Blue Marble Gold Panning Kit for Kids - Kids Gold Mining Kit, Learn to Pan for Gold, Includes Pay Dirt with Real Pyrite Specimens, Reusable Gold Panning Pan, Vial, Tweezers & More, Prospecting Kit

This gold panning kit is a fantastic way to introduce kids to the fun of prospecting! My child absolutely loved the experience of learning to pan for gold and uncovering real pyrite specimens. The kit includes everything needed, from the reusable panning pan to the vial for storing findings, along with tweezers to handle the treasures. It's an engaging and educational activity that keeps kids entertained while teaching them about geology and history in a hands-on way.

This review is for the Blue Marble Gold Panning Kit for Kids. I received a free taxable sample of this kit to review in my search for a way I could add a fun aspect to my child’s learning about the California Gold Rush.The kit comes in a branded and decorated cardboard box and consists of eight items: gold pan; paydirt; tweezers; pipette; magnifying glass; specimen dish; storage tube; and a sheet for instructions and additional context. The kit can be gifted as is within a gift bag with a gift tag or wrapped with gift wrap.The main draws of this kit are the gold pan and the bag of paydirt containing the pieces of pyrite. The gold pan is constructed out of a thick, black-colored plastic and weighs 134 grams with a footed circular base of 3 ⅞” that rises 2 ¾” and expands to a final top diameter of 10 ¼”. One quarter of the pan is set with large riffles and the opposite quarter of the pan is set with smaller riffles that help with separating the smaller particles from the larger particles in the paydirt. 541 grams of the paydirt are provided with this kit and appears to be a composition of large and fine particles of sand mixed in with a good amount of pyrite flecks and a mini nugget or two. Aiding in this activity are the three tools (tweezers, magnifying glass, pipette) and two containers (specimen dish, storage tube). My child found the tweezers and the storage tube to be the most useful out of the helper items, although we did get a fair amount of use out of the magnifying glass and the specimen dish when it came time to get a closer look at what we picked up.As tested, the illustrated instructions really helped my child understand the motion and technique necessary to sift through the paydirt and extract the pyrite specimens. They were able to place the paydirt in the pan, tilt and shake the pan in a circular motion, extract some specimens, and then repeat until they went through the paydirt. Along the way they used the tweezers to help pick up specimens and used the storage tube to provide additional filtering and cleansing of the pyrite. The activity was actually more physically involved than either of us expected and we spent maybe an hour in total outside sifting through the material. The end result was a decent amount of pyrite fleck and a couple of mini pyrite nuggets. The only drawback might be that the paydirt can only be used once unless you want to collect all of the sand and re-mix it together. That being said, the gold pan is quite durable, and we have plans to try our hand sifting through other material at the beach.All in all, this is a good quality kit with a good quality gold pan and paydirt that has a nice amount of pyrite in it. I recommend this as a great option to add a fun dimension to learning about the California Gold Rush, especially if your child is learning about this in school.

You get several little items in here, including tweezers, a magnifying glass, and a storage tube, but what you're mainly picking this up for is the gold pan and the paydirt (dirt with pyrite pieces in it)It describes how to use the gold pan (which has little groove deals in it), and my young daughter was indeed able to get the hang of it well enough to start sifting out chunks of pyrite! She really thought that was a cool experience, and you know, so did I. Panning for gold is such an iconic activity, and it was really cool to be able to actually do it. And she loved ending up with a little tube of sparkly fool's gold.

I homeschool my 5th grade son, and I got this Blue Marble Gold Panning Kit to add some interest to a U.S. history unit about moving west and the California Gold Rush. I appreciate that this is a hands-on, sensory activity that will get his attention and give him more insight into prospecting. The kit includes some information about the Gold Rush and about the Fool's Gold (pyrite).Although there's only enough sand for one use for us, we'll be able to use the gold pan for searching for shells at the beach. It's sturdy nice quality plastic.The box says for ages 6 and up. Due to small pieces it is not recommended for under 3. I think it is a good educational activity for elementary school students.

This is a cute though activity to do with your kids. Easy to set up and the process is super simple as well. I would say that the outcome is a bit underwhelming. Best for younger kids.