fun experiments to do when bored

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

30 Meaningful Martin Luther King Jr. Activities for All Ages

76 Easy Science Experiments Using Materials You Already Have On Hand

Because science doesn’t have to be complicated.

If there is one thing that is guaranteed to get your students excited, it’s a good science experiment! While some experiments require expensive lab equipment or dangerous chemicals, there are plenty of cool projects you can do with regular household items. We’ve rounded up a big collection of easy science experiments that anybody can try, and kids are going to love them!

Easy Chemistry Science Experiments

Easy physics science experiments, easy biology and environmental science experiments, easy engineering experiments and stem challenges.

Also, be sure to grab your free printable science experiment recording sheet to use with any of the experiments below.

1. Taste the rainbow

Teach your students about diffusion while creating a beautiful and tasty rainbow. Tip: Have extra Skittles on hand so your class can eat a few!

Learn more: Skittles Diffusion

2. Crystallize sweet treats

Crystal science experiments teach kids about supersaturated solutions. This one is easy to do at home, and the results are absolutely delicious!

Learn more: Rock Candy Experiment

3. Make a volcano erupt

This classic experiment demonstrates a chemical reaction between baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid), which produces carbon dioxide gas, water, and sodium acetate.

Learn more: Baking Soda Volcano (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

4. Make elephant toothpaste

This fun project uses yeast and a hydrogen peroxide solution to create overflowing “elephant toothpaste.” Tip: Add an extra fun layer by having kids create toothpaste wrappers for plastic bottles.

Learn more: Elephant Toothpaste (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

5. Blow the biggest bubbles you can

Add a few simple ingredients to dish soap solution to create the largest bubbles you’ve ever seen! Kids learn about surface tension as they engineer these bubble-blowing wands.

Learn more: Giant Soap Bubbles (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

6. Demonstrate the “magic” leakproof bag

All you need is a zip-top plastic bag, sharp pencils, and water to blow your kids’ minds. Once they’re suitably impressed, teach them how the “trick” works by explaining the chemistry of polymers.

Learn more: Leakproof Bag (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

7. Use apple slices to learn about oxidation

Have students make predictions about what will happen to apple slices when immersed in different liquids, then put those predictions to the test. Have them record their observations.

Learn more: Apple Oxidation

8. Float a marker man

Their eyes will pop out of their heads when you “levitate” a stick figure right off the table! This experiment works due to the insolubility of dry-erase marker ink in water, combined with the lighter density of the ink.

Learn more: Floating Marker Man

9. Discover density with hot and cold water

There are a lot of easy science experiments you can do with density. This one is extremely simple, involving only hot and cold water and food coloring, but the visuals make it appealing and fun.

Learn more: Hot and Cold Water Science Experiment

10. Layer more liquids

This density demo is a little more complicated, but the effects are spectacular. Slowly layer liquids like honey, dish soap, water, and rubbing alcohol in a glass. Kids will be amazed when the liquids float one on top of the other like magic (except it is really science).

Learn more: Layered Liquids

11. Grow a carbon sugar snake

Easy science experiments can still have impressive results. This eye-popping chemical reaction demonstration only requires simple supplies like sugar, baking soda, and sand.

Learn more: Carbon Sugar Snake

12. Mix up some slime

Tell kids you’re going to make slime at home, and watch their eyes light up! There are a variety of ways to make slime, so try a few different recipes to find the one you like best.

Learn more: 4 Slime Recipes (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

13. Make homemade bouncy balls

These homemade bouncy balls are easy to make since all you need is glue, food coloring, borax powder, cornstarch, and warm water. You’ll want to store them inside a container like a plastic egg because they will flatten out over time.

Learn more: Make-Your-Own Bouncy Balls

14. Create eggshell chalk

Eggshells contain calcium, the same material that makes chalk. Grind them up and mix them with flour, water, and food coloring to make your very own sidewalk chalk.

Learn more: Eggshell Chalk

15. Make naked eggs

This is so cool! Use vinegar to dissolve the calcium carbonate in an eggshell to discover the membrane underneath that holds the egg together. Then, use the “naked” egg for another easy science experiment that demonstrates osmosis .

Learn more: Egg and Vinegar Experiment (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

16. Turn milk into plastic

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but don’t be afraid to give it a try. Use simple kitchen supplies to create plastic polymers from plain old milk. Sculpt them into cool shapes when you’re done.

17. Test pH using cabbage

Teach kids about acids and bases without needing pH test strips. Simply boil some red cabbage and use the resulting water to test various substances—acids turn red and bases turn green.

Learn more: Cabbage pH

18. Clean some old coins

Use common household items to make old oxidized coins clean and shiny again in this simple chemistry experiment. Ask kids to predict (hypothesize) which will work best, then expand the learning by doing some research to explain the results.

Learn more: Cleaning Coins

19. Pull an egg into a bottle

This classic easy science experiment never fails to delight. Use the power of air pressure to suck a hard-boiled egg into a jar, no hands required.

Learn more: Egg in a Bottle

20. Blow up a balloon without blowing

Chances are good you probably did easy science experiments like this when you were in school. The baking soda and vinegar balloon experiment demonstrates the reactions between acids and bases when you fill a bottle with vinegar and a balloon with baking soda.

Learn more: Baking Soda and Vinegar Balloon (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

21. Assemble a DIY lava lamp

This 1970s trend is back—as an easy science experiment! This activity combines acid-base reactions with density for a totally groovy result.

22. Explore how sugary drinks affect teeth

The calcium content of eggshells makes them a great stand-in for teeth. Use eggs to explore how soda and juice can stain teeth and wear down the enamel. Expand your learning by trying different toothpaste-and-toothbrush combinations to see how effective they are.

Learn more: Sugar and Teeth Experiment

23. Mummify a hot dog

If your kids are fascinated by the Egyptians, they’ll love learning to mummify a hot dog! No need for canopic jars , just grab some baking soda and get started.

24. Extinguish flames with carbon dioxide

This is a fiery twist on acid-base experiments. Light a candle and talk about what fire needs in order to survive. Then, create an acid-base reaction and “pour” the carbon dioxide to extinguish the flame. The CO2 gas acts like a liquid, suffocating the fire.

25. Send secret messages with invisible ink

Turn your kids into secret agents. Write messages with a paintbrush dipped in lemon juice, then hold the paper over a heat source and watch the invisible become visible as oxidation goes to work.

Learn more: Invisible Ink

26. Create dancing popcorn

This is a fun version of the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment, perfect for the younger crowd. The bubbly mixture causes popcorn to dance around in the water.

Learn more: Dancing Popcorn (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

27. Shoot a soda geyser sky-high

You’ve always wondered if this really works, so it’s time to find out for yourself. Kids will marvel at the chemical reaction that sends diet soda shooting high in the air when Mentos are added.

Learn more: Mentos and Coke Experiment (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

28. Send a teabag flying

Hot air rises, and this experiment can prove it. You’ll want to supervise kids with fire, of course. For added safety, try this one outside.

Learn more: Flying Tea Bags

29. Create magic milk

This fun and easy science experiment demonstrates principles related to surface tension, molecular interactions, and fluid dynamics.

Learn more: Magic Milk Experiment (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

30. Watch the water rise

Learn about Charles’s law with this simple experiment. As the candle burns, using up oxygen and heating the air in the glass, the water rises as if by magic.

Learn more: Rising Water Experiment

31. Learn about capillary action

Kids will be amazed as they watch the colored water move from glass to glass, and you’ll love the easy and inexpensive setup. Gather some water, paper towels, and food coloring to teach the scientific magic of capillary action.

Learn more: Capillary Action

32. Give a balloon a beard

Equally educational and fun, this experiment will teach kids about static electricity using everyday materials. Kids will get a kick out of creating beards on their balloon people!

Learn more: Static Electricity

33. Find your way with a DIY compass

Here’s an old classic that never fails to impress. Magnetize a needle, float it on the water’s surface, and it will always point north.

Learn more: How To Make a Compass

34. Crush a can using air pressure

Sure, it’s easy to crush a soda can with your bare hands, but what if you could do it without touching it at all? That’s the power of air pressure!

35. Tell time using the sun

While people use clocks or even phones to tell time today, there was a time when a sundial was the best means to do that. Kids can create their own sundials using everyday materials like cardboard and pencils.

Learn more: Make Your Own Sundial

36. Launch a bottle rocket

Grab a cork, plastic bottle, cardboard, duct tape, and bike pump to learn about the laws of motion.

Learn more: Bottle Rocket (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

37. Make sparks with steel wool

All you need is steel wool and a 9-volt battery to perform this science demo that’s bound to make their eyes light up! Kids learn about chain reactions, chemical changes, and more.

Learn more: Steel Wool Electricity

38. Levitate a Ping-Pong ball

This experiment is really all about Bernoulli’s principle. You only need plastic bottles, bendy straws, and Ping-Pong balls to make the science magic happen.

39. Whip up a tornado in a bottle

There are plenty of versions of this classic experiment out there, but we love this one because it sparkles. Kids learn about a vortex and what it takes to create one.

Learn more: Tornado in a Bottle

40. Monitor air pressure with a DIY barometer

This simple but effective DIY science project teaches kids about air pressure and meteorology. They’ll have fun tracking and predicting the weather with their very own barometer.

Learn more: How To Make a Barometer

41. Peer through an ice magnifying glass

Students will certainly get a thrill out of seeing how an everyday object like a piece of ice can be used as a magnifying glass. Be sure to use purified or distilled water since tap water will have impurities in it that will cause distortion.

Learn more: Ice Magnifying Glass

42. String up some sticky ice

Can you lift an ice cube using just a piece of string? This quick experiment teaches you how. Use a little salt to melt the ice and then refreeze the ice with the string attached.

Learn more: Sticky Ice

43. “Flip” a drawing with water

Light refraction causes some really cool effects, and there are multiple easy science experiments you can do with it. This one uses refraction to “flip” a drawing; you can also try the famous “disappearing penny” trick .

Learn more: Light Refraction With Water

44. Color some flowers

We love how simple this project is to re-create since all you’ll need are some white carnations, food coloring, glasses, and water. The end result is just so beautiful!

45. Use glitter to fight germs

Everyone knows that glitter is just like germs—it gets everywhere and is so hard to get rid of! Use that to your advantage and show kids how soap fights glitter and germs.

46. Re-create the water cycle in a bag

You can do so many easy science experiments with a simple zip-top bag. Fill one partway with water and set it on a sunny windowsill to see how the water evaporates up and eventually “rains” down.

Learn more: Water Cycle in a Bag and Water Cycle Lesson Slides and Video

47. Learn about plant transpiration

Your backyard is a terrific place for easy science experiments. Grab a plastic bag and rubber band to learn how plants get rid of excess water they don’t need, a process known as transpiration.

Learn more: Plant Transpiration

48. Clean up an oil spill

Before conducting this experiment, teach your students about engineers who solve environmental problems like oil spills. Then, have your students use provided materials to clean the oil spill from their oceans.

Learn more: Oil Spill

49. Construct a pair of model lungs

Kids get a better understanding of the respiratory system when they build model lungs using a plastic water bottle and some balloons. You can modify the experiment to demonstrate the effects of smoking too.

Learn more: Lung Science Experiment

50. Experiment with limestone rocks

Kids  love to collect rocks, and there are plenty of easy science experiments you can do with them. In this one, pour vinegar over a rock to see if it bubbles. If it does, you’ve found limestone!

