Geeks in space! Explore what it would take to set up an extraterrestrial farm on another planet. Experiment with a nutrient gel to grow garden cress in hydroponic tubes without soil. In the greenhouse dome, grow the alien-like succulent Tiger’s Jaws (Faucaria tigrina). Find out what plants need in order to grow and how those things might be provided on another world. Geekstronaut figures tend to your space farm while it grows.

Read the funny story of two inquisitive kids and build simple models of the vehicles they encounter on their comical trip to the supermarket with their dad. Along this roundabout journey, the kids build various vehicles to help the people in their town solve problems and complete tasks. As you follow the story, you can build models of the 10 vehicles in the story. Large, colorful plastic building pieces make it easy for small hands to put the models together.

National Geographic Archaeology Kit: Egyptian Pyramid, The Secret of the Pyramid. Play the role of archaeologist as you explore this pyramid model and the treasures buried within. After using hieroglyphics to decipher the secret to unlocking the pyramid, use tools and techniques similar to those of a real archaeologist to carefully excavate a sarcophagus, death mask, and four canopic urns from inside. Open the sarcophagus and you will discover a model mummy preserved within. As you uncover the artifacts in the pyramid, you will learn about archaeological science, including excavation, conservation, dating, and remote sensing. You will also learn about ancient Egyptian customs, hieroglyphics, mummification, and pyramid construction. Investigate the layout of the pyramid, its various chambers, hidden passageways, and security devices by constructing a three-dimensional cross section. Full-color, 16-page experiment manual.

Put your name in lights with vibrant electroluminescent wire (EL wire for short) and a pegboard. Learn about electric circuits and lighting technologies. Write up to eight characters, or combine two kits to make longer names or words.

Build an electronic musical device that works like a simple theremin, an instrument in which the pitch is controlled by the movement of your hand. In this device, a light sensor inside the UFO’s dome senses the changing light level as you move your hand above it, changing the sound.

Build a working electric fan using a circuit that consists of a fan blade rotor, electric motor, LED, resistor, switch, and battery holder. Learn how motors work, the role each electronic component plays in the circuit, and how fan blades push air to make wind.
— In a January 2015 survey, four out of 10 retailers told TDmonthly that Thames & Kosmos was their best-selling brand of STEM toys.

Product Description: Ready to learn about how airplanes work by building awesome flying gliders? With this kit, you can build five different glider models and test them to learn how they fly. You can try all sorts of wing positions and angles. You can even design your own gliders! You’ll learn how wings generate lift and how the wing’s shape and the configuration of the wings affect the plane’s flying performance. (16-page manual, 44 building pieces). Ages 8 and up.
— In a May 2014 survey Mary Porter Green, owner of Curiosity Zone in Broadlands, Va., told TDmonthly that Thames & Kosmos makes her store's best-selling activity kits. They sell dozens of toys from the brand each month.

Build an energetic bouncing robot that uses an electric motor and a springloaded mechanism to jump forward in a continuous motion. Watch the robot crouch down, compress its coil spring, and store up energy. Then see how it instantly extends its legs and releases the stored energy all at once, launching itself upward and forward. Experiment with the metal coil spring to discover how the robot’s jumping mechanism works. See if the robot can jump over objects in an obstacle course you design for it. Learn about elasticity, potential and kinetic energy, the spring constant, cams, and linkages. Build seven other functional models using the same mechanical components — the spring, cams, and motor — to perform other tasks and demonstrate physical science principles firsthand. Construct a car that moves forward on spiral-shaped wheels. Build a crab that moves sideways, a kicking machine that uses the spring-loaded mechanism to propel an object away, a pitching machine, and a grappler claw. Assemble a fun amusement park ride that spins around using the electric motor. Learn about the physics of force, mass, and weight by making and experimenting with a spring scale. The full-color, 24-page instruction manual provides step-by-step illustrated assembly instructions.

A souped-up version of the best-selling Remote-Control Machines kit! Build your own motorized vehicles and machines and control them with a wireless remote control unit. A unique six-button infrared remote allows you to control three different motors simultaneously, moving each of them forward or in reverse, with easy-to-activate touch sensors. The three motors can be combined to make complex vehicles and machines in numerous configurations limited only by your imagination. Assemble 20 models demonstrating different ways in which the motors can be used including a three-wheeled car, bat-bot, stag beetle, robot, battle car, ball collector car, forklift, tunneling vehicle, truck, drilling machine, crane, robotic arm and more. After you have built the models in the instructions, you can design your own remote control creations! The kit comes with three motors, remote control unit, battery holder, and 155 building pieces. 128-page, full-color instruction book.
— In a September 2014 survey, Kai Rady, owner of Shenanigans Inc in Charlottesville, Va., told TDmonthly that Remote Control Machines is the store's best-selling science & nature toy.

