National Geographic Break Open 10 Premium Geodes – Includes Goggles & 2 Display Stands - Great STEM Science Kit, Geology Gift for Kids, Break Your Own Geodes with Crystals

We recently purchased this geode kit to do with the family as a Christmas gift! and it exceeded all our expectations! The kit included everything needed for a fantastic rock-breaking adventure: 4 rocks to smash and/or chisel, clear instructions, protective glasses, and a magnifying glass to examine the treasures within. We were thrilled to discover 3 amazing geodes, each with beautiful, sparkling crystals inside. One of the 4 rocks turned out to be a solid piece of crystal, which, while smaller than the rest, was still a delightful surprise and not at all a deal breaker. We used the chisel method for two of them and had to use the towel and smash method for the hard to open ones. Our 8 y/o kid absolutely loved the experience! This kit provides an excellent hands-on learning opportunity, perfect for children and adults alike. Overall, a wonderful purchase that brought joy and excitement for family fun. Highly recommend for anyone interested in geology or just looking for a fun and educational activity. Will buy again for sure.

The National Geographic Break Open 10 Premium Geodes kit is an absolute hit for kids who love science and exploration! I bought this as a gift, and it exceeded all expectations. The kit comes with 10 geodes, safety goggles, and 2 display stands, making it a complete hands-on geology experience. Opening each geode is thrilling — the surprise of discovering sparkling crystals inside never gets old! The geodes vary in size and crystal type, which keeps it exciting for kids as they break each one. The included instructions are clear and easy to follow, and the goggles are a thoughtful safety addition that makes the activity worry-free. This kit is educational, fun, and encourages curiosity about geology, STEM, and natural science. It’s perfect for home experiments, science parties, or a unique gift for young explorers. Durable, well-packaged, and endlessly engaging

My 5-year old great-niece (and her daddy) LOVED opening the geodes to see the crystals inside! The kit was a big hit at Christmas. The Nat Geo kits offer learning opportunities that are engaging for both kids and their parents!

I read many reviews about this product before finally deciding to choose it over other options. (I always read the 1's, as well as the 5's). Ultimately, I selected the National Geographic product on faith in their reputation over the years. But the reviews also played a significant role. Many/most of the low ratings centered around the size ("too small" being a common complaint), difficulty of breaking, and broke into many pieces. The complaint about size boils down to unrealistic expectations for the cost of the product. The dimensions of the box in the picture suggest that the samples would not be more than about two inches in diameter. The price reinforced that conclusion. Large geodes aren't especially common, and the price asked for them reflects that. The difficulty in breaking them and the shattering complaints are related. Channeling my inner Forrest Gump, this product is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you are going to get. Indeed, several of the pieces are solid throughout, are agates or concretions; it's essentially impossible to know in advance which are partially hollow and which are solid throughout unless one is familiar with the provenance of the samples. General inferences can be drawn. Given two pieces of similar size, the one with the lesser heft is more likely to be hollow than the other one. So if you have a kitchen scale (and OCD) you could, in theory, estimate which are hollow and which are solid by comparing the weights. The packaging is your friend in this regard--they have to pick pieces that are fairly similar in size to fill fixed-size boxes reasonably closely time after time. Given your hypothesized "hollowness," you can adjust your breaking strategy accordingly. (Note to the statistically inclined: a Bayesian approach to the problem, rather than a Frequentist one, will serve you better). Unless you have a tile saw (and a face shield and sturdy gloves in addition to the supplied safety glasses), you will need a hammer and a chisel to break your specimens. You can find a chisel for trimming concrete blocks and bricks at any hardware store. Do yourself a favor and get one with the guard that prevents you from breaking your metacarpals if you miss the chisel head. Take the pieces you suspect are hollow and place them on a padded surface like a folded up dishrag, place the chisel lightly on the specimen and tap with a hammer--softly at first then increasing in force as necessary. Do not press the chisel forcefully on the surface. If truly hollow, excessive force applied by the chisel has the same outcome as just whacking the stone with the hammer--it will shatter into many pieces. Be patient. What you want to happen is for the shell to crack gradually like an egg. Repetitive hits of lesser force work better than one "mother of all blows" in this regard. The specimens you believe to be solid or mostly so should still be placed on the padded surface (force applied is thereby focused on the contact between the rock and the chisel, not at both the top and broadly on the bottom of the specimen. My experience with these specimens in the product was that one could strike harder earlier with strong applied force of the chisel. Agates are commonly silicate filled, which means that they commonly fracture cleanly across the diameter of the specimen. The bigger the geode, the greater the cost, and the more interesting the mineralogy, the greater the cost. Both criteria are in play with the NatGeo product--they are relatively small with common mineral assemblages. This past May I was at Put in Bay near Sandusky, Ohio. Close by is Heineman's Winery, where you can walk into the world's largest geode. Check out their website if you plan to be in the area. I have an MA in geology (though I've been a statistician by experience for over 30 years, which accounts for my Bayesian bent) and the geode (small cave??) was extremely impressive! Individual crystals weigh tens of pounds. There are nearby places where you can buy geodes up to several inches of diameter and have them cracked using a chain that encompasses the entire diameter of your selected specimen. Short having the saw, the chain method is next best; the force is applied "evenly" around the circumference--and you still get the kick of seeing what is inside.