Learn more: Limestone Experiments

51. Turn a bottle into a rain gauge

All you need is a plastic bottle, a ruler, and a permanent marker to make your own rain gauge. Monitor your measurements and see how they stack up against meteorology reports in your area.

Learn more: How To Make a Rain Gauge

52. Build up towel mountains

This clever demonstration helps kids understand how some landforms are created. Use layers of towels to represent rock layers and boxes for continents. Then pu-u-u-sh and see what happens!

Learn more: Towel Mountains

53. Take a play dough core sample

Learn about the layers of the earth by building them out of play dough, then take a core sample with a straw. ( Love Play-Doh? Get more learning ideas here. )

Learn more: Play Dough Core Sampling

54. Project the stars on your ceiling

Use the video lesson in the link below to learn why stars are only visible at night. Then create a DIY star projector to explore the concept hands-on.

Learn more: DIY Star Projector

55. Make it rain

Use shaving cream and food coloring to simulate clouds and rain. This is an easy science experiment little ones will beg to do over and over.

Learn more: Shaving Cream Rain

56. Blow up your fingerprint

This is such a cool (and easy!) way to look at fingerprint patterns. Inflate a balloon a bit, use some ink to put a fingerprint on it, then blow it up big to see your fingerprint in detail.

57. Snack on a DNA model

Twizzlers, gumdrops, and a few toothpicks are all you need to make this super-fun (and yummy!) DNA model.

Learn more: Edible DNA Model

58. Dissect a flower

Take a nature walk and find a flower or two. Then bring them home and take them apart to discover all the different parts of flowers.

59. Craft smartphone speakers

No Bluetooth speaker? No problem! Put together your own from paper cups and toilet paper tubes.

Learn more: Smartphone Speakers

60. Race a balloon-powered car

Kids will be amazed when they learn they can put together this awesome racer using cardboard and bottle-cap wheels. The balloon-powered “engine” is so much fun too.

Learn more: Balloon-Powered Car

61. Build a Ferris wheel

You’ve probably ridden on a Ferris wheel, but can you build one? Stock up on wood craft sticks and find out! Play around with different designs to see which one works best.

Learn more: Craft Stick Ferris Wheel

62. Design a phone stand

There are lots of ways to craft a DIY phone stand, which makes this a perfect creative-thinking STEM challenge.

63. Conduct an egg drop

Put all their engineering skills to the test with an egg drop! Challenge kids to build a container from stuff they find around the house that will protect an egg from a long fall (this is especially fun to do from upper-story windows).

Learn more: Egg Drop Challenge Ideas

64. Engineer a drinking-straw roller coaster

STEM challenges are always a hit with kids. We love this one, which only requires basic supplies like drinking straws.

Learn more: Straw Roller Coaster

65. Build a solar oven

Explore the power of the sun when you build your own solar ovens and use them to cook some yummy treats. This experiment takes a little more time and effort, but the results are always impressive. The link below has complete instructions.

Learn more: Solar Oven (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

66. Build a Da Vinci bridge

There are plenty of bridge-building experiments out there, but this one is unique. It’s inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old self-supporting wooden bridge. Learn how to build it at the link, and expand your learning by exploring more about Da Vinci himself.

Learn more: Da Vinci Bridge

67. Step through an index card

This is one easy science experiment that never fails to astonish. With carefully placed scissor cuts on an index card, you can make a loop large enough to fit a (small) human body through! Kids will be wowed as they learn about surface area.

68. Stand on a pile of paper cups

Combine physics and engineering and challenge kids to create a paper cup structure that can support their weight. This is a cool project for aspiring architects.

Learn more: Paper Cup Stack

69. Test out parachutes

Gather a variety of materials (try tissues, handkerchiefs, plastic bags, etc.) and see which ones make the best parachutes. You can also find out how they’re affected by windy days or find out which ones work in the rain.

Learn more: How To Make a Parachute

70. Recycle newspapers into an engineering challenge

It’s amazing how a stack of newspapers can spark such creative engineering. Challenge kids to build a tower, support a book, or even build a chair using only newspaper and tape!

Learn more: Newspaper STEM Challenge

71. Use rubber bands to sound out acoustics

Explore the ways that sound waves are affected by what’s around them using a simple rubber-band “guitar.” (Kids absolutely love playing with these!)

Learn more: Sound Experiment

72. Assemble a better umbrella

Challenge students to engineer the best possible umbrella from various household supplies. Encourage them to plan, draw blueprints, and test their creations using the scientific method.

Learn more: Umbrella STEM Challenge

73. Grow rock candy

Turn science into a sweet treat by making rock candy. Dissolve sugar in hot water to create a solution, then let it cool as crystals slowly form on a stick or string. The best part is that the kids get to eat their experiment when it’s done!

74. Create a rain cloud in a jar

Bring weather science indoors with this fun hands-on project. Use shaving cream to mimic clouds and add drops of food coloring to simulate rain. It’s a great way to explore the water cycle without even having to step outside!

75. Brighten up with rainbow celery

Make your science lesson more vibrant with a splash of color. Drop celery stalks into glasses of water with food dye, and watch as the beautiful colors travel up through the stems.

76. Safely view a solar eclipse

Teach your students about the solar eclipse, and help them safely view this exciting event with just a few simple materials.

Learn more: Solar Eclipse Viewer (Guide + Printable Reflection Sheet)

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32 Cool Science Experiments for Kids (that are Fun AND Easy!)

Do you ever want to do science experiments at home with your kids, but you’re not quite sure what to do? Not just any old kitchen science experiment will do – you want something cooler than vinegar + bicarb soda! But, you also want something simple and easy to do – because no-one wants a huge mess from their kids doing crazy science experiments at home!

We understand, and that’s why the writing team here at STEM Geek has put our heads together to come up with the most awesome at-home science experiments for kids! As science enthusiasts and educators, we also wanted to make sure that these are genuine science learning opportunities. So not only are they captivating for the kids, but we also emphasize what questions can be asked as kids explore and apply the scientific method! Plus, we’ve arranged them according to how much time they take: up to 1 hour, 1 to several hours, and long-term.

Related Post: Ultimate Boredom Buster: 101 Things To Do When Kids Are Bored

Science Experiments at Home that take Less than 1 Hour

1. tie-dye milk.

Sounds delicious, right? You’re not actually drinking it, but instead watching science magic happens when you combine dish soap with milk and food coloring. This is a very pretty experiment that draws the focus and mind into what’s happening on the plate, and all because of a little chemistry with everyday items. Well, food dye may not be an everyday item, but it might be after your kids get a hold of this!

So, what’s going on here, scientifically-speaking? Milk is made up of two major ingredients: water and fat. When you add a little dish soap, it bonds with the fat in the milk so strongly that it literally pushes the food coloring and water away from the cotton ball. On a microscopic level, the dish soap is wandering around the milk, which causes the colors to swirl and swirl.

Questions to ask beforehand:

• Before knowing what will happen to the food coloring, ask the kids what they think will happen when dish soap mixes with milk.
• Since the major catalyst is fat in the milk, what would happen if you used other types of milk: Skim milk, soy milk, coconut milk?

You’ll need:

• Round cake pan or plate with high edges
• Cotton ball (some tutorials show cotton swabs)
• Dish detergent
• Different colors of food dye (three or four should do)

Procedure/Instructions:

• Fill the pan halfway with milk.
• Drip one color of food dye in one section of the plate away from the center. Four to five drops works and later you can play around with more or less. Do the same for the rest of the colors around the plate.
• Soak the cotton ball in dish detergent, and when you’re ready for action, place the cotton ball into the center of the pan.
• Watch the colors racing around, creating a psychedelic tie-dye effect!
• You can add more cotton balls throughout the dish to see more action.
• If some food coloring hugs the wall of the plate, take a cotton swab dipped in dish detergent and place it into the food coloring. It will move away!

2. Saturn’s Glowing Rings

I don’t know about you, but I love everything about space. This experiment shows you how Saturn’s rings are made of rocks and ice chunks even though they look so smooth in pictures. You’ll also see why there are big gaps in the rings. Younger kids take delight in using a flashlight and sprinkling powder, while older kids can get more specific with questions about Saturn and how the rocks and ice stay in orbit.

• Do Saturn’s rings give off their own light?
• Why are some rocks and ice chunks more lit up than others?
• Compare the results of light sprinkles to thicker sprinkles.
• Strong flashlight
• Powder (flour, baby powder, etc) in a shaker
• Very dark room
• Darken a room and set the flashlight on the edge of a table or counter, pointing it at a blank wall. Lay the newspaper on the floor between the flashlight and the wall.
• Turn on the flashlight and notice where the light comes from the flashlight and where it hits the wall. You should only see the light from these two places and not from the space between them. This shows you that the light travels through the air without being seen until it hits the wall. The light represents the sun’s light.
• Now to see how Saturn’s rings glow: Hold the powder shaker and sprinkle some powder over the beam of light where you know the light is traveling. You’ll notice the powder lights up and sparkles in the beam of light. The powder shows in glowing clumps, just like in Saturn’s rings.

3. Breaking Down Colors

We all know that the fun, vibrant colors we see in our lives are created by mixing the basic red, yellow, and blue. In this experiment, you and your child will learn which colors make up those fun shades they have in their art supplies. This also teaches some basic chemistry and uses materials you already have at home. It can be done very simply and expanded to create a large-scale investigation if you love it.

• Which colors separate out first?
• Is the same order for each test?
• Which colors make up the original shade?
• Do the different types of color (pen, pencil, paint) separate in the same way or differently?
• Are some separated in a shorter space are the colors the same mixture?
• Coffee filters
• Color sources (markers, colored pencils, paint, etc.)
• A plain pencil
• To complete this experiment, cut the coffee filters into strips, mark one end with a line the same distance from the bottom on each strip.
• Color in each strip (between the bottom and line) with your colors, and write at the top what the color and source are (e.g., purple marker).
• Place each strip in a glass and help it to stand up by folding the top over a pencil (a chopstick, table knife, or any long narrow object will also work) so that it stands up in the glass.
• Fill the glass up to the top of your colored block, and wait. The water will move up the filter, and the colors will separate out as it goes.
• Remove the strip once the water gets near the top of the strip to stop the experiment. 

To make this a true experiment, we recommend testing multiple colors and using markers, colored pencils, and paint (as some starting examples). You could test the same colors from each type of art supply to investigate whether they all use the same mix of basic colors to create the same end product.

This post has a nice full description of the methods if you need more detail.

4. Water Xylophone

This simple experiment will teach your child about sound and pitch using glasses, water, and something to act as a mallet. Don’t let the simplicity deceive you, there are a lot of ways to experiment and learn through this process, and it also brings in an element of music that makes it interesting and engaging.

• Do you think more water makes the sound higher or lower in pitch?
• How do you think the shape or size of the glass will affect the sound?
• How should we arrange the glasses to play a simple song?
• Do you think this will work with a plastic cup, why or why not?
• Some glasses
• Something wood to act as a mallet (we recommend wood so you don’t break the glasses!)
• A great way to start is with glasses that are the same size, shape, and material, and filling them with different amounts of water.
• Have your child use the mallet to test how the amount of water affects the sound.
• From there, it’s a really simple extension to use different sized and shaped glasses (or any glass vessel like jars and bowls) to experiment with how the shape, size, and amount of water in the glass affect the tone. 