The Geek & Co. Craft line connects science, art, and nature through fun, hands-on activity kits. With Braided Slingshot, you can learn how to weave, interlace, and ultimately transform a thin string into a strong elastic cord. Attach a sewn leather cuff to hold a soft foam ball and voila - you’ve made your own slingshot! One of 10 new kits in two different sizes.

The Geek & Co. Science kits make science fun and affordable! With Crystal Nightlight, grow a big, beautiful crystal from alum powder, then wire up a color-changing LED circuit. Put them together to create your own nightlight that glows in a spectrum of colors! 

Explore electrochemistry by constructing a working clock powered by a slimy goop.

Get ready to totally geek out on awesome science projects! Geek & Co. Science is a new series of 12 science-themed project kits that put fun first to make learning truly approachable and entertaining. With each kit, kids build a tangible, lasting item — an object worthy of keeping on display after the fun and educational process of creating it is over. Launch date: June 2014.
— In a May 2015 survey, two out of 11 retailers told TDmonthly that Geek & Co was their best-selling line of activity kits.

Whether you’re growing beautiful crystals, digging for dinosaurs, or hunting for fingerprints, this new line of $10 kits make science fun, fast, and affordable. Choose from 12 awesome topics or better yet - try them all!

Discover the science of living things with this complete introductory microscope kit. The beautifully illustrated experiment manual guides you through observations of many living specimens found in and around your home: onion cells, pond water, chloroplasts, plant stem cross sections, microorganisms, mouth cells, meat cells, different types of hair and fur, dust mites, bugs, pollen in honey, and much more. The kit includes three prepared specimens on a slide, four blank slides, cover slips, tweezers, needle, section slicing tool, and vial. The ocular lens, or eyepiece lens, of the microscope has an adjustable 12x to 18x magnification power. When combined with the three objective lenses, this results in a total magnification power of 96x to 750x. It has a battery-powered light and a mirror to light up the specimens.

With this kit, kids can grow amazing crystals that change color. Learn about the chemical reaction that causes the beautiful shift in colors, and examine the factors that influence the reaction. Conduct a chemical analysis to better understand why the color change occurs. Show off the crystal creations in two special locking display cases.
— In a Fall 2013 survey, three out of 12 retailers told TDmonthly that Thames & Kosmos was a best-selling brand of science toy.

This kit includes everything kids need to do fun experiments on road trips, plane flights, train rides, and vacations. Assemble a simple pair of binoculars and learn how they work. Set up a mini cable car to run between car windows or airplane tray tables. Explore rotational speed with a spinning disk experiment. Build a balance scale to measure weights. Calculate how far a distance is on a map, and how fast you are traveling. Learn fun facts about migrating animals and how fast Earth is traveling through space. Experiment with a mini boomerang. Observe optical illusions with a spinning top. Make a "lenticular" postcard that looks different depending on the viewing angle.

Electric motors and generators are in countless devices, appliances, and vehicles we use every day. They are an essential technology in our modern world. With this kit, kids can conduct 25 experiments to learn how an electric motor converts electricity into motion, and how an electric generator does just the opposite, converting motion into electricity. The electric motor is made of transparent plastic to show how the inside components work. Set up the motor to run on battery power and learn how a motor works. Then reconfigure the device to work in reverse as a hand-crank electric generator. Experiment with magnets to learn about the force of magnetism, and how magnetic fields relate to electric current. Build simple circuits consisting of the motor or generator, wires, and a light bulb to learn about the flow of electricity. Learn about gears and drive-trains and how they work to effectively convert kinetic energy into electrical energy and back again. The full-color, 48-page manual guides your experiments with step-by-step instructions.

The state of Earth's atmosphere affects us all, which explains why the weather is one of the most popular topics of conversation and scientific study. Build a model of Earth and its atmosphere and then use it to conduct experiments that show how the global wind system works. Trace air currents from the icy cold poles to the warm equator and back with a wisp of smoke. Model Earth's heat reservoirs, thermals, and global and local winds. Recreate ocean currents in a small basin of water. Simulate Earth's rotation and revolution to learn how the sun affects the weather daily and seasonally. Learn about the climatic zones and the composition of the atmosphere. Experiment to see how carbon dioxide levels affect temperature. Explore the hydrological cycle to learn about humidity, clouds, and precipitation. Build a simple barometer, set up a rain gauge, and track the temperature. Full-color, 48-page manual featuring 23 experiments.

