You guys sound like an absolutely terrific great uncle & aunt.

I remember getting a microscope when I was about that age. It was wonderful.

Scintillators are even better.

On the 3rd anniversary such things can end up saving lives.

When I was 14, though, I built a geiger counter. I ordered the geiger-muller tube from Allied electronics and followed plans from Popular Electronics. 1959, that was. It was interesting, but not as interesting as my microscope. I took it on a trip to the Arizona desert and did some prospecting in the desert near my grandparents' home. Found a few traces of uranium minerals, but that was about it.

The microscope, though, got used frequently for several years. It wasn't a great one, but it did let me do some initial exploration. Later on, when I was adult, I acquired others that were of better quality. The one I sent my great-niece is an older, lab-quality zoom Bauch Lomb stereo scope. 10-40X zoom. Perfect for use by a young naturalist. I kept my Zeiss.

... for Christmas back when I was a grade schooler. I am pretty sure my dad, (who was a high school dropout to go to WWII, but was a pretty technical guy) was feeding my interest in science and technology. It worked.

I also remember the old Popular Electronics magazine from the 50's and 60's. Also ordered stuff from Allied and Newark to build things from the magazine plans. I sure miss Carl and Jerry. Those were the good old days.

I didn't continue on in technology, but have been writing about it for many years now. I have my original pair of CK722 transistors on display here in a shadow box. I saved up for them in 1957 from my allowance. What fun!

Might want to look at something like this for an additional gift.

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/kids-microscope-slide-set-2/p/MS-SETELE2/

Maybe some blank slides also. I got one around the age of twelve and I loved it.

This is a stereo binocular scope. 10-40X. It's designed to look at things in three dimensions at moderate magnifications. It's not really designed for using slides. A petri dish is a good thing to have for it though. Put some pond water in it and explore the non-visible world of tiny living things with it. Maybe I'll order a couple for her.

As you can see by my lack of understanding with respect to stereo binoculars, I didn't go all that far in biology. I did have a blast with the microscope as a child and it helped me put a visual representation behind certain things. It was exciting to learn about a few things and then to see them outside of a textbook. While I may not have gone into a field of biology, I feel it was very important to me as a young women. Once again, great job MM. Your love will help her to grow. Acts like this can have a huge impact.

Whe I realized that my own eyes reported the world that had populations of thrips hiding in every dandelion flower I picked and examined, it changed how I viewed nature and my relationship to it.

Stereomicroscopes aka dissecting microscopes showed me a world that fascinated me and that I found I was good at exploring.

Once fascination is ignited there is no telling the work it will power or the places it will take a person.

~30 years after I felt that flame and abandoned things like studying the law, I was ending my carreer computer modelling advancement of species ranges of trematode larvae within snails in response to warming of subarctic waters on the Norway coast and in the White Sea.

What a gift to give a kid the possibility to ignite such a flame!

studying small mineral specimens. I used to have a video camera mounted on the Bausch & Lomb to photograph small specimens I had for sale. But it had seen an awful lot of biological specimens previously.

If that gift does ignite a flame of fascination, I'll be very, very pleased.

It came with a cruddy kiddie microscope and several pickled critters to dissect. I had a blast with it, looking at all sorts of things.

We're not all buttons and bows and dollies and it's good someone has noticed and sent her something besides another stupid doll. Thank you for that.

I know that kit gave me a good head start in life sciences just like the chemistry set a couple of years earlier had given me a head start on inorganic chemistry.

entertainment, it will open up a tiny new world to her eyes. That's worth a lot.