exercises only kind of worked.). The ink pad produces powdery fingerprints, which weren't clear enough to identify patterns (we pulled a stamp pad from an art kit, which worked better). The method of using clear tape to capture a fingerprint worked okay. The talcum powder on an acrylic surface worked better. The finger imprint using plaster didn't work at all (each kid tried it, one showed no distinct figure and the other crumbled). Also, the instructions seem to have been translated from another language, as as few of the English words chosen are incorrect. Overall, it's an educational kit by concept and it's in nice packaging, but the fingerprint methods didn't work well and the kit doesn't do a good job of explaining why fingerprints are useful in detective work. I do not recommend to buy The Crazy Scientist Lab Young Detectives Science Kit (The Purple Cow).

My kids LOVED this. I never imagined my kids would connect to this. I thought it would be just another toy for me to clean up after... My son is now obsessed with proving that it cant be that no 2 people have the same finger print and is on a mission. I love that this relatively simple game forced me to sit with the kids and they were so into it; they asked questions and all the sudden I saw their minds work... Im really blown away. Its really simple and a lot fun, but more importantly, it creates conversation and your kids will come up with their own thought provoking theories- and thats priceless! I generally dont get hyped and I dont leave reviews, but I LOVED the whole experience. I cant recommend it enough!!!

We had a blast with this Mystery Set. My daughter loves Scooby Doo and all things Mystery so I thought this would be right up her alley. She had a blast finding different glasses and dusting them and then fingerprinting us to find a match. Highly recommend.