The Advent of Science

Twelve real chemistry experiments, one every other day until Christmas Eve. Four MEL Science kits, a starter lab kit with all the tools, and an Advent Sheet to log every discovery.

12 experiments  ·  Lab kit & Advent sheet included

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The Advent Sheet surrounded by the four MEL Science kit boxes

Limited stock — available while supplies last

A Study in Ultraviolet

Look beyond the visible spectrum. Brew a solution that glows, switch the glow off with acid, and pull a pigment out of green leaves that shines red.

Glowing Matter — make a glowing substance from scratch
Acid Switch — turn luminescence on and off at will
When Green Is Red — extract chlorophyll and watch it glow red

Colorful Chemistry

Liquids that change color on command. Explore acids, bases and pH indicators, including one hiding in your kitchen.

Magic Liquid — make water change colors
Acidic Patterns — see how thymol blue reacts to changes in pH
Anthocyanins — turn red cabbage into a natural pH indicator

Etching & Plating

Watch metals dissolve and reappear. Use electricity and copper solutions to turn plain metal plates into keepsakes.

Iron Etching — etch an image with electricity
Rainbow Plating — capture a rainbow on a metal plate
Copper vs. Copper — draw by dissolving

Thermal Effects

Chemistry that runs hot and cold. Feel reactions release and absorb heat, and freeze a liquid into crystals with a single touch.

Hot & Cold — same process, similar substances, opposite effects
Instant Crystals — make a liquid crystallize with a light touch
Chemical Warmer — make your own hand warmer

Arrange your own countdown

Schedule experiments in a specific order, pick one at random every day, or borrow the plan below. Each experiment can also be repeated at least twice.

Dec 2

Magic Liquid

Colorful Chemistry

Dec 4

Glowing Matter

A Study in Ultraviolet

Dec 6

Hot & Cold

Thermal Effects

Dec 8

Iron Etching

Etching & Plating

Dec 10

Acidic Patterns

Colorful Chemistry

Dec 12

When Green Is Red

A Study in Ultraviolet

Dec 14

Chemical Warmer

Thermal Effects

Dec 16

Copper vs. Copper

Etching & Plating

Dec 18

Anthocyanins

Colorful Chemistry

Dec 20

Acid Switch

A Study in Ultraviolet

Dec 22

Rainbow Plating

Etching & Plating

Dec 24

Instant Crystals

Thermal Effects

The Advent Sheet with boxes for all twelve experiments

Included in the bundle

The Advent Sheet

Twelve boxes, one for each experiment. Learn the scientific method and write down what you saw, what surprised you, and what you think happened. Pin it to the fridge and fill it in as the countdown goes.

By Christmas Eve it’s a complete record of your family’s holiday lab.

While you wait: festive DIYs

Four wintry experiments you can try at home before your bundle arrives. Tap one to see how.

Artificial Snow

The polymer inside a diaper soaks up water and puffs into fluffy “snow.”

How to make it

What you need
- Di­a­pers (they con­tain sodi­um poly­acry­late, a chem­i­cal com­pound that ef­fec­tive­ly ab­sorbs liq­uid – and that’s ex­act­ly what you’ll need for this ex­per­i­ment);
- A glass of wa­ter
- An emp­ty glass or con­tain­er.

Instructions
1. Cut open some di­a­pers and pour the con­tents (sodi­um poly­acry­late gran­ules) into a clean glass.
2. Pour some wa­ter into an­oth­er clean glass (ap­prox­i­mate­ly 100 mL of wa­ter per 2–3 grams of gran­ules).
3. Add the wa­ter to the sodi­um poly­acry­late gran­ules.
4. Watch the sub­stance ab­sorb wa­ter and swell, sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­creas­ing in size and form­ing “snowflakes”!
The ab­sorb­ing sub­stance in di­a­pers is sodi­um poly­acry­late in gran­ule form. It can ab­sorb tremen­dous amounts of liq­uid — hun­dreds of times its own mass! Wa­ter pen­e­trates into the poly­acry­late gran­ules, and oc­cu­pies so much space in­side these gran­ules that they have to swell to ac­com­mo­date it, turn­ing into “snow.” Pre­cise­ly what you need for your Christ­mas dec­o­ra­tions! But be­ware, if you add too much wa­ter, it will turn into a jel­ly­like mass in­stead of “snow.” Just a note: with time, this “snow” may start los­ing shape as the wa­ter grad­u­al­ly evap­o­rates. You can, how­ev­er, re­store its shape – just add a bit more wa­ter! Store this ar­ti­fi­cial snow in an air­tight con­tain­er.
This snow isn’t ed­i­ble! Make sure to wash your hands af­ter play­ing with it.

