Learning Resources have recently released a new set of collectibles in the form of Beaker Creatures. True to form, Learning Resources have created this line with STEM in mind yet they’ve made it appealing enough to pique the interest of my 4 and 3 year old!
We were recently sent the Beaker Creatures Liquid Reactor Super Lab; a 15 piece set which comes with 2 beaker creatures along with two more ‘Reactor Pods’ which contain a creature each and are also available to buy separately. There are 35 Beaker Creatures to collect in total, five of which are 24-carat and super rare.
Each comes with a little card and there’s an A4 poster of all the collectibles available that you could tick off. You’ll also get mini posters and classification cards so you can organise your creatures as you wish.
Setting Up Beaker Creatures
The Liquid Reactor Super Lab is quick and easy to set up – the only thing you need to provide is the water – and you’re ready to add one of your Reactor Pods. It’s bright and colourful and telling the boys we were going to do an experiment was really fun. Science is one of those wonderful topics and I really hope the boys find an interest in it when they’re at school as I certainly didn’t pay as much attention as I should have and wish I had.
Using the plungers, you can introduce water as slowly or as fast as you like to the beaker that holds the Reactor Pod and you just have to watch the magic! The boys loved all the fizzing, the water turning a different colour and all the bubbles. Although admittedly they weren’t that fussed with the actual beaker creature at the end, the theatrics were really engaging.
We had one small issue with the Liquid Reactor Super Lab in that one hydro-plunger didn’t work. There was definitely some kind of obstruction as the water wouldn’t feed from the plunger to the beaker so we ended up having to double pump the other plunger to get enough water in. This shouldn’t happen so just make sure you can feed water from both sides.
Beaker Creatures Magnification Chamber
Once you have your creatures, Learning Resources also offer a Beaker Creatures Magnification Chamber where you can meet your creatures up close. I’ll leave the surprise up to you to find what’s inside yours!
After reading further into the instructions there are so many other little experiments you can do with the Liquid Reactor Super Lab and I love that this has possibility beyond its initial use; whether it’s mixing coloured water or making slime!
Extra Beaker Creature Reactor Pods
The Reactor Pods are the perfect size to fit in a Christmas stocking this year, and they’re cheap enough to buy extras too. I really liked that this was an introduction to some of the basic science inventory that they’ll be coming across in school – although this doesn’t come with goggles.
The Liquid Reactor Super Lab retails at £25, with the Magnification Chamber coming in at £15. Reactor Pods work out at £4 each. The perfect present for birthdays, Easter (as they’re kind of egg shaped), and even as Christmas stocking fillers! We loved it!
*I was sent these products in return for this review. All views and opinions are my own.