To take this one further and really bring in the musical component, you and your child could work out a simple song and create the right tones to play it. If you or your child are musical, you could get very elaborate and creative (try googling harry potter or star wars theme songs on glasses, there are so many options that I couldn’t even choose one)!

5. Ultimate Bottle Flipping

Ah, bottle flipping. The fad that kids can’t get enough of, but parents are well and truly over. The constant thud of semi-filled water bottles being tossed (and hopefully landing upright) is guaranteed to send parents around the twist!

If you can stand it for a bit longer though, there’s a lot of STEM knowledge to be gained in this bottle flipping experiment. As we know, the aim of bottle flipping is to flip a partially filled water bottle underhand and get it to land upright.

In this experiment, kids will learn the importance of observing a result multiple times before changing a variable (the amount of water in the bottle).

• How much water should you put in the bottle?
• What is the ideal amount of liquid to get the perfect flip?
• What should be the ideal amount of water?
• Was their prediction correct?
• Why do they think the amount of water affects the chances of landing the bottle?
• A plastic water bottle
• Measuring jug
• Paper to record results
• Get the kids to start by flipping their bottle with no water in it at all. Kidspot recommends flipping it 50 times for each step, but you could do less if you need to.
• Try it again with 50ml of water.
• Keep adding more water until the bottle is full.

If they’re keen, you could try other types or sizes of bottles, or even try different liquids to see if that affects the results!

6. Rainbow in a Jar

This simple science experiment is not only very visually appealing, but it’s also a great way to learn about the density of liquids. Warning though, this one could get messy so make sure kids are in some old clothes and you might want to take it outside! I like this experiment because you’ll probably have most of the materials in your kitchen already!

• Which liquids they think will be heaviest?
• Which ones will be lightest?
• Why do they think that?
• A glass jar
• Food coloring
• Various liquids like honey, corn syrup, dishwashing liquid, olive oil, rubbing alcohol and water.
• Use the food coloring to make all your liquids a different color. A dropper comes in handy here, but if you don’t have one you can manage without.
• Slowly add each liquid to the jar (pouring into the middle of the jar is best).
• Soon, you’ll have different layers of colored liquid forming your very own rainbow in a jar.

You might even get them to draw a diagram of what they think the jar will look like at the end. They can compare this with the experiment results to see if their prediction was correct.

It might also help to talk to your kids first about what density is and how materials are all made of different amounts of molecules. The more molecules a liquid has, the heavier it will be. Playdough to Plato demonstrates a great way of introducing this concept using marbles. 

7. Write Your Own Secret Messages! 

We love science experiments that are made up primarily of supplies that you likely already have in your home.

• Why do you think this will work?
• Which liquid do you think will make the best secret message?
• Why do people write secret messages?
• Juice (eg. Lemon)
• Lamp (or anything else that can be used as a heat source)
• In order to complete this experiment, you’ll need to gather all of your supplies along with a piece of paper, some q-tips, and a lamp or other item that you can use as a heat source.
• Next, you’ll mix your lemon juice with a slight amount of water. 
• Using your q-tip, use the mixture you’ve created to begin writing your message. 
• Allow it to dry. 
• Once dry, apply heat to it in order to get your message to appear.

Extend this project by attempting to write with a juice and water mixture, a milk and water mixture, or any other variation of the liquids we listed as necessary supplies!

8. Create Your Own Butterfly

Your little ones will love practicing their color mixing by creating their very own coffee filter butterflies. Hang them in the windows of your home to spread some cheer and to watch the sun flow through their beautiful wings! 

• What colors can mix together to make other colors?
• How do butterflies fly?
• What do you think will happen when we add water to the markers?
• Water spray bottle
• Allow your child to draw on the coffee filter to their heart’s content.
• Spray it with water and allow the colors to mix together.
• Allow it to dry thoroughly.
• Once dry, fold it like a fan and then clip it in the middle.

Ta-da, you’ve created a beautiful butterfly! 

9. Make A Duck Call

Give your family an excuse to head outdoors by allowing your children to craft their own duck calls. Test them out at a local pond and see if you can get the ducks to come closer to you for a healthy veggie snack! 

• Do you think ducks will be able to hear us with this?
• What other materials do you think could make this noise?
• How is what we have created similar to a duck’s beak?
• Plastic straw
• Push down on the straw to flatten one end and then cut the flattened end into a point.
• Flatten out your straw and then blow into it.
• Feel free to experiment with different amounts of flattening and different point shapes to see how you can adjust the sound.
• When finished, take your duck call into the wild to test it out.

10. Make Ivory Soap Boats

Did you ever carve items out of soap at camp when you were a child? Give your child the same opportunity. Soap can be carved using safe items, like plastic knives. 

• Why are we able to carve soap so easily?
• Do you think our boats float?
• Why do you think they float or sink?
• Carving tools (for kids)
• Allow your child to express their creative side by carving their boat out of soap. 
• Once they have finished carving it, allow them to test them out in the bathtub. . Extend their learning by discussing density with them–the soap floats because it is less dense than the water.

11. Make Your Own Quicksand 

As John Mullaney famously said, “I thought quicksand would be a much bigger problem in my adult life than it would have turned out.” For some reason, quicksand permeates children’s adventure stories – and their imaginations! 

• Where can we find quicksand in real life?
• How do you think quicksand works?
• What do you think we will need to make our own quicksand?
• Cornflower (one cup)
• Water (half cup)
• A container
• To make your quicksand, you’ll need to mix the cornflour and water. 
• Be sure to stir slowly in order to demonstrate – if you stir too quickly, it will become hard and you won’t be able to see it function the way it should!

12. Make Your Own Lava Lamp

We’ve tried this one in our classrooms, and trust us, our kids go wild year after year. Kids love making something that they can use as home decoration, and they love how easy it is to show new people – this is the experiment that lives on and on! 

• How do you think density is involved in this experiment?
• Why don’t the water and oil mix?
• Why can’t we shake our lava lamps?
• Clear Plastic Bottle
• Vegetable Oil
• Food Coloring
• Alka-Seltzer
• Pour water into the plastic bottle until it is approximately one quarter full. 
• Then pour vegetable oil in until the bottle is almost completely filled. 
• Allow some time for the oil and water to separate. 
• It is important that your children do not shake the bottle in this step. It will extend the experiment for no other reason than you waiting for the bubbles to dissipate. 
• Add as much food coloring as your child deems fit and then drop a piece of Alka-seltzer tablet into the bottle for the lava lamp fun to begin.

13. Guess the Smell

This one will take a little more prep work, but it’s a great touchstone for your children to begin discussing one of their five senses: the sense of smell! 

• What are examples of times we use our sense of smell?
• What other senses do we have?
• If you could only use one sense for the rest of your life, which one?
• Plastic Cups
• Smells (eg. coffee, cinnamon, vanilla, lemon juice)
• Place a variety of common smells in small plastic cups. We like to use coffee, cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon juice. 
• Pour these in and place tin foil securely over the top of the cup. 
• Poke small holes in the top of the foil. 
• Secure the foil with tape (on the sides, not over the holes). 
• Allow your children to guess the smells and record their findings on paper.

Home Science Experiments that take 1 to Several Hours

14. mangrove bioshield  .

Ecologists and conservationists are pushing for more regulations in building and saving mangrove forests around coastal areas. The reason is represented in this STEM activity. The trees act as a mangrove BioShield (bio = life, shield = protection), showing how natural obstacles can prevent critical damage from marine natural disasters such as tsunamis.

The mangrove BioShield can be for older elementary kids through to high school. Obviously, the younger they are, the more parent involvement. This experiment is done twice to show the effects of having and not having a BioShield. The first part uses little to no trees, and the second uses a forest of trees and rocks.

• What will happen in a tsunami if the village is without a BioShield? And the village with a BioShield?
• Would a BioShield help with hurricanes?
• Would you want to encourage people to save manatee forests if they are beneficial?
• Medium to large clear, plastic container
• Newspaper – wad into balls, then cover half of the bottom container – this help to keep the ground sturdy
• Mud – cover the newspaper and press it in to form a slope down to the empty side of the container. The top side should be flattened for the cardboard houses, then it slopes down into the empty half of the container.
• Cardboard houses (use the bottoms of milk cartons for the house and popsicle sticks for the roofs, place houses on the mud towards the top of the high slope
• Model trees or leafy stems from plants – Different amounts for activity 1 and activity 2
• Several small rocks
• Cardboard – long enough to fit across the container and tall enough to hold it from out of the water
• Water – enough to go halfway up the slope

A tsunami without the mangrove forest – insert only one or two trees down the slope. Place the cardboard piece into the water end of the container and move back and forth to create waves. Notice how easy it is for the water to destroy the village you’ve created.

Part 2: 

Repeat the process of constructing the village, but this time insert a lot of trees down the slope to where the water meets the mud. They need to be deeply rooted like mangroves, and I’ve found that aquarium plants work well for this reason. Place the rocks within the mangrove forest and in front of the trees. Add a little bit more water. Insert the cardboard again and move it back and forth to create waves.  

15. A Greater Crater

When you look at the night sky and see the moon, one of the first things you notice is its craters. The moon is completely covered in them, and some are so large we can see them from Earth. Meteorites often make the craters that we see when they hit the surface, but it makes us wonder why some craters are so much bigger than others.

This experiment will help you to investigate one of the main reasons why craters come in different sizes.

• What causes craters?
• How big do the meteorites have to be to make a crater?
• What is it about the meteorite that causes the size of the crater?
• Paper to record your results
• Flat floor surface for the experiment, large enough for the newspaper to cover
• Shallow metal pan at least 2 inches deep
• Flour to fill 2 inches of the pan
• ¼ cup hot chocolate powder
• Mesh strainer or flour sifter
• Large marble (and others of varying sizes if comparing results)
• Metric ruler
• Tongs or long tweezers
• Pour the flour into the pan until it reaches 2 inches. Place the pan on top of the newspaper on a level surface.
• Sift a layer of hot chocolate powder over the flour (this is so you can better see the rays and other features of the craters).
• You will be dropping your marble from three different heights, then comparing the sizes of the craters. Measure the diameter (side to side) of the marble and record this on your paper as Marble 1. Hypothesize how large the crater will be and write that next to the diameter of Marble 1.
• Stand next to your pan and hold the marble at knee height above the flour. Drop the marble (do not throw it, just let it fall from your fingers) into the flour and study the shape of the crater. Look for a rim around the crater or any rays coming from the edges.
• Measure across the widest part of your crater, from rim to rim and record on your data sheet as Marble 1 – Knee Height – Width or something similar. You can also draw a picture of your results.
• Very gently use the tongs or long tweezers to remove the marble without destroying the crater.
• Repeat this procedure from waist height, shoulder height, top of head height. Make sure you aim in different parts of the flour so you don’t land on top of another crater. Record all of your results as the different heights you’re using.
• Compare your results.
• You can try again with a different sized marble as “Marble 2” to compare those results with each height as done with Marble 1.

Perhaps now, you’ll look at the moon a little differently!

16. Rube Goldberg Chain Reaction Machine

We’ve all seen them, some pretty far-out there chain reaction machines to complete simple tasks, usually in movies. But they are real , and are becoming even more popular now that we’re all stuck at home for a while. This is a fun way to explore physics with stuff you have at home.

