My Black Friday shopping is looking for deals on used science labs! I buy lab kits mainly for their contents. College professors customize lab kits for students taking science courses online. Too often the students find they don’t need to do any labs to succeed in the course. The kits are sold or donated. I’ve picked up over a dozen. My favorite brand of kit to cannibalize is Quality Science Lab kits. Right now I have five QSL Chemistry kits set aside for next year’s class. Most of the time, I just use the materials for labs I like-especially for my husband’s Physics classes. I bought a QSL Physics kit from Good Will he still uses. (Pix are below) The physics kit has spring scales and ramp cars useful for general science classes, too. (The QSL kits often have lab manuals; the lab guides allow you to use the kit without having to jury-rig every lab.)
The eScience, Labpaq, or Science Interactive lab kits do not have lab manuals. They might have a lab CD, but usually don’t. The college profs publish the labs online with their courses. Look for equipment: thermometers, microscale, beakers, etc. Once in awhile, I have gotten dissection specimens or dissection trays. One time I got Tiny Tim! eBay has decent deals; however, the best deals are at Good Will. (Be advised, I haven’t seen many lab kits recently.) Note the prices on eBay. I wouldn’t spend more than $50 including shipping on any kit, with the exception of an anatomy lab kit with Tiny Tim, a dissection trays, dissection tools, and specimens, which might be worth $100.
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