Grow dozens of dazzling crystals and conduct 15 illuminating experiments with this classic science kit. Experiment with four chemically different crystals each with different properties, including potassium alum crystals that form regular octahedrons, rapidly growing sodium sulfate crystals, long needle-shaped sodium acetate crystals, and plaster which is made from gypsum crystals. Mold fun plaster shapes and mix the dyes to grow a rainbow of custom colored crystals. Measure how the crystallization of solids out of a solution, and the dissolution of crystals back into solution, affect the temperature of the solution. Learn about the energy of crystallization. Investigate solutions, crystallization, and the chemistry of crystal growing. Learn about the structures and geometries of different crystal shapes. This kit is thoroughly tested and safe: Over one million units of this kit have sold worldwide. A full-color, 32-page experiment manual guides your experiments in crystal chemistry and Earth science. Launch date: Summer 2012.
— Mary Porter Green, owner of Curiosity Zone in Ashburn, Va., told TDmonthly in a Fall 2012 survey that kits from Thames & Kosmos are one of their top-2 bestselling educational products. They sell dozens each month.
— Mary Porter Green, owner of Curiosity Zone in Ashburn, Va., told TDmonthly in a March 2014 survey that crystal growing kits were a best-selling products.

Product Videos:

Blast off on a mission to explore outer space and the objects in it with a wide array of cosmic experiments. Launch three types of rockets, using balloons and chemical reactions to learn about rocket propulsion. Build a telescope and star map to investigate the stars and constellations. Assemble a model of the solar system, and learn about the planets that share it. Find out how Earth's rotation creates day and night, how Earth's axis and revolution around the sun cause the seasons, and how the moon's rotation around Earth gives us the phases of the moon. Kis will see for themselves how meteorites formed the craters on the moon. Make a moon flip book and a moon calendar, and find the "man in the moon." Model lunar and solar eclipses. Build a sundial and a solar collector to experiment with the sun. Grasp a comet's tail, and learn how meteoroids become falling stars. See how the universe is expanding with a simple model. A full-color, 48-page experiment book guides the exploration. Launch date: Summer 2012.

Earth is constantly changing. Massive pieces of its outer layer are slowly sliding under, over, away from, or past each other. Earthquakes shake the continents and oceans, and volcanoes spew out the molten insides of our planet. By studying these awe-inspiring and devastating natural phenomena, kids can learn more about the inner workings of Earth. Build and erupt a model volcano with plaster-based "lava" that hardens after each eruption. The volcano can be erupted multiple times, and the volcanic cone builds up with each eruption, like a real volcano. Kids will learn about the different types of volcanoes, build a working seismograph, and fake some 'quakes to see for themselves how scientists measure earthquake forces. Discover plate tectonics, and see how volcanoes and earthquakes are caused by the constant movement of the planet's parts. Assemble a plate tectonics puzzle and a geological globe. Play a volcano quiz game to learn about well-known volcanoes. A full-color, 48-page experiment manual is included. Launch date: Summer 2012.

Kids experiment with fascinating soap bubbles to learn physical science fundamentals in a fun way. For countless generations, people have been captivated by the unique properties of soap bubbles. Now kids can see for themselves why these elegantly simple structures of soap, water, and air are still studied by scientists, modeled by mathematicians, emulated by architects, and immortalized by artists and writers. Blow giant bubbles, mini-bubbles, bubbles within bubbles, chains of bubbles, and bubble blankets. Mix the perfect bubble solution. Learn about the love-hate relationship between soap and water, and the scientific phenomenon of surface tension. Observe the subtle colors of bubbles, and discover how a bubble's color can reveal when it will pop. Make geometric bubble shapes and build soap film domes, roofs, and bridges. Kids can also learn some tricks and games that they can play with bubbles. The full-color, 48-page book guides you through 29 experiments. Launch date: Summer 2012.

Kids can explore chemistry as they cook up candies and chocolates in the kitchen. Users will perform a number of sweet experiments and learn important physical science principles related to candy and cooking. Discover why sugar crystallizes to make rock candy. Learn about specific heat and the phases of matter by molding chocolates. Use a thermometer and learn about heat and temperature while boiling sugar. Gain experience with measurements and conversions, volumes, and weights. Investigate the chemistry of gummy bears. Learn about the mysterious phenomenon of triboluminescence with wintergreen candies. Make gummy candies, chocolate shapes, and hard sugar candy using the special tools included: plastic and metal molds, candy thermometer, spatula, dipping fork, and more. Finish them with foils, paper cups, sticks, and wrappers. The 48-page, full-color manual provides instructions and explanations. Does not contain hazardous chemicals or food items; users supply the safe ingredients from their kitchen. Launch date: Summer 2012.

CHEM C2000 is a complete introduction to the most important topics in chemistry, with over 250 unique experiments and a 96 page full-color experiment manual. A cartoon Professor Probenius guides kids through all of the experiments. Quality equipment, lab manual and chemicals provide the correct tools for serious learning. Ample chemicals for repeated experiments. Parental supervision required.