Ask your child to decide what the end goal is (e.g. get the ball into the cup), and ask them to think about creative ways to make it get there. Working together, you can start with small pieces of a circuit to find out how your ball reacts to the set-up, and grow it from there. You can even refer to this video for more ideas:

• What will happen when the ball bounces off of this wall?
• How will these dominoes change the speed of the ball?
• What can we use to make sure that the ball goes in the direction we want it to at this point?
• What should we put here to get the best bounce? 
• Paper towel
• Toilet paper tubes
• Fixed objects like walls or furniture
• Any other toys and materials that can be used to build your circuit

To make this a true experiment, it needs to include more than a one-off demonstration, and there are a lot of ways to accomplish this.

• Set up parallel courses and use different sized or weighted balls to go through the circuit.
• Set up one elaborate circuit and use different objects one at a time.
• Set up circuits in different ways to see how different set-ups affect your end goal.

Another experimental component is the process used to create a circuit that reaches your end goal ( like this video about getting the ball into the cup, but you could come up with lots of other endpoints!). Along the way, you and your child get a lot of time to learn about momentum, velocity, friction, energy transfer, and interference (e.g., the cat). 

17. Melting

This is a simple and fun experiment that can be set up in a short time and then fill-up your day with observations and new experiments. Using only things you already have at home, you can set-up an engaging experiment with your kids!

Ice melts at different rates depending on a variety of factors including temperature, pressure, and if there are impurities (think salt, sugar, dirt) in the ice or touching the ice. There is a lot of opportunities to get creative and do the experiment in multiple ways, keeping your kids engaged and developing their investigative, experimental, and critical thinking skills.

• Which ice melts the fastest, slowest, and if they have any guesses about why?
• What other ice-melting experiments they think would be fun: Using different temperature liquids? Using different amounts of ice? Different sized cups?
• Lots of ice
• Several matching cups (i.e., they are the same size, shape, and color)
• Measuring cups
• A variety of liquids for the test
• Paper for writing down observations
• Measure the same amount of ice and place it in each cup.
• M easure equal amounts of each liquid and place them in the cups: try to complete this part quickly so that the ice in each cup is in liquid for as close the same amount of time as possible.
• Set up your cups in a place that is easy for your child to watch and observe.
• Ask them to check in at regular intervals (every 15 minutes, every hour) and record or talk to you about their observations.

Other potential experimental examples:

• Using different liquids to test if they affect melting time;
• Using the same liquid and placing ice in different locations to test what conditions throughout your home affect melting;
• Test if different amounts of ice melt at different rates;
• Test if different kinds of cups change melting time.

There are endless possibilities for you to come up with new ways to complete these simple experiments. You get the idea. Explore more!

18. Breathing Leaves

Science experiments don’t get much more simple than this one!  It’s effective though and kids will enjoy watching their leaf ‘breathe’. Learning about plant science is often tricky because it can seem a bit abstract. This experiment allows kids to see the process of plants making oxygen right before their eyes!

A question to ask beforehand:

• What do you think will happen if we leave it for a few hours?
• A fresh leaf from a tree
• A bowl of water
• Pluck a fresh leaf from a tree and place it in a bowl of water.
• Use a rock to weigh it down and leave the experiment out in the sun.
• Have your kids predict what they think they will see when they come back in a few hours (they can write their prediction down or draw a diagram if that’s more their style).
• After a few hours, your kids will see lots of tiny little bubbles on the edge of the leaf and in the glass bowl of water (use a magnifying glass to get a closer look if you have one).

So, what’s happening here? Leaves take in carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen during photosynthesis. The bubbles you can see are the leaf releasing the oxygen it’s created. You could explain to your kids how trees and plants make the oxygen we need to breathe. Kids Fun Science explains this experiment in more detail and suggests taking it further by leaving the plant for a longer period of time (do you see more or fewer bubbles?) or placing a leaf in a dark area to see what difference that makes!

19. How Does Sunscreen Work?

If there’s one thing I know, it’s that kids hate wearing sunscreen! Trying to get it on them is like wrestling a crocodile. Maybe if they knew how sunscreen worked they’d understand how important it is to wear it when they’re out in the sun (and be slightly more cooperative when we’re lathering it over their little faces). This is a simple experiment that shows kids the difference wearing sunscreen will make to their skin.

• What do they observe when they come back?
• Why do they think one side faded and the other not?
• A piece of colored cardboard (a dark color would be best)
• Your usual bottle of sunscreen
• Have your kids smear the sunscreen over one part of the cardboard and leave the other part clear.
• Kids can then predict what they think will happen when they return to the experiment after a few hours.
• Talk to them about how the sun’s UV radiation is absorbed by the sunscreen so it can’t get through to damage the cardboard.

You could even take it further by trying different kinds of sunscreen or leaving your cardboard out during different times of the day.

20. Make A Rubber Egg

Imagine a world in which eggs can be used like bouncy balls. Well, with a couple of home supplies and a little bit of science, you can live in that world. Your child will be dazzled as they remove eggshells from eggs while leaving the insides intact. 

• Is vinegar an acid or a base?
• Is there another substance that could do this?
• Simply leave the egg in the vinegar for a few hours and wait to see what happens. Because of the transformative nature of this experiment, it lends itself to science journaling. 
• Consider having your kiddos draw before and after pictures of the eggs in order to track their journeys. 

21. Flying Tea Bags

Nothing will get your kids’ attention faster than telling them that you are going to spend some time creating something that will fly. However, because this experiment will involve fire, please ensure that you select a time in which you will be able to provide ample adult supervision. 

• How do we stay safe with fire?
• How do we make sure we don’t damage the surface we are working on?
• Why do you think the tea bag will fly?
• Single Serving Tea Bags
• A Small Bowl
• A Non-Flammable Work Surface
• First, open the tea bags and unfold them. 
• Empty the leaves from the bag. 
• Stand the tea bags up on your surface and light the top of each bag on fire. 

As they begin to burn, they will float into the sky! 

22. Make Wax Paper Lanterns

Your children will love the chance to display their fantastic art skills by creating these paper lanterns. If you want to add a culture lesson, have your children research German’s St. Martin’s Day and learn about why children parade through the streets with lanterns. We promise there’s a good moral story involved here! 

• When could we use lanterns?
• What safety considerations do we need to use in this project?
• Why can we see the light through the wax paper?
• Popsicle Sticks
• To begin, tear a ten-inch piece of wax paper off of the roll and cut it in half. 
• After that, fold each piece in half. 
• Allow your child to color their image on top of the wax paper. (This is a great place for an impromptu lesson in color mixing). 
• Fold the wax paper and iron it (consider something in between the crayon mess and the iron you use on your clothes). 
• Finally, glue the craft sticks into squares, add the wax paper, and turn it into a cube.

Voila, you’ve created your own lantern!

23. Create an Insect Habitat

Alright, this one isn’t for the faint of heart. Draw up your courage and send your child into the backyard to collect all of the creepy crawlies they’d like to.

Now you have a home for them. Better yet, you can keep your child entertained for hours as they track the growth of their bug friends.

• What do bugs need to survive?
• What do bugs eat?
• What is the difference between a need and a want?
• Imagination
• Find something that you’re willing to sacrifice to the bugs in order to create a habitat for them – we recommend a shadowbox so that your child can see inside, but a cardboard box will do just fine as well. 
• Ensure that there is breathing room for the bugs. 
• Create a habitat with sticks, bark, small rocks, dried leaves, and whatever else you can find.
• If you’re willing to hang onto the habitat long enough, use it as an opportunity to talk about decomposition as the bugs begin to break down the twigs.

Long-Term Science Experiments at Home

24. crystal kingdom.

This is the oldest trick in the book, but it’s popular because it’s so effective, fun, and has great results. The only drawback to most crystal-growing recipes is that they take ages to grow, and to be quite honest this one is no exception. In fact, these crystals will take several days to grow but the end result is worth it. The reason is that this experiment involves growing a whole landscape of beautifully colored salt and bluing crystals. Here’s a video for visual reference: 

A few things to keep in mind: Allow for plenty of air circulation, preferably inside rather than outside. Ammonia is not necessary but does help in the process.

• What will happen when you add ammonia?
• Why does more salt and less liquid create faster crystallization?
• What part does the bluing solution have in crystal growing?

(Answers can be found here )

• Two bottles of bluing solution
• Large tray/cookie sheets with sides
• Measuring cup
• Liquid watercolors
• Eye droppers
• Cut sponges into large pieces. Spread them out on the tray.
• Measure out 1 cup of each of salt, water, and bluing and then gently mix together.
• Evenly coat or sprinkle the mix over the sponges.
• Add 1 cup of ammonia to the sponges.
• Coat an extra 1 cup of salt on to the sponges.
• By now you’ll see some crystals growing . Sprinkle the magic mix again: 1 cup each of salt, water, and bluing. You can pour the ingredients onto the tray instead of on top of the crystals to keep them from breaking. Don’t worry, more will grow!
• Take an eyedropper, and drop a tablespoon of each liquid watercolor (undiluted) in different patterns over the sponges and crystals.
• Take note of your garden and what the crystal formations look like. You can make a sketch in your notebook as a before and after. Ask questions and observe!
• Observe how the crystals are bigger than before, and notice the colors aren’t as vibrant. Compare the differences in shapes, sizes, and colors.
• If you want more crystals to grow, add a little more water, bluing, and salt.

25. Blow up a Balloon with Yeast

We are surrounded by science in action, but sometimes it is really difficult to see what is happening, especially when it is on a small-scale. When we make bread, yeast ‘eats’ the sugars in the food and creates CO2, giving bread its airy texture. This experiment lets you both visualize what happens when yeast consumes sugar and is a great set-up for an experiment that can be observed throughout the day.

Depending on your supplies and time, you could start with a demonstration and use that to think of other tests, or you could set up several parallel tests at the same time.

• How quickly does the balloon filled with air?
• When does it stop filling (at some point the yeast will run out of food and will stop making gas)?
• Does the starting temperature affect the experiment?
• Does the balloon fill faster in different places in your home (try especially for different air-temperatures, you could include an outside location)?
• Some balloons
• Blow up the balloon a few times before starting so that it’s loosened up a bit.
• Fill the bottle with about 1 inch of warm water (heat is required to activate the yeast, but you could experiment with different temperatures), add the yeast and swirl to dissolve.
• Add the sugar and swirl more.
• Place the balloon over the opening to the bottle and wait. You should expect to see the balloon begin to inflate after around 20 minutes.
• Continue checking and observing how much the balloon inflates throughout the day.

More example experimental setups include:

• Do different temperatures – either with the water you start with or the air the yeast lives in – affect how quickly the balloon blows-up?
• Does using 2x the yeast result in a balloon that is 2x bigger, or blows-up 2x faster?
• Do different types of sugar (e.g., white sugar, honey, syrup, flour) affect how quickly the balloon blows up or how big it gets?

A sk your child to think of new experiments (you could prompt with some of the examples above, or ideas from this post ). 

26. Seed Germination

A really simple but fun multi-day experiment is germinating seeds under different conditions. This means finding some quick-sprouting seeds such as beans and putting them in different conditions to see how that affects germination (sprouting leaves and roots) and growth.

I love using seed experiments because they are inexpensive, simple, and leave a ton of room for creating your own unique experiment.

