The Engineer-it Kit

 

I received "The Engineer-it Kit" from Amino Labs. It is a bacterial transformation kit.

I read about this kit in the book I talked about in an earlier post - "Zero to Genetic Engineering Hero: The Beginner's Guide To Programming Bacteria At Home, School and In the Makerspace."

By Justin Pahara and Julie Legault.

If you are a beginner in bio-engineering this is a good place to start. The kit is well priced, I felt shipping was a bit high but that is probably out of their control. It comes with almost everything you need, except the hardware. You do need a incubator (they do supply you with a video link to build a very simple one ), a hot and a cold water bath. I used an ice bath for my cold bath. They do have an all in one hardware that will do all of this, that you can purchase. Though it is expensive.

 

 

 

 

They made this kit to be as simple and easy to use as possible, even a beginner can do it. They supply you with everything you need:

Bacteria, plasmid, antibiotic, agar, petri-dishes, inoculation loop, streak template and even the sterile water.

They give you a manual.

Here is a video showing you all steps in the protocol.

You can even use a simulator to do the protocol.

If you are interested in bio-engineering this is a good way to start. As well they have other kits that you can purchase separately. This way it is not a huge outlay of money all at once.

Another Science Kit

Science Kit

I found this kit at a second-hand store.

Magnetism Kit

"Magnetics Science Kit" - The science of magnets and ferrofluid. This second kit I also found for $10 at a second-hand store. I have wanted to start to look at ferrofluids and when I found this I figured this would be good way to start.

 

 

It comes with:
1 bottle of ferrofluid
iron filings
15 magnets
steel balls
copper tube
PVC track
Experiment guide
Etc.

I will more than likely still produce my own ferrofluids (you can find this online) but this gives me a start.

Finding kits at reduced or discounted prices (look after Christmas) and or used kits at second hand shops you are still able to get started in many different sciences and build your own lab.

Science Kit

Science Kit

I came across this kit, one at a department store.

Kit 1

The first kit "Charge" - This was on a clearance sale for $10 from $34.95. It was new in package. Taking a look at it and finding out it had the parts to build your own Van de Graaff generator, I figured I would like to build one so why not try it.

Van de Graaff Generator

It's manual is very basic but a good start. From common items they show you how to build a Leyden Jar, Electroscope, electrostatic motor, Franklin Bell and of course the Van de Graaff generator. There are many youtube videos showing you how to build these items but for only $10 I get many of the pieces to build the generator.

I have been wanting to begin to experiment with high voltages and with this kit I should be able to start.

Maker Spaces

Maker spaces or hacker spaces(as some are called) are a great place to meet people and learn from them as well.

From spaces.makerspace.com/

"""
What’s a Makerspace?

To describe them simply, makerspaces are community centers with tools. Makerspaces combine manufacturing equipment, community, and education for the purposes of enabling community members to design, prototype and create manufactured works that wouldn’t be possible to create with the resources available to individuals working alone. These spaces can take the form of loosely-organized individuals sharing space and tools, for-profit companies, non-profit corporations, organizations affiliated with or hosted within schools, universities or libraries, and more. All are united in the purpose of providing access to equipment, community, and education, and all are unique in exactly how they are arranged to fit the purposes of the community they serve.

"""

They have tools from hand tools to drill presses to 3D printers to CNC machines to laser cutters. Some are even biological groups opening up spaces for people with that interest to do experiments with the maker spaces equipment and supplies.

Most maker spaces have a membership fee which can be costly, but I believe that many have open house days where you can visit the spaces and even get help with your projects.

I belong to the one in my city and have built different projects there for my lab. In one of my next posts I will be discussing some of the pieces that I have 3D printed at my maker space. I don't have a 3D printer but there is one at my maker space. There is so much different expertise there to help with electronics and programming, etc. I am glad I found this space.

If you don't have tools or space to work in, need help in learning how to use an arduino, etc. you should look into one today.

You can look for a space near you at:

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces

or

google "hacker spaces", "maker spaces" your "city".

Another Old Science Kit

Another Old Science Kit

Here in the top picture you see another set I found, it doesn't have the box though. This is exactly the one my parents bought for me in the 1970's. It is the "Mr. Wizard Experiments in Crystal Growing". I really enjoyed playing with this, I always liked growing crystals. As you can see they gave you plenty of chemicals to work with back then. Mr. Wizard had some nice science kits in the 1970's. I had 2 of them the chemistry set and the crystal growing set.

The second picture is an old catalog from the The Perfect Parts Company. I remember once when we I was young and we where in the United States. I don't remember what store it was but they had a booth with this companies products and there was a huge line up of people trying to buy things. I had wished we had some place like this where I lived, finding lab equipment at a reasonable cost was hard for me when I was young. If you do web check you will find they still exist.

More Science Kits (Electronic)

Here you can see 3 different electronic kits, 2 of which I found at garage sales and one I found at a surplus store.

1) A 75 in-one kit. It is an older kit and was from Radio Shack.

2) A 130-in-one kit, again it came from the old Radio Shack stores. It to is an older kit.

Both of these were found at garage sales and cost very little to buy.

3) A 300-in-one kit(the white one). This is a new kit and it allows for the mounting of microchips and electronic parts. It was at a surplus store for about a third of the cost.

These kits are great. They allow you to put circuits together for testing without any soldering. It makes it easier to try different things without having to solder and desolder parts to see if they will work together. If you intend to build anything with electronics this is a good way to test it and I believe most labs should have one or two.