NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Amber Exploration Science Kit - Polish Real Amber Specimens to Find Preserved Bugs, Leaves, and More, An Exciting STEM Science Kit for Kids with a Real Scorpion Keychain Included

I know I know. Everyone wants Jurassic Park’s PERRRRRRRFECT amber without bubbles or inclusions and a mosquito that appears to have been strategically placed with micro tweezers and is so clearly viewable to the naked eye. I get it. You are taking a gamble. It's like pulling the lever on a slot machine and being disappointed when the cherries don't line up. Only this is different because you actually have a true fossil! This amber is raw, and the experience of polishing it to the point of revealing anything inside is so much stinkin’ fun! I mean really, you’re holding amber that was trickling down a tree millions of years ago. The amber in and of itself is rare. And you get multiple pieces! We had a tiny bug in ours. At first I thought it was dirt. The microscope proved that incorrect. Sure, the fact we got a bug in ours is awesome. Even without it, $20 for a few pieces of amber is a deal! Might even get another set!

The product is a great idea, however the largest piece of Amber in the kit was more like a pebble. It was just over 1/2” long by 3/4” wide. The picture with the bunch of bugs in it would be impossible to get out of any of the pieces of Amber I got. No bugs in the stones I got, but I wasn’t expecting any since it states that you might not get anything in them. But like I said , don’t expect to receive pieces of Amber like in the picture. If it was like the stones in the picture I would of rated this much higher. I’m just disappointed that the pieces weren’t like the picture.Edit: National geo was quick to get back with me and are sending a replacement pack. I will update when I receive it to see if it’s like the pictures on amazon.Got my replacement , it was great. Exactly as pictured maybe the first one I got was a fluke. Product was a blast for the kids to sand and clean up. I would buy this again especially with the fast customer service. There was absolutely no hassle. Because of this I upped this to 4 stars. I would put 5 if not for the bad kit I received first.

Bought this for myself(an adult) as something interesting to do during the pandemic, I'd always been curious about amber. All the pieces are pretty small, the volume of each is about 1 cm cubed or less, but what do you expect for $15 worth of authentic semiprecious materials?Either way I love mine, didn't need to polish them at all just rinsed them with water and could easily see in. One's got what looks like a catkin in it! The scent is also facinating, and they don't all smell the same, but it's kind of like sweet pitch, sawdust, dried palm leaves and/or gravel. The gravel smell might go away if I sanded them as intended, but I think I'll leave them as is, they're so pretty.

The kids enjoyed the effort to find amber

My 13 year old son, loves anything science related. He purchased this, using his, allowance and had so much fun, exploring, digging and learning!

cool gift, but nat geo has better rock, fossil, and mineral kits.

This was really awesome! My daughter saw a show about amber and got obsessed, so she was excited about this. We found two ants in one of the pieces. It really helps to have a microscope or a good magnifying glass. The pieces of amber are big with interesting inclusions. And she loves the scorpion keychain. It’s so nice that they include it because she would have been satisfied with that even if we didn’t find any bugs. Fun project, I think we’ll watch Jurassic Park now!

The keychain they sent with the kit was neat, but I wish the booklet explained what we were likely looking for out of the shapes. I re-polished the Amber after my kids had done their best, but none of us could figure out what was in them. Air bubbles? Maybe small insect eggs? Whatever they were, it was small and hard to make out even when polished well. Kids lost interest after that.

Mixed feelings about this one. . Great learning experience and my daughter was happy with her genuine peices of amber however there were no bugs what so ever which was pretty dissapointing to a child and all our amber peices crumbled into tiny peices as she started to sand them... Amazon customer service where great when dealing with the situation tho

The mosquito pic is totally misleading. Contains just little pieces of amber and nothing much in them. Way too expensive for what it is.

Bought for my Granddaughter. She absolutely loved it and has spent a great deal of time polishing the amber. Still has 1 left to do and is hoping to find something really special

Again rather disappointing!

This is for my daughter for Christmas but I know she is going to love this.