• Which seed will sprout fastest?
• Seeds (Beans, radishes, squashes, and many flowers sprout quickly from large seeds, making them good choices.)
• Small pots or paper cups
• Potting soil
• Cloth or paper towel
• Somewhere with good light
• To get started, you’ll need some seeds – feel free to choose something you already have, if you’re a gardener you might have some seeds ready for the coming season and could spare a few – or find something online or at your local nursery.
• Use small pots or paper cups and fill each with your growth material (we recommend a minimum of 3 for a useful comparison).
• Fill one with potting soil, one with sand, and one with a cloth or paper towel.
• Place them somewhere with good light, and add water.
• Ask your child to predict which seed will sprout fastest, and make observations every day. If possible, make them around the same time each day.
• Once you see growth, you can ask your child what they think caused any differences, and you can use that as a jumping-off point for more experiments

Additionally, you could:

• Use one type of seed and different types of growth media: soil, paper towel, gravel, sand, water, etc.
• You could use different seeds (beans, flowers, grass, herbs) and grow them under the same conditions (soil, water, sun exposure) to see how different plants grow differently.
• You could see how different light conditions (by a window, in the basement, in a bright room away from a window, etc.) affect germination.

You could also extend each experiment by simply continuing to grow each seed to learn whether the different germination time affects long-term growth (you may want to re-pot everything in the soil for this to be effective, depending on the specifics of your initial experiment).

27. Colored Celery

It’s hard to imagine plants having little capillaries inside them that transport water and nutrients, but this experiment shows that in action. It’s easy to set up, but you’ll have to wait at least a day to see some results. Your kids will be able to see how transpiration takes place and plants absorb water from the soil all the way up into their leaves.

• A few stalks of celery (celery works best for this because it’s a bit more visible, but you could also use flower stems)
• Different food coloring
• Place each stalk in a cup of colored water and make your predictions about what will happen.
• After a day or so you’ll see the celery leaves becoming the color of the water they’re standing in.
• Have your kids describe their observations (they can write down what they see or draw it if they prefer).
• If you look at the base of the stem you’ll also see tiny little holes that the colored water is traveling through.

When you’re done with the experiment, make sure you snap the celery and look inside – you should be able to see the capillaries in action. For more ideas, Little Bins for Little Hands has got some great hints and tips for this experiment.

28. Moldy Bread

This experiment is an oldie, but a goodie! Kids love looking at disgusting things and this one will certainly come up with the goods. Not only will kids learn about how mold grows, but they might also take on some lessons about the importance of washing their hands!

You might want to check out the results of this experiment at Science Alert before you start to see if your stomach is up to it.

• A few slices of bread
• Some ziplock bags
• Sticky little hands. 
• Get a few slices of bread and lay them out on your kitchen bench.
• Have your kids touch one piece of bread with dirty, unwashed hands.
• They can wash their hands with soap and water and touch another slice, then do the same using hand sanitizer.
• Leave one piece of bread untouched.
• Place them all in clear, labeled ziplock bags and predict which one will grow the most mold.
• Leave your bread slices for at least a week (it may take a bit longer, depending on the conditions where you live) and get the kids to record their observations.

You can also try wiping your bread slices on other surfaces to see what moldy results you get (their laptop or tablet is a great place to start)!

29. Sprouting Beans

Give your household a real survivalist feel by beginning an indoor garden. We recommend planting your beans in a clear cup so that your children can be privy to all of the processes during the plant’s journey.

• How does a plant grow?
• What does germination mean?
• What is in season to grow in our area now?
• Unprocessed Beans
• If you’d like your child to see every step of the process, consider placing the beans inside of a damp paper towel inside of a ziplock. 
• You can wait, see the germinated seed together, and then plant it inside of a small cup.
• Once inside the cup, watch it grow.

Extend your work by planting various beans and altering the growth conditions in order see what makes your beans grow best! 

30. Begin Composting

Begin your “go green” resolutions by teaching your child the value of composting! Best of all, once the science experiment is done, your family will have a recycling process that will last your entire lifetimes. 

• Why is composting important?
• How else can our household go green?
• Why do we need a foundation layer for compost?
• Compost Bin
• Organic Material
• First, create a compost bin. You can purchase one or build one out of wood. 
• To begin your composting, you’ll need even amounts of brown materials (think shredded paper, dryer lint, etc.) and green materials (think fruit and vegetable waste, lawn clippings, etc.). 
• If you’re really feeling fancy, throw some earthworms in there.

For days to come, your family will be able to discuss what can and cannot be broken down by the decomposers inside of the compost bin. Never-ending science! 

31. Turn Grapes Into Raisins

Your kids may or may not eat raising – but we can guarantee you, they’ve likely never considered the option of creating their own! 

• What other snacks can we make with science?
• Should we ever eat our experiments?
• How does this work?
• For this experiment, you’ll need grapes. (Really, that’s it!) 

Leave your grapes somewhere where they will not be disturbed and use this as an opportunity for your children to journal the changes in the grapes from day to day. Believe it or not, this type of sequential journaling is a valuable literacy skill! 

32. DIY Science Experiment

The best science experiment your child can engage in is the one they create themselves! Begin brainstorming a list of questions and let the world be their oyster as they plan and carry out their own experiments. Some of our favorite brainstorming questions, from Scholastic’s Science-Fair Project Guide, are listed below:

• What is the effect of toothpaste brand on teeth-cleaning power?
• What brand of trash bag can withstand the most weight before ripping?
• How does the type of material affect how long a shirt takes to dry?

Written by Miranda Altice, Kaitlin Anselmo, Mark Coster, Allison Ebbets, and Jodie Magrath.

Mark is the driving force behind STEM Geek. With 20 years of experience in chemistry education and research, and 3 willing children as guinea pigs, Mark has a passion for inspiring kids and adults to combine fun and learning with STEM Toys!

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We can all agree that science is awesome. And you can bring that awesomeness into your very own home with these 20 safe DIY experiments you can do right now with ordinary household items.

1. Make Objects Seemingly Disappear Refraction is when light changes direction and speed as it passes from one object to another. Only visible objects reflect light. When two materials with similar reflective properties come into contact, light will pass through both materials at the same speed, rendering the other material invisible. Check out this video from BritLab  on how to turn glass invisible using vegetable oil and pyrex glass.

2. Freeze Water Instantly When purified water is cooled to just below freezing point, a quick nudge or an icecube placed in it is all it takes for the water to instantly freeze. You can finally have the power of Frozone from The Incredibles on a very small scale! Check out the video on this "cool" experiment. 

3. Create Oobleck And Make It Dance To The Music Named after a sticky substance in a children’s book by Dr Seuss , Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid, which means it can behave as both a solid and a liquid. And when placed on a sound source, the vibrations causes the mixture to gloopily dance. Check out these instructions from Housing A Forest  on how to make this groovy fluid funk out in every way.

4. Create Your Own Hybrid Rocket Engine With a combination of a solid fuel source and a liquid oxidizer, hybrid rocket engines can propel themselves. And on a small scale, you can create your own hybrid rocket engine, using pasta, mouthwash and yeast. Sadly, it won’t propel much, but who said rocket science ain’t easy? Check out this video from NightHawkInLight on how to make this mini engine.

5. Create "Magic Mud" Another non-Newtonian fluid here, this time from the humble potato. "Magic Mud" is actually starch found in potatoes. It’ll remain hard when handled but leave it alone and it turns into a liquid. Make your own “Magic Mud” with this video.

6. Command The Skies And Create A Cloud In A Bottle Not quite a storm in a teacup, but it is a cloud in a bottle. Clouds up in the sky are formed when water vapor cools and condenses into visible water droplets. Create your own cloud in a bottle using a few household items with these wikiHow instructions .

7. Create An Underwater Magical World First synthesized by Adolf van Baeyer in 1871, fluorescein is a non-toxic powder found in highlighter pens, and used by NASA to find shuttles that land in the sea. Create an underwater magical world with this video from NightHawkInLight .

9. Make Your Own Lava Lamp Inside a lava lamp are colored bubbles of wax suspended in a clear or colorless liquid, which changes density when warmed by a heating element at the base, allowing them to rise and fall hypnotically. Create your own lava lamp with these video instructions.

10. Create Magnetic Fluid A ferrofluid is a liquid that contains nanoscale particles of metal, which can become magnetized. And with oil, toner and a magnet , you can create your own ferrofluid and harness the power of magnetism! 

12. Make Waterproof Sand A hydrophobic substance is one that repels water. When sand is combined with a water-resistant chemical, it becomes hydrophobic. So when it comes into contact with water, the sand will remain dry and reusable. Make your own waterproof sand with this video .

13. Make Elephant's Toothpaste Elephant’s toothpaste is a steaming foamy substance created by the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, which sort of resembles giant-sized toothpaste. Make your own elephant’s toothpaste with these instructions.

14. Make Crystal Bubbles When the temperature falls below 0 o C (32 o F), it’s possible to freeze bubbles into crystals. No instructions needed here, just some bubble mix and chilly weather.

15. Make Moving Liquid Art Mixing dish soap and milk together causes the surface tension of the milk to break down. Throw in different food colorings and create this trippy chemical reaction.

16. Create Colourful Carnations Flowers absorb water through their stems, and if that water has food coloring in it, the flowers will also absorb that color. Create some wonderfully colored flowers with these wikiHow instructions .

17. "Magically" Turn Water Into Wine Turn water into wine with this  video  by experimenter Dave Hax . Because water has a higher density than wine, they can switch places. Amaze your friends with this fun science trick.

18. Release The Energy In Candy (Without Eating It) Dropping a gummy bear into a test tube with potassium chlorate releases the chemical energy inside in an intense chemical reaction. That’s exactly what's happening when you eat candy, kids.

19. Make Water "Mysteriously" Disappear Sodium polyacrylate is a super-absorbent polymer, capable of absorbing up to 300 times its own weight in water. Found in disposable diapers, you can make water disappear in seconds with this video .

20. Create A Rainbow In A Jar Different liquids have different masses and different densities. For example, oil is less dense than water and will float on top of its surface. By combining liquids of different densities and adding food coloring, you can make an entire rainbow in a jar with this video .

There you have it – 20 experiments for you to explore the incredible world of science!

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35 Easy Science Experiments You Can Do Today!

Looking for easy science experiments to do at home or in the classroom? You’re in luck because we’ve got over 35 easy science activities for kids that will help you make science fun for all ages. 

Most of these simple science experiments for kids are easy to prepare, quick to perform, and use household items or inexpensive materials you can find almost anywhere. To connect the fun to the “why it works” you’ll find an easy to teach explanation with every experiment!

Musical Jars Science Experiment 

This super easy experiment is simple as it is fun! Kids make their own musical instruments with clear jars and water then investigate sound waves, pitch, and more.

When the experiment is complete, use the colorful new “instrument” for a fun music lesson. Kids can play and take turns to “name that tune”!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Musical Jars Science Experiment

Viscosity of Liquids Science Experiment

Viscosity may be a confusing term for kids at first, but this super easy experiment can help them see viscosity in action!

With marbles, clear jars, and a few household materials, kids will make predictions, record data, and compare the results while they test high and low density liquids.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->   Viscosity Science Experiment

Floating Egg Science Experiment

Can a solid egg float? Kids can find the answer and understand why with this quick science experiment. 

Discover just how easy it can be to make a raw egg float while testing the laws of density. We’ve included additional ideas to try so kids can make predictions and test the concept further.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->   Floating Egg Science Experiment

Paper Towel Dry Under Water Experiment

Is it possible to keep a paper towel dry even when submerging it under water? The answer is a surprising “yes,” if you use science to help!

