Discover This specializes in educational toys and scientific kits. The product selection includes such unique items as perfume and bath product making kits and a set of “gross, yucky, disgusting science kits.” The site is colorful and attractive and includes a prominent navigation system that makes it easy to jump to different areas of the site to browse products.
Discover This has a good selection of ant farms along with hundreds of other toys that are innovative, educational and just plain neat. If you’re looking for a gift for someone who loves concocting, building and experimenting, this site is a great choice.
Even though this site only carries Uncle Milton ant farms, the selection is good enough to have earned Discover This a place on our top ten list of ant farm stores.
Discover This has a very basic selection of ant farms, all under the classic Uncle Milton brand name. The selections include three different sizes of sand kits and two gel-based kits, one of which has an LED-lighted base.
The ant farms sold on Discover This are all manufactured by Uncle Milton. Uncle Milton kits come with a coupon for a discounted price on live ants redeemable from Uncle Milton directly. Uncle Milton reserves the right to delay shipping live ants to states where the nighttime temperature is below freezing and the daytime temperature is above 80°. The company will provide replacement ants if they are DOA, but you will have to pay separate shipping.
Aside from being one of the top ant farm stores, Discover This has an exciting selection of scientific toys and kits for exploring biology, geology, physics and chemistry. Most items are educational in nature but they are designed to be entertaining and kid-friendly. The section of science project kits includes everything your child needs to conduct several different experiments, including the background research and all necessary materials. There are also a few books full of science project ideas and fun science principles that can be easily demonstrated.
Along with ant farms, Discover This carries ladybug, butterfly and praying mantis kits, as well as insect habitats and observation equipment. Please note that some insect kits are designed for the insects to be grown, observed for a short time and then released into the wild. They are not meant to become permanent pets.
Discover This makes it easy to browse for products, with a master list of categories on the left margin and then a series of browsing options including price, age range and brand name. There is also a search feature for quickly finding a specific item. One unique feature of the site is the per-visit special discount offer. A virtual coin and scratch-off box is displayed and when you scratch the box with the virtual coin, a special discount is revealed. The discount is in addition to any other sales or promotional prices.
Another unique site feature is the “top sellers” list along the right margin, which displays a periodically-updated list of what items are the most popular. Below this list is a section highlighting new items that have just been added into the inventory.
As a big bonus, the Discover This website has downloadable copies of user’s manuals for every product on the site. Not only is this useful in case you lose your original manual, but it is a great way to preview the specifics of a certain product before purchasing it to find out everything that will be involved in maintaining or setting it up. In the ant farm section, the site borrows the ant FAQ and manuals directly from the manufacturer, Uncle Milton. None of the other ant farm stores we surveyed included original product manuals on their websites.
Discover This is a great source for scientific toys and educational kits. For any kid interested in science, this site is likely to carry a toy that will knock that kid’s socks off. The ant farm selection is average and includes only Uncle Milton brand items, but there are two types of gel-filled, self-sustained kits that do not require food or water to maintain. This site carries a much larger selection of toys than many of the other sites surveyed, which didn’t factor into our ratings but may be important if you’re shopping for a variety of toy products besides the ant farm.
