National Geographic Science Advent Calendar Review

Blue Marble publishes 24 days comprising 13 experiments — “selected 13 incredible experiments from our science kits” — and 11 fossils and gemstones, naming carnelian, chevron amethyst, snowflake obsidian, a gastropod, a geode and tiger’s eye. It publishes a storage pouch for the collection and, on the final day, a pyrite (fool’s gold) specimen excavated from a mini dig brick. The named experiments include hiding and revealing a secret message, making a test tube glow, floating coins and growing a colored crystal tree. Rated ages 8-12.

The split is the product. Thirteen experiments is fewer than the Thames & Kosmos calendar’s 24, and that is deliberate on Blue Marble’s part rather than a shortfall: the other eleven doors hand over an object. On 25 December the child has a pouch with twelve named specimens in it, which is a collection, and a collection is something this site rates highly because it is the rare science purchase that gets picked up again in March.

Read the experiments line literally, though. Blue Marble says the thirteen were selected from its own science kits, so a household that already owns the Mega Science Lab or the Mega Crystal Growing Kit should expect to recognize some of them. The crystal tree in particular is the same idea as the crystal-growing range.

The published 8-12 is a genuine floor and not a marketing band. Eleven small polished stones and a glowing test tube are the reasons for it. See buying above the age rating for when a published floor can be crossed, and the safety note below for when it cannot.

Thames & Kosmos publishes 24 experiments across chemistry, biology and physics, one per door, each daily box unfolding to reveal a 4-page instruction manual with step-by-step directions and scientific explanations, at 14.6 x 11.5 x 2.2 inches and 1.2 lbs, SKU 661010, rated ages 8+.

This is the direct alternative and the choice between them is a single question: does the child want to do something every morning, or own something at the end? Thames & Kosmos publishes nearly twice the experiment count and no specimens at all.

It also publishes something National Geographic does not: that the experiments “only require additional items that are commonly found in every household”. On a calendar that has to work on 24 consecutive mornings, a maker that commits to that in writing is telling you something useful. See the Vol. 4 review.

Blue Marble publishes 24 polished gemstones — agate, green aventurine, hematite, sodalite, turquenite, tiger’s eye and blue calcite among them — five jewelry settings, a collector’s pouch and a final-day rose quartz dig brick. No experiment is published for it at all.

Worth knowing about precisely because it is the same brand and the same shelf with the opposite consumable count. If the appeal of the Science calendar was the eleven specimens rather than the thirteen experiments, this is that half of the product on its own, with more than twice as many stones.

The missing age rating is the reason it sits below rather than above. See rock and geology kits.

National Geographic publishes 45 experiments across chemistry, earth science and science magic, a bonus guide of 85+ further experiments using household items for 130+ in total, a volcano build and glow-in-the-dark crystal growth with the tools for both, rated 8+.

Included here because it is where Blue Marble says the calendar’s thirteen experiments came from, and because it is the honest comparison on value: 130+ experiments in one box against 13 spread over 24 mornings.

What the calendar has that this does not is the appointment. A child who will not open a 130-experiment box on a wet Tuesday will do an experiment every morning for three weeks if a numbered door tells them to, which is the whole case for buying both. See the Mega Science Lab review.