{"id":188264,"date":"2025-12-02T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/chemistry-set\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T11:31:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:31:00","slug":"chemistry-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/chemistry-set\/","title":{"rendered":"Chemistry Set"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"lead\"><strong>Chemistry sets for children seem like the perfect gift for chemists who want to share their passion. But when Sjoerd Rijpkema bought one himself, he was in for an unpleasant surprise.<\/strong><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"storytext\"><p>December is the month of gifts. And I&#8217;m quite certain: if you have any connection to chemistry, the idea of giving a child in your life a chemistry set will sooner or later cross your mind. It seems perfect: sharing your enthusiasm, experimenting together, bringing a bit of that lab feeling to the kitchen table. I thought so too, until I tried one out myself.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;More than 100 activities and special challenges!&#8217; the box proclaimed. The box itself was two-thirds full of paper filler to make it look impressive. Inside: a few plastic bits and pieces, and not even everything pictured on the packaging. The &#8216;activities&#8217; turned out to be blood-curdlingly basic steps such as collecting water, measuring water, and dissolving table salt. This was not chemistry. It was not educational. It was an insult. And above all: an excellent way to put a child off our field entirely.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, you wouldn&#8217;t expect an 8-year-old to be setting up a Grignard reaction at the dining table, but something with a bit of substance isn&#8217;t too much to ask. An experiment that actually means something, that sparks curiosity. If you want to give something chemistry-related this year, choose one well-considered project. Something you can explore together. Growing crystals always goes down well, or make a pH indicator together from red cabbage. And if you do go for a kit: be critical about what&#8217;s inside. Disappointment will come along soon enough in the lab \u2014 for now, let them simply enjoy themselves.<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline_image image_size_full\" data-attachment=\"15872\" data-sequence=\"1\">\n<p class=\"picture\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Scheikundedoos\" class=\"lazyloaded\" height=\"499\" loading=\"eager\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 780px\" src=\"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15872_scheikundedoos_520350-1.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15872_scheikundedoos_520350-1.jpg 480w,https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15872_scheikundedoos_520350-1.jpg 600w,https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/15872_scheikundedoos_520350-1.jpg 780w\" width=\"888\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chemistry sets for children seem like the perfect gift for chemists who want to share their passion. But when Sjoerd Rijpkema bought one himself, he was in for an unpleasant surprise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":412,"featured_media":187780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[459],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-188264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}