Start with the properties of your materials, make a prediction, then explore matter, density, volume, and more.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->   Paper Towel Dry Under Water Experiment

Mixing Oil & Water Science Experiment

This simple experiment for kids helps them better understand density and the changes that happen when adding an emulsifier to the mix. 

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->   Mixing Oil & Water Experiment

Will it Float or Sink Science Experiment

Will it sink or will it float? This fun experiment challenges what students think they know about household items!

Students record their hypothesis for each item then test it to compare what they think will happen against their observations.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Float or Sink Science Experiment

Water Temperature Science Experiment

What does thermal energy look like? In this easy science experiment, kids are able to see thermal energy as they explore the concept in action.

With clear jars and food coloring, students can quickly see how molecules move differently through hot and cold water.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Water Temperature Science Experiment

Balloon Blow-up Science Experiment

Kids will discover how matter reacts when heated and cooled as they watch with surprise as baking soda and vinegar blow the balloon up before their eyes.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Balloon Blow-up Science Experiment

Floating Ping Pong Ball Science Experiment

Kids will giggle with joy with this super easy experiment. With only a ping pong ball and a hair dryer, students will have a great time while exploring Bernoulli’s Principle in action. 

We’ve included additional ideas to further explore the concept with different objects and observe the change in results.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Floating Ping Pong Ball Science Experiment

Hair Stand on End Science Experiment

It’s especially fun for those who’ve never seen static electricity in action before!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Hair Stand on End Science Experiment

Oil Bubbles in Water Science Experiment

Kids explore density and experience some chemistry when creating oil bubbles in water with everyday household items.

This experiment is particularly fun when kids see that they’ve made what looks like a lava lamp!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Oil Bubbles in Water Science Experiment

Color Changing Water Science Experiment

Kids will be surprised as they watch a new color being “created” without mixing! Using only a clear bowl and glass, some food coloring, and water, this super easy science experiment is quick and easy with a huge wow factor. 

Try it with yellow and blue to follow along with our demonstration video then try different primary color combinations and explore the results.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Color Changing Water Science Experiment

Magnetic Paper Clip Chain Science Experiment

It may seem a bit like magic but it’s actually science! It’s not hard to capture your kids’ attention with this quick and easy science experiment as they watch paper clips “stick” together and form a chain!

Perfect for younger children, the experiment only takes a few minutes and is a fun way to explore the concept of magnetic transference.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Magnetic Paper Clip Chain Science Experiment

Is it Magnetic Science Experiment

With only a magnet and a few household items, kids will make and record their predictions, test and observe, then compare what they think is magnetic against the results.

Simple and quick, but some of the results may surprise your students!

Cloud in a Jar Experiment

This simple experiment only requires a few materials but really holds student attention as a cloud forms before their eyes!

Kids will learn new weather vocabulary as they explore how physical changes and reactions happen as clouds begin to take form. We’ve also included a helpful chart on the types of clouds.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Cloud in a Jar Science Experiment

Magic Milk Science Experiment

Create a dancing rainbow of colors with this easy science experiment for kids!

Using only a few ordinary kitchen items, your students can create a color explosion in ordinary milk when they add our special ingredient. (Hint: The special ingredient (soap!) includes hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules that make the magic happen!)

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Magic Milk Science Experiment

Walking Water Science Experiment

Water can’t really walk upwards against gravity, but this cool science experiment makes it seem like it can! 

Kids are able to see the capillary action process and learn how attraction and adhesive forces in action allow water to move out of one glass into another. 

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Walking Water Science Experiment

Light Refraction Science Experiment

The results of this easy science experiment are so amazing, it makes kids (and adults) think it must be magic!

Young scientists watch in surprise while they see an arrow change directions instantly. Investigating refraction couldn’t be more fun!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Light Refraction Science Experiment

Dancing Raisins Experiment

Learn about the reactions of buoyancy and density in this simple science activity for kids. 

They may not need dancing shoes, but give them a glass of soda pop and the raisins in this fun experiment love to dance!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Dancing Raisins Science Experiment

See Sound Experiment

Kids love this experiment because they are encouraged to drum loudly so they can “see” sound waves in action!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> See Sound Science Experiment

Elephant Toothpaste Science Experiment

Grab some giant brushes and get ready to make elephant toothpaste! Although you might not be able to get an elephant excited by this super easy experiment, kids love it!

The impressive and quick results created by the chemical reaction and the heat released in the process makes an abundant amount of fun and colorful foam!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Elephant Toothpaste Science Experiment

Upside Down Glass of Water Science Experiment

We all know what happens when we turn a glass of water upside down, but what if I told you you can do it without the water spilling out?

The experiment only requires a few common items and you’ll be amazed by the results of air pressure in action!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Upside Down Glass of Water Science Experiment

Pick up Ball with a Jar Science Experiment

It almost seems like magic but with the help of science, you can pick up a ball with an open jar!

Instead of magic, this easy science activity uses centripetal force and practice to do what seems like the impossible. 

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Pick up Ball with a Jar Experiment

Will It Melt Science Experiment

Can you guess which items will melt? This easy outside experiment challenges what students think they know about the effects of the sun.

Pepper Move Science Experiment

Can you make pepper move and zoom away with just a light touch of your finger? With science you can!

This experiment only takes a few quick minutes from beginning to end, but the reaction caused by surface tension makes kids want to do it over and over. 

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial ->  Pepper Move Science Experiment

Crush a Plastic Bottle Science Experiment

Go for it, crush that bottle, but don’t touch it! Although it usually can’t be seen or touched, air pressure is pushing against all surfaces at all times.

With this easy science activity kids can see air pressure at work when they watch a bottle crushes itself!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Crush a Plastic Bottle Science Experiment

Egg in Vinegar Science Experiment

This vinegar science experiment will have your eggs and kids bouncing (with excitement!) before you know it!

Kids can watch and explore the results of chemical reactions as the egg changes from something that seems solid into what feels like something bouncy!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Egg in Vinegar Science Experiment

Straw Through a Potato Science Experiment

Can you make a normal plastic straw go into a raw, solid potato? It seems like something impossible, but science can easily make it possible!

Pick your potatoes then let kids try their strength as they explore air pressure with this super easy experiment.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Straw Through a Potato Science Experiment

Rainbow in a Jar Science Experiment

With only a few household items, they’ll explore mass, volume, and density with every color layer!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Rainbow in a Jar Experiment

Tornado in a Bottle Science Experiment

Kids can have fun while learning more about centripetal force with this fun experiment.

With a little muscle and science, kids watch with amazement as they create their own glitter cyclone in a bottle as the centripetal force vortex appears.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Tornado in a Bottle Science Experiment

Why Doesn’t the Water Leak Science Experiment

Can you poke holes in a plastic bag full of water without the water leaking out? With this super easy science activity you can!

Kids are stunned as they learn about polymers and how they can do what seems to be impossible.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Why Doesn’t the Water Leak Science Experiment

Use a Bottle to Blow-up a Balloon Experiment

Is it possible to blow up a balloon with only water and science? 

In this super easy experiment, kids learn more about how matter behaves as they watch a balloon inflate and deflate as a result of matter being heated and cooled.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Use a Bottle to Blow-up a Balloon Experiment

Orange Float Science Experiment

Kids explore buoyancy as they learn about and test density in this sink or float science activity.

While it only takes a few minutes, this super easy experiment invites kids to predict what they think will happen then discuss why the heavier orange floats!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Orange Float Science Experiment

Pick up Ice with String Science Experiment

With only a few household items, kids learn about freezing temperatures and the results they create in saltwater versus freshwater.

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Pick Up Ice with String Science Experiment

Color Changing Walking Water Experiment

Using the concepts explored in our popular Walking Water Science Experiment, kids will see color walk from one glass to another and change colors as it goes!

The quick experiment seems to defy gravity like magic, but don’t worry, kids can find out how science makes it work!

Detailed Instructions & Video Tutorial -> Color Changing Walking Water Experiment

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45 Easy Science Experiments for Kids

Hello, STEM! These simple DIY activities can be done at home or in school.

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Imagine blowing the biggest bubbles imaginable — or even making bubbles within bubbles. Or sending vessels — rockets, tea bags, airplanes — soaring through the sky for impossible distances. Now imagine making things explode, or change colors, or reveal hidden messages with just a few simple mixtures.

None of this is magic. It's all science that you can do at home, most likely with ingredients you already have in your house. So, next time you need a boredom-busting indoor activity on a rainy day or a DIY project to get their minds humming, try one of these best at-home science experiments for kids , which cover topics like cover magnetism, surface tension, astronomy, chemistry, physics and more.

First off, it's good to start them off with the scientific method. Give them a journal to record their observations, questions, hypotheses, experiments, results and conclusions. As always, safety counts: wear goggles and coats or aprons if need be (sometimes kids get a kick out of how scientific the protective gear makes them look), and always make sure that the kids are supervised when doing them. (Warning: Some of these are messy!)

These experiments are mostly designed for preschoolers through elementary schoolers — with a couple that are either demonstrations or better for older kids — but if you have a younger one, you can check out these 1-year-old learning activities , toddler learning activities and preschool/kindergarten learning activities , some of which also cover STEM subjects.

Floating Fish

Here's another one that deals with solubility and density.

• Draw the outline of a fish on the bottom of a glass plate or tray in dry-erase marker. Retrace your drawing to make sure all the lines are connected. Let dry for a minute or two.
• Fill the measuring cup with tap water. Place the pour spout just inside the corner of the dish and add water very slowly until it just covers the bottom. Be careful not to pour water directly onto your drawing or make splashes near it. The water will move toward your drawing, eventually surrounding it. Observe what happens. If the water splashes or it doesn’t work on your first try, empty the dish, erase the drawing with a paper towel, dry off the dish, and try again.
• Tilt the dish slightly from side to side. What happens? Jot it down.

The ink in dry erase markers is engineered to be slippery. It’s made with a chemical that causes it to easily release from surfaces. (Permanent markers are made with a chemical that makes the ink stick to surfaces, so be sure not to use these in your experiment!)

The easy-release ink lets go from a surface, but why does it float? There are two reasons. First, dry erase ink isn’t soluble, which means it won’t dissolve in water. Second, dry erase ink is less dense than the water, so it becomes buoyant, meaning it can float. When you tilt the dish, the fish moves around on the water’s surface.

From Good Housekeeping Amazing Science: 83 Hands-on S.T.E.A.M Experiments for Curious Kids! See more in the book »

Brush, Brush!

This one will really get them into brushing their teeth once they scientifically prove all the good things that toothpaste can do.

• Write on sticky notes: Soda 1, Soda 2, Juice 1, and Juice 2. Place them in a row on a counter.
• Fill two glasses halfway with brown soda and place behind the Soda 1 and Soda 2 sticky notes. Fill two glasses halfway with lemon juice and place behind the Juice 1 and Juice 2 sticky notes.
• Carefully place one egg in the bowl. Squeeze a big dollop — about one tablespoon — of toothpaste on top of the egg and gently rub the toothpaste all around with your hands until the egg is completely covered in a thick layer of toothpaste. Repeat with a second egg.
• Gently submerge the toothpaste-covered eggs into the liquids: one egg in the glass labeled Soda 1 and the other egg in the glass labeled Juice 1. Wash and dry your hands.
• Gently submerge the remaining eggs, without toothpaste on them, in the remaining glasses: one in the glass labeled Soda 2 and the other in the glass of juice labeled Juice 2. Wash and dry your hands. Leave the eggs in the glasses for 12 hours.
• After 12 hours, remove the eggs from the glasses of soda one at a time. Rinse them in cool water and pat them dry with the towel. Place each egg by the sticky note of the glass it was in. Are the eggs the same or different colors?
• Remove the eggs from the glasses of juice one at a time. Rinse them under the faucet and pat them dry. Place each egg by the sticky note of the glass it was in. Feel the eggs gently. Does one feel stronger or weaker than the other?
• Write down your observations in your science notebook.

