Science Museum Potato Clock, Science and Technology Experiment Kit for Kids 8+

Ah the potato clock - what can I say?Absolutely cracking product. Bought this for one of my colleagues as a Secret Santa present at Christmas and boy was he pleasantly surprised! Said colleague has always had a couple of issues that I felt would really be solved by this clock. Primarily, his diet consists of eating nothing but lots and lots of potatoes in their various forms (primarily the dumpling variety) and secondly, his persistently poor time-keeping made the potato clock a no-brainer for me!Fast forward to today and he's a changed man! no longer are his leftover dinners going to waste - carelessly thrown into the bin to rot - rather, they are now utilised as a force to keep the entire office operating at precision timing, like clockwork. Even my colleague himself has noticed fundamental changes in his behaviour brought on by the arrival of this wonderous, miraculous piece of technology. Now he is actually EARLY for work (well, when trains aren't late anyway..). Normally it would be me who arrives first to the office and have to turn the lights on etc etc. Now though, I regularly find my colleague already at his desk as if he'd slept in the office over night , counting the seconds on his potato clock.Now for the negatives. Sometimes we are forced to make difficult decisions in the workplace, as everyone has to. The shear level of responsibility forced on us by this product are HUGE. On rare occasions, we've had to make tough collective decisions as a team - do we starve or do we keep the clock running. We've made decisions that I'm not proud of.. and I hope that nobody ever has to make the same decisions we've had to make. In a strange way though, the product has actually brought us closer together as a team - when you've had to get through the tough decisions we've had to it breaks you, only to reforge you and temper you into a stronger team. This I put down to the humble potato clock, the greatest wonder of our age, where man-made technology and the natural world blend seamlessly to bring the illumination of 24-hour time to the uncivilised, barbaric hordes of mankind.

Easy to connect up and completed in minutes if aided by an adult. The copper wires thread through small holes at the top of the electrodes and you then have to twist the core around the electrode to make contact. If you do not have a permanent and good contact then you have an intermittent contact and the clock resets which can be quite frustrating. A good and fun product that my grandson really enjoyed (because of the lack of a conventional battery) but the connection process needs more thought by the manufacturer.The instructions also suggest obtaining the same results by using various liquids and the kit does include two small plastic cups for that purpose. Not too sure this is a good idea as it encourages the childlike thought process that liquid (water) and electricity mix and they clearly DO NOT.I am being forced to write another 20 words in order to submit this review. Amazon - there is only so much you can write about a potato and a clock.

I bought this for my 10 year old son at Christmas and he recently got it out on a rainy afternoon to see what he thought of it and if he could complete the set/follow the instructions on his own etc. I have to say he enjoyed it very much and even I was curious to see just how a digital clock could indeed be powered by the humble potato. It did not take him too long to complete and he really enjoyed the whole thing, the only involvement I had was to clarify a few lines in the instructions for him when he was a little unsure of the wording and wanted to check if he was doing it correctly. On the whole I would recommend this kit as an educational product that my son really enjoyed completing.

This actually works really well, the clock kept going for a few weeks on one potato. The construction was relatively simple but can be fiddly with a few parts being quite fragile.This is one of those toys which can promote quite a powerful message that conventional means of gaining power are not necessarily the only ways of doing so. I think that teaching our children the benefits of finding alternate power sources even in a small potato clock can have lasting results and it is for this reason that I have given 5 Stars.

Spot on, works perfectly.I recommend soldering the wires to the 4 electrodes if you can to provide a solid connection.Tested with two small potatoes set the time and date and hey presto! A working LCD clock.

Great for kids

Bought this for my grandaughter for Christmas and with the help of my son she soon had it working.How the scientific explanation went , not sure, but it got her thinking and that must count for something.

This is so cool and fun and awesome I wish I had ordered one for myself (and me and my friends are in our 30s). Apparantly if you boil the potato it works even better. We will try it out. In any case...helarious groovy thing this potato clock. LOL