Day: June 26, 2012

Solar Panel Kit

Sarah Summer Fun

Today wasn’t quite so hands on for the girls, unfortunately.  I bought a solar panel kit on sale, despite the mixed reviews, figuring if it didn’t work well we could still find something fun to do with the bits.

What came in the box.

The box says 8+, but the pieces are *tiny*. It’s hard to wire things up, so I did all of the assembly while the kids looked on.

All the pieces ready to build.

We built a puppy:

The puppy "wags" its tail.

We built a car (this was by far one of the most fun – it zooooomed across the deck!)

Quarter thrown in for scale. Tiny!

We built an air boat. This pretty much didn’t do anything besides look pretty.

We didn't try it in water, we were afraid it would sink!

We built an airplane. At this point the sun went behind the clouds for a bit. So we tried a flashlight. The mini mag light did not make the panel work. But…the giant one did. A little.

Mini mag-lite...no. Giant mag-lite...eh...
...but it works much better in the sun!

We built a windmill:

A solar powered windmill. Er...why?

Finally, we built a rotating airplane. This was another fun one to watch!

It was like a mini amusement park ride!

We definitely got our money’s worth out of this kit, and I’m sure we’ll dig it out later this summer too!