The eggshells in this experiment represent the enamel (outer coating) on your teeth. Toothpaste cleans your teeth and prevents stains: it removes food and drink particles that are stuck on your teeth. Teeth can be stained easily by dark-colored liquids like cola, coffee or tea. The egg without toothpaste will be brown and discolored. The egg covered in toothpaste was protected from turning brown.

Toothpaste also protects your pearly whites from decay (breaking down). The egg without toothpaste left in the lemon juice was worn down and soft to the touch, while the egg that was protected with toothpaste is stronger. The lemon juice is acidic, and those acids broke down the shell just as acidic drinks can wear away your tooth enamel. When a tooth is worn down, a cavity can form more easily. But the fluoride in toothpaste mixes with your saliva to create a protective coating around your tooth enamel. It helps keep your teeth strong and cavity-free.

Grow an Avocado Tree

For an easy lesson in Earth Science, your family can grow an avocado tree from a pit. You can buy an AvoSeedo kit , or just peel the seed and suspend it over water with toothpicks.

Get the tutorial »

Milk Bottle Xylophone

No for an experiment in sound!

• Arrange six glass jars or bottles, all the same size with no lids, in a line. What will each jar sound like when you tap it with a spoon? Make a prediction, then tap each jar. Record your observations.
• Next, put water in each of the jars. Pour 1⁄4 cup (60 ml) of water into the first jar. Add 1⁄2 cup (120 ml) of water to the second jar. Continue in 1⁄4-cup increments, adding 3⁄4 cup (180 ml) of water to the third jar, 1 cup (240 ml) of water to the fourth jar, 11⁄4 cups (300 ml) of water to the fifth jar, and 11⁄2 cups (360 ml) to the sixth jar. Add a couple of drops of food coloring to each jar.
• What will each jar sound like? Will they sound the same or different than when the container was empty? Will they sound the same or different from one another? Record your predictions.
• Tap each jar with a metal spoon. Write down your observations about each jar’s pitch (how high or low a sound is) in your notebook.

Sound waves are created by vibrations, which are back-and-forth movements that are repeated again and again. Pitch depends on the frequency of the waves — how many are created each second. A high pitch is created by high-frequency sound waves, and can sound squeaky. A low pitch is created by low-frequency sound waves, and sounds deep and booming.

When you tapped the jar, it vibrated. The vibrations traveled from the jar to the water to the air and eventually to your ears. The jars with more water had a low pitch. The sound waves vibrated more slowly because they had more water to travel through. The jars with less water had higher pitches. The sound waves vibrated faster because they had less water to travel through. A jar with no water in it makes the highest pitch because it has the least substance to travel through.

"Elephant Toothpaste"

Okay, elephants don't really brush with this stuff, which is made from a chemical reaction between hydrogen peroxide, yeast, dish soap and a few other simple ingredients. But this experiment has a big "wow" factor since, when the substances are mixed, the "toothpaste" foams out of the bottle. You can use it to teach kids about catalysts and exothermic reactions.

Get the tutorial at Babble Dabble Do »

DIY Compass

Explore the way magnetism works, and how it affects everyday objects, by magnetizing a needle and making a DIY compass. You can even spin the compass in the water, and it'll end up pointing the right way again.

Get the tutorial at STEAM Powered Family »

Craft Stick Chain Reaction

Kids can learn about the differences between potential and kinetic energy with this chain reaction. It makes a big impact: Once the tension is released, the pom poms go flying through the air!

Get the the tutorial at Science Sparks »

Color-Changing Invisible Ink

Kids will feel like super-spies when they use this heatless method to reveal pictures or colors written with "invisible ink." You can try different acid/base combinations to see which one makes the most dramatic result.

Get the tutorial at Research Parent »

Paper Bridge

Get the engineering back into STEM with this activity, which challenges kids to create a paper bridge that's strong enough to hold as many pennies as possible. How can they manipulate the paper to make it sturdier? (Hint: Fold it!)

See the paper bridge tutorial at KidsActivities.com »

Challenge your little scientist to lift up an ice cube with just a piece of string. It's possible ... with a little salt to help. Salt melts the ice and lowers the freezing point of the ice cube, which absorbs the heat from the water around it, making the water cold enough to re-freeze around the string.

Get the tutorial at Playdough to Plato »

Marshmallow Catapult

Another lesson in potential and kinetic energy, kids will love sending mini marshmallows flying in the name of science. Change some of the variables and see how that affects the marshmallow's trajectory.

Get the tutorial at Hello, Wonderful »

Leaf Breathing

It's hard for kids to picture how plants and trees "breathe" through their leaves — until they see the bubbles appear on a leaf that's submerged in water. You can also teach them about photosynthesis by putting different leaves in different spots with varying levels of sunlight.

Get the tutorial at KC EDventures »

Hoop-and-Straw Airplane

We all remember how to fold those classic, triangular paper airplanes, but these hoop-and-straw airplanes fly way better (and straighter). Experiment by changing the length of the straw and the size of the hoops and see how it affects the flight.

Get the tutorial at Mombrite »

Film Canister Rocket

Blast off! You don't need jet fuel to make these rockets go, just Alka-Seltzer tablets and baking soda, but they'll be amazed when they achieve lift-off! (Note: If you can't find old film canisters, tubes of Airborne work, too.)

Get the tutorial at Raising Lifelong Learners »

Coin Inertia

Stack up about five or so coins on a piece of cardboard and place it over a glass of water. Then, flick the cardboard out from on top of the glass. Do the coins drop into the water, or ride with the cardboard? Due to inertia, they drop into the water — a very visual (and fun!) demonstration of Newton's First Law of Motion.

Get the tutorial at Engineering Emily »

Apple Oxidation

What works best for keeping an apple from turning brown? Test to find out! Slice up an apple, and let each slice soak in a different liquid. Then take them out, lay them on a tray, and check the brownness after three minutes, six minutes and so on. Not only does this test the properties of different liquids, it also helps students practice the scientific method if they create hypotheses about which liquids would be most effective.

Get the tutorial at Jennifer Findley »

RELATED: 50 Fun Activities for Kids Will Keep Them Entertained for Hours

Coffee Ground Fossils

By making a salt dough with coffee grounds and pressing various shapes into it (toy dinosaur feet, seashells), kids can get a better understanding of how fossils are made. If you poke a hole in the top before it dries, the kids can hang their "fossils" up in their rooms.

Get the tutorial at Crafts by Amanda »

Chromatography Flowers

Chromatography is the process of separating a solution into different parts — like the pigments in the ink used in markers. If you draw stripes around a coffee filter, then fold it up and dip the tip in water, the water will travel up the filter and separate the marker ink into its different pigments (in cool patterns that you can display as a craft project). This family made the end-result even brighter by adding an LED circuit to the center.

Get the tutorial at Steam Powered Family »

Water Walking

You'll need six containers of water for this one: three with clear water, one with red food coloring, one with blue coloring, and one with yellow coloring. Arrange them in a circle, alternating colored and clear containers, and make bridges between the containers with folded paper towels. Your kids will be amazed to see the colored water "walk" over the bridges and into the clear containers, mixing colors, and giving them a first-hand look at the magic of capillarity.

Get the tutorial at Fun Learning for Kids »

Sunscreen Test

This experiment puts the A (art) in STEAM: Paint different designs on construction paper with different sunscreens, leave the papers out in the sun and compare the results. Then, hang your "conclusions" on your fridge.

Get the tutorial at Tonya Staab »

Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother . She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.  

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WHY NOT TRY A FUN SCIENCE EXPERIMENT RIGHT NOW?

Here’s list of great science experiments with instructions that you can do right at home or at school. In order for your science experiment to be safe and successful, be sure to:

• Get your parent’s or teacher’s permission, and their help
• Follow the directions as written

Dancing Popcorn Experiment

The egg drop challenge, make ice cream in a plastic bag, build a hovercraft you can ride, eggshell geode crystals, build a soap powered model boat, a density experiment you can drink, make your own rock candy, build a fizz inflator, make a levitating orb, blobs in a bottle, fantastic foamy fountain, build a film canister rocket, the exploding lunch bag, make your own volcano, bend water with static electricity, a color symphony, make a paperclip float, blow up a balloon with yeast, how to make slime – method 1, see some optical illusions, make an electromagnet, try some lava in a cup, make a balloon rocket.

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20 Amazingly Simple Science Experiments Using Household Items in 2023

Science experiments you can do at home! Keep the kids involved with learning at home with these easy DIY science experiments for kids. Here are some really cool experiments to do at home with household items!

Science Projects For Kids At Home

The kids have been stuck at home for awhile now and they are getting bored!

What’s worse, its been like 115 degrees every day this summer here in Arizona. So playing outside isn’t really an option. Instead, we are stuck with finding cool things to do inside the home, with the stuff we already have.

These really simple science experiments for kids are a great way to get your kids engaged and off their tablets. And even better, they all use simple items you probably already own.

Cool Science Experiments with Household Items

The best thing about all these experiments for kids is that you can do them all with items right in your pantry, or cleaning cabinet.

Shaving cream, baking soda, vinegar… you’d be very surprised what these basic household items can do with just a little imagination.

Simple Science Experiments For Kids

If you’re bored in the house and you’re in the house bored… try one of these really cool science projects for kids at home.

These great resources can also help you come up with some ideas for your kids!

• Awesome Science Experiments for Kids: 100+ Fun STEM / STEAM Projects and Why They Work
• Smithsonian 10-Minute Science Experiments: 50+ quick, easy and awesome projects for kids
• Learn & Climb Kids Science Kit – Over 60 Experiments, Fun with Science!

1 – Make Magnetic Slime

You know your kids have slime materials at home! Follow this easy tutorial to make slime that sticks to magnets. Your kids will be amazed!

Curtesy of See Mama Go

2 – Homemade Volcano

Kids love things that make messes and a homemade volcano is a classic. This easy to follow tutorial uses play-doh, baking soda, and vinegar.

Curtesy of Happy Brown House

3 – Oil and Water Lava Lamps

It’s a simple example of oil and water to make this really cool science experiment with items from your house.

Curtesy of Fun Learning For Kids

4 – Making Rain Science Experiment

Grab some shaving cream and food coloring and teach your kids how rain and clouds are made.

Curtesy of Mrs Jones Creation Station

5 – Grow a Rainbow Experiment

Watch a rainbow grow right before your very eyes. Or use any colors you want with this simple experiment that only requires water, paper towels, and markers.

Curtesy of The Best Ideas For Kids

6 – Bouncy Egg Experiment

Even I thought this science experiment was cool! A dissolving shell and a bouncy egg? How does that work!

Curtesy of Mom Brite

7 – DIY Unpoppable Bubbles

Bubbles are always a favorite of little kids. But what if they could make some bubbles that don’t pop?

Curtesy of Learning Resources

8 – Baking Soda Rocket

Did you you can make rockets with everyday household items? Your kids will think you are the coolest mom in the world when you show them this experiment.

Curtesy of Science-Sparks

9 – Pencil in Water Bag

My daughter actually learned this experiment in school and came home and showed it to me. It was so amazing to her, she loved shocking others with this cool experiment.