Crystal Christmas Tree

Grow feathery salt crystals on a paper tree overnight.

How to make it

What you need
- 3 tsp ta­ble salt
- 3 tsp yel­low prus­si­ate of potash so­lu­tion
- liq­uid soap
- boil­ing wa­ter
- glass
- construction pa­per Christ­mas tree
- Petri dish or saucer

Instructions
1. Pour 3 tsp of ta­ble salt into a glass.
2. Add 3 tsp 0.3M so­lu­tion of yel­low prus­si­ate of potash.
3. Add some boil­ing wa­ter.
4. Stir. Pour the re­sult­ing mix­ture into a Petri dish or saucer and add a few drops of liq­uid soap.
5. Place a pa­per Christ­mas tree in the cen­ter of the con­tain­er. It’s im­por­tant that the pa­per be of the right con­sis­ten­cy to ab­sorb wa­ter well with­out de­form­ing.
6. Wait 12 hours. Do not move or jos­tle the Christ­mas tree while the crys­tals are grow­ing. Af­ter 12 hours, the Christ­mas tree will be cov­ered in "snow!”
The hot so­lu­tion we poured into the Petri dish con­tains a lot of dis­solved sodi­um chlo­ride NaCl. Ac­tu­al­ly, it con­tains a greater quan­ti­ty of salt than room-tem­per­a­ture wa­ter can hold. Con­se­quent­ly, when the sys­tem cools, the sodi­um chlo­ride pre­cip­i­tates out of the so­lu­tion in the form of tiny, fluffy crys­tals. These crys­tals ap­pear on the tree thanks to the cap­il­lary ef­fect. First, the so­lu­tion soaks through prac­ti­cal­ly the en­tire­ty of the pa­per tree. Then, as the wa­ter grad­u­al­ly evap­o­rates from the sur­face of the pa­per, the salt grad­u­al­ly set­tles on it. But how did we ob­tain such fluffy salt crys­tals? Salt crys­tals are usu­al­ly cu­bic, right? This is most­ly due to the ad­di­tion of potas­si­um hex­a­cyano­fer­rate and the way the crys­tals form on the pa­per tree.

DIY Snow Lava Lamp

Create your own snowstorm in a glass with simple ingredients

How to make it

What you need
- White paint or gouache
- Water
- Glass
- Baking soda
- Citric acid.

Instructions
1. Mix white gouache or paint with water
2. Pour it into a glass, and then gently pour baby oil or vegetable oil over the water layer.
3. To activate the "snowfall," sprinkle in baking soda and citric acid, which will create a bubbling effect that makes the tinted water rise and fall like a snowstorm.
4. Watch the snow globe effect: The citric acid and baking soda will react, creating carbon dioxide bubbles that will rise through the oil, carrying droplets of the colored water with them, creating a "snowstorm" effect.

Frost­work

Paint a hot urea solution on glass and watch frost patterns appear.

How to make it

What you need
- Car­bamide, or urea ((NH2)2CO) – 300 g
- Wa­ter (H2O) – 50 mL
- A glass
- A small piece of glass
- A paint­brush.

Instructions
1. Pour 300 g of car­bamide into a glass.
2. Add 50 mL of hot wa­ter and mix thor­ough­ly. The car­bamide will start dis­solv­ing in the wa­ter, but won’t dis­solve com­plete­ly be­cause there is too much of it)
3. Dip a paint­brush into the so­lu­tion: Take a piece of glass and make sev­er­al strokes with the paint­brush to ap­ply the so­lu­tion to the glass
4. Wait for sev­er­al min­utes — soon you’ll see frost­work pat­terns ap­pear­ing on the glass!

Where do these “frost­work” pat­terns come from? Car­bamide read­i­ly dis­solves in cold wa­ter, and does so even bet­ter in hot wa­ter. If you de­posit a small quan­ti­ty of hot car­bamide so­lu­tion on a piece of glass, it will form whim­si­cal crys­tals. Once the so­lu­tion starts to cool down on the glass, car­bamide has no choice but to crys­tal­lize as the wa­ter cools too much for all the car­bamide to stay dis­solved. Nee­dle-like crys­tals grow on the wet glass sur­face, cre­at­ing fas­ci­nat­ing, unique pat­terns. They look like real frost­work! Make sure to wear pro­tec­tive gloves when con­duct­ing this ex­per­i­ment. The frost­work pat­tern you cre­ate is easy to re­move from the glass – sim­ply rinse it with wa­ter.

Make December a lab.

Four kits, a starter lab kit, twelve experiments and the Advent Sheet for $199.90. Stock is limited, and it won’t be back until next December.

Ages 10+ with adult supervision. Some experiments share chemicals; always read the instructions for proper disposal.