We have only opened the smallest geode using the pointed end of the tool shown in the picture. He found it easy to open. However, we tried to open one of the larger ones, but it proved to be more challenging. I’m glad I bought the tools because using a hammer alone wouldn’t have worked well. We’re excited to open the rest of them. I did not find the process messy.

So cool! The kids absolutely loved getting to smash open rocks. It was a super fun experience for everyone and we opened some pretty cool rocks!

All of these geodes had white inside! A couple were mostly rock with little crystal. I was a bit disappointed because there is no color at all and very hard to chisel open.

This was a gift for one of my grandchildren who is into rocks and semi precious stones. I’m always trying to find things to peak his interests. This was great.

Padrisimoooo mi hijo se divirtió muchísimo abriendolas!

Super produit pour les enfants qui aiment les pierres précieuse.

Un coffret bien rempli avec des géodes de bonnes tailles. Pas encore ouvertes.

Great set but be warned, these are quite hard to open. With the regular hammer, I probably had to hit it for a good 20min! I guess it attests to their authenticity

We've gotten two of these kits, one several months ago for my daughter's 7th birthday (first image, with the organizer), and one for Christmas for her older sister (second image, by request after seeing her sister's birthday geodes). Both times we were very happy with what we had gotten, and I love the educational value, not just the geodes inside. The kids were fascinated and really enjoyed seeing what was inside. It's kinda like those kinder eggs/surprise toys, but naturally created! I have since bought a 3rd set when it was on sale (not opened yet). Yes, for the most part they are all white, however the first kit did contain crystal that was very pale purple (possibly amethyst?), and the second kit contained a milky pink mineral with a small crystally agate section. The first kit we had were mostly around 2 inches, the second kit had a wider range, of a couple really small 1 inch ones but a couple in the 3-4 inch range. Both kits we had resulted in a variety of hollow and full geodes, and varying size of crystal points, some small very glittery looking ones, and larger clearer ones. The second kit we had did contain a kind-of-dud, where there were tiny crystals, but mostly rock, but that was only one out of now 20 geodes we've opened from NatGeo. We have tried a different brand of break-your-own-geodes in the past, and they resulted in very few crystals (only around 20 to 30% had crystals), so I was very pleasantly surprised at what we got with the NatGeo kits. I might try to sand/polish a couple at some point. They were difficult to open, and did require adult assistance. I used a dremel to score the perimeter and provide a groove for the chisel to sit in (my dremel/dremel bits weren't strong enough to get through the crystal, just the outer rock), and then we used a chisel and hammer to crack it open. My kids were able to hammer some of the smaller ones open (with assistance holding the rock and chisel). But some, especially the solid ones, were still very difficult to crack open. Those took more time, but I (a petite, but persistent, female adult) did manage to crack them open with the chisel and hammer. In terms of "giftability" it really depends on the recipient/recipient's family.... as long as there is a willing (and patient?) adult to do most of the work as kids won't be able to do this themselves, it's a wonderful gift! But if not, they might not enjoy this as much.