Curtesy of Hello, Wonderful

10 – Balloon Air Pressure Experiment

You’ll want to supervise this experiment since it involves fire but your kids will light up when they do it (haha… pun intended).

Curtesy of Darcy and Brian

11 – Dancing Raisins

Finally a really cool science experiment you can do at home AND you can eat! Little kids will love making and eating this project.

Curtesy of One Little Project

12 – Crushing Cans Science Experiment

Kids love things that smash and crash. Take some old cans from the recycling bin and give them a fun science experiment that crushes some cans.

Curtesy of Frugal Fun 4 Boys

13 – Exploding Sandwich Bag Science Experiment

Kids will love this science experiment that uses a chemical reaction to explode!

14 – Snowstorm in a Jar Winter Science Experiment

Get ready for the holiday season with this cool science experiment where you make snow in a jar.

15 – Magic Pepper and Soap Science Experiment

This paper and soap experiment is fun for kids because they get to use their own fingers to make it work.

16 – Making Butter Science Experiment

Science you can eat! Use this creative experiment to learn something new and have a tase treat when you are done.

Curtesy of StemSational

17 – Rising Water Science Experiment

With just a few items and a few steps, you can demonstrate to your kids how to rise the water inside the cup or jar without ever touching it.

18 – Arctic Animals Science Experiment

My daughter loves showing off this science experiment when people come over. She thinks sh’e being tricky, but it’s a great way to learn about animal blubber.

Curtesy of Forgetful Momma

19 – Tornado in a Bottle

A fun way to learn about weather is with this DIY tornado in a bottle science experiment.

Curtesy of Gift of Curiosity

20 – DIY Thermometer for Kids

This is a great way to get kids involved in the weather and to get them outside and active.

Curtesy of Lemon Lime Adventures

Simple Science Experiments You Can Do At Home

Whether you are trying to teach school online or your kids are just home and bored during summer vacation, all of these DIY science experiments will keep them entertained and engaged!

You Might Also Be Interested In:

• Middle School Science Fair Project Idea
• How to Help Your Kids Succeed At Online Learning
• How To Make Magnetic Slime

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Spectacular Science Experiments Simple Enough to Do at Home

When you hear your kids say, “I’m bored,” you just know that you have to come up with something to entertain them before a tantrum explodes. When you’re stuck at home, the common misconception is that you’re faced with limited activities that you can do. You’ve probably tried performance and art activities, but have you tried conducting simple science experiments?

You don’t need to go through years of school or have experience working in a tech lab to dip your toes into science experiments. You can do numerous simple experiments at home that’s perfectly safe for you and your kids. 

So if you’ve been pulling your hair thinking about what else you can do to entertain your kids, don’t fret! We’ve rounded up different scientific experiments that are perfect for dull and lazy days. Trust us, these experiments are all tried and tested and have passed our scientific home lab standards. So put on a lab coat, safety goggles, and let’s start!

Tornado in a bottle

One of the most visually stunning and easy experiments that you and your kids can do is recreate a tornado inside a bottle. For this experiment, you’ll need to connect to bottles with some water inside.

Start by whirling the liquid in the top bottle to create a vortex. As the water drains to the bottom bottle, air will flow up and create a spiralling tornado. 

To make it even more magical, you can add glitter, food coloring, or lamp oil to the water. 

Super gooey slime

Kids love to use their hands and sense of touch to explore and play with different objects. Wait until they find out that they can make their own gooey slime. 

To make super gooey slime, mix glue, water, food coloring, and some borax into a bowl and watch as the gooey slime forms. This happens because the glue contains polyvinyl acetate, a liquid polymer, and links to the borax. This creates a gigantic flexible polymer called slime. 

You can make this even more fun by creating a rainbow of slimes for your kids to play with!

Baking soda volcano

When your kids are bored, the top-tier of homemade experiments and one that will instantly impress your kids is a baking soda volcano. The great thing about this experiment is that not only is it safe, but the explosion will immediately dazzle your kids.

To do this, you want to make a mountain with soil and pierce a hole right down the middle as its crater. You’ll then want to add a bit of baking soda inside the hole and let your kids pour the vinegar.

This happens because the baking soda and vinegar’s chemical reaction creates lava that’s bursting out of your soil volcano. 

When your kids scream “I’m bored,” home activities don’t need to be all about playing. Easy science experiments like the ones we mentioned above can not only entertain your kids but also squeeze in some science topics that your kids will learn from. So gather the kids, all your lab tools and “chemicals” that can be found in the pantry, and be scientists for a day!

If your kids keep screaming, “ I’m bored ,” don’t panic! Bored A Lot is here to serve up countless ideas you can do when you’re unsure how to spend your days. We have a random website generator and categories for sites you can visit, and articles filled with activities you can try. Fill up the hours of your day with fun, and check out our website!

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Science Connected Magazine

Science Literacy, Education, Communication

8 Fun Science Experiments You Can Easily Do at Home

Looking for a science project to do with kids? These experiments go beyond the trivial and incorporate real-world scientific research.

SciStarter Blog

Around the world, millions of kids are headed back to school in a totally different way. Classes are online. Teachers talk to students in virtual classrooms. And parents are often left looking for new, hands-on science learning opportunities.

We’ve got your back. Here are eight fun and easy science experiments that you can do at home with kids of all ages. What’s more, each of these science projects ties into real-life research efforts through citizen science, where volunteers help experts collect and analyze data.

RELATED: VIRTUAL DISSECTION: ANIMALEARNING FROM HOME

Make Wild Sourdough

It seems like the whole world is baking homemade sourdough bread right now. Sourdough took on broad appeal when the baker’s yeast disappeared from store shelves. Unlike other baking projects, sourdough doesn’t need store bought yeast. Instead, it’s made with sourdough starter.

RELATED: FREE SCIENCE EDUCATION E-BOOKS

If you have flour, you can easily experiment with making your own sourdough starter.  Wild sourdough starters  tap into the abundant yeast in our homes and puts them to work making delicious bread. When it comes to science experiments you can do at home, few could be more delicious and rewarding than this one. You’ll also be helping scientists out along the way.

RELATED: BACK TO SCHOOL WITH CITIZEN SCIENCE

The Wild Sourdough Project is a global science experiment that hopes to discover how sourdough starter communities form over time. The team behind the effort is hoping to unravel how factors like geography and different kinds of flour affect the yeast communities. Best of all, the effort has a step-by-step guide that lets you learn how to make your own sourdough starter.

Take Part: Make Your Own Sourdough for Science

Create a Cloud in a Jar

Clouds are an important and often overlooked driver of Earth’s temperature. They trap sunlight in, but they also reflect it back into space. That role has climate scientists rushing to study our planet’s clouds, and how they’re changing.  NASA’s GLOBE Observer: Clouds  project taps citizen scientists to provide pictures of the sky, plus observations of cloud cover, type, sky conditions and visibility. That data helps info real science research and verify what satellites are seeing from space.

You can get involved with your kids and enrich the experience by adding lessons about clouds. For example, NASA has added a number of fun and easy ways to learn about climate science and clouds, including science experiments. One of the best related projects is to make a cloud in a jar. This simple science experiment is a powerful way to demonstrate how clouds work. You only need water, ice, a jar, and a few minutes of time.

Take Part: Join NASA’s Globe Observer Clouds

Measure Rain and Snow with CoCoRaHS

Fall is approaching fast, which means many of us will soon be at home watching rain and snow out the window. Instead of succumbing to the gloom, why not make that weather into a fun science experiment for your kids?

The CoCoRaHS weather monitoring program, or Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, is a network of volunteers who measure and report on precipitation. CoCoRaHS emphasizes training and education, and they even have an interactive website rich in educational resources and even National Weather Service lesson plans you can use at home.

RELATED: Getting Creative with Remote Science Learning

As a volunteer, you’ll use the same low-cost weather gauges that meteorologists and cities use. Then, when it rains, snows or hails, you’ll submit your precipitation data to the website where you can compare it to others in real-time. That information also helps out the National Weather Service, as well as researchers, farmers, emergency managers — and curious people everywhere.

Take Part: Join the CoCoRaHS Weather Monitoring Network

Plant a Pollinator Garden

Pollinators play a vital role in Earth’s ecosystems, and yet they’re threatened by pesticides, disease, habitat loss and even climate change. That has many people searching for  ways to help save bees and other pollinators .

There are many options to chip in, but one of the most impactful things you and your kids can do at home is  plant a pollinator garden .

Not only will this serve to help struggling pollinators, it can also serve as a long-term science laboratory at home. SciStarter, the citizen-science group behind this blog post, has compiled an entire group of at-home science projects that can be done from your pollinator garden. You can watch moths, butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and more, then help scientists track their migration across the country.

Take Part: Plant a Pollinator Garden

Build a Bee Condo

If you already have a bumper garden at home, or it’s getting too cold to think about planting just yet, you can still stay indoors and help pollinators. The group behind National Pollinator Week has put together instructions for how you can build a home for native bees, called a bee condo. Unlike domesticated honey bees that live in apiaries, most native, wild bees you find in your backyard actually burrow their homes into the soil or a tree.

By building a bee condo, you can encourage bees to live nearby and also get a fun, DIY science experiment to do at home. Once it’s up, you can watch what kinds of critters take up residence there and report back on the results for science.

Take Part: Build a Bee Condo

Scan the Night Sky

Around the world, light pollution from buildings and street lamps is blocking our view of the night sky. Most people who live in cities have never seen a truly dark sky, or the Milky Way. That’s not just bad for humans, it’s also bad for the plants, animals and insects who are disrupted by light pollution.

If you have a budding astronomy-lover in the house, you can participate in a science project called  Globe at Night  that aims to create a world-wide measure of light pollution in our night sky.

For this science experiment, you can start making observations using only a smartphone. You’ll mark the sky’s darkness by how many stars you can see. And you can get a sky quality meter through the project to help record even better data.

Take Part: Measure Light Pollution in Your Community

Measure Water Quality

More than 1.5 million volunteers from across the planet are already taking part in a science experiment to track — and protect — Earth’s waterways. The citizen science effort is called the  EarthEcho Water Challenge , and it has users buy a water test kit for about $25, then start collecting basic water data.

Volunteers record things like water clarity, temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen. That data gets plugged into a large database, where it’s used for real science research and to help protect waterways.

Take Part: Join the Earth Echo Water Challenge

Study the Vitamin C in Your Juice

Back in the golden age of sailing, sailors worried that they’d get scurvy. A lack of vitamin C during long voyages can cause a host of health problems. Scurvy leaves you weak, causes skin problems and gum disease, and makes it harder to heal. Scurvy can even kill you. This isn’t just an old-timey concern, either. Future space explorers will have to worry about vitamin C as they head off to explore the solar system. And that’s the angle utilized by a fun citizen science project called  Space Scurvy .

The project asks students to use household items to test the vitamin C content of juices from their schools and homes. The necessary tools for this science experiment should be easy to come by, and the site has fun and simple directions for you to follow.

Take Part: Measure Vitamin C for the Space Scurvy Project

Note: Some of these projects are SciStarter Affiliates. You can use your SciStarter account email to join and earn credit for your participation in your SciStarter dashboard.

Citizen Science Lessons During the Pandemic

About the Author

Eric Betz is a science and tech writer for Discover Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, and others. He is a lover of #darkskies and pale blue dots.

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