Science Activities for Kids

In some ways, ants are a lot like humans. That is, they tend to have a particular place they’re going, and they can keep track of their destination. They know what turns to take, they can remember where to walk and where to avoid, and they always find their way back home. Observing ant behavior is a fun and easy way for kids to learn about how animals (and especially insects) act. This experiment also provides a safe way for kids to involve themselves in the activity and see if they can influence the ants’ behavior.

Have you ever wondered why a sliced apple turns brown when you leave it exposed to the open air? Now you can find out the answer—and teach it to your kids—with this fun and simple activity, which really lets your kids see chemistry in action. Your children will come to understand that it is exposure to oxygen that makes the sliced apple turn brown. By coating the sliced apple in another substance, however, you can keep it safe from the oxygen, and keep it whiter longer!

Astronomy is a field that has fascinated cultures since the dawn of civilization. Today, kids have a massive amount of information about the universe at their fingertips. This fun science activity for kids will teach your little ones about space, the stars, history, and how to use the Internet to learn about their favorite topics.

Chemical reactions are important to learn—and fun to watch! Your kids will love this experiment because it shows them a chemical reaction in action while demonstrating the power that such a reaction can have. As a result, they will be encouraged to explore the way in which other materials react to one another.

Every region has a wealth of wildlife—including its own local birds. By learning about these birds, your kids can foster an understanding and appreciation of their hometown. While bird watching can be as simple as breaking out a pair of binoculars in your back yard, a bird watching expedition will get your kids excited about the activity while adding another dimension to the information they acquire. Discovering local wildlife is a fun and informative activity that 10 to 14 year olds will love!

Kids love music, especially when they get to make it. This easy science activity for kids lets them not only create fun tunes, it helps them learn how different materials make different sounds. By exploring the tones of glass and plastic, they will learn a bit about how different materials respond to outside forces.

Plate tectonics is an important idea to grasp in middle school science. This fun and delicious science activity for kids will show your children how plate tectonics work while allowing them to enjoy a candy bar treat.

Under what conditions does chocolate melt? Do different kinds of chocolate melt at different rates? Asking these questions will help show your kids what scientific inquiry and experimentation are all about. This activity offers a simple way to guide them in setting up an experiment, making observations, and ultimately answering these questions.

Oil and water do not mix, as they have very different properties from one another. This changes how they interact with other materials, such as food coloring. This activity will demonstrate how oil and water are different while creating a beautiful array of color bubbles.

Respecting the Earth is important and encompasses a wide variety of responsibilities. Composting will teach your kids how to respect the earth and recycle.

Kids are enthralled by the mixture of colors. Likewise, they are often intrigued by watching things melt, such as ice or snow. This science activity allows kids to combine these interests and learn more about them both! Through it, they will discover how mixing two colors can create a third and how ice melts in the heat.

Does the gravitational pull of the sun vary from one day to the next? There are some who say that it does, and that it can be especially strong on the equinoxes—strong enough even to balance a raw egg upright! This theory is unproven, but can prove a fun activity for kids, as well as a great opportunity to talk to them about the sun, the force of gravity, and the concept of balance. Using grains of salt to balance the egg, meanwhile, can further illustrate points about balance.

Put the wax paper over the cookie sheet. In the middle of the cookie sheet, have your kids flatten a piece of clay into a rectangle. Curl one of the sides of the rectangle upward, creating a ledge.

Learning the structure of a family tree is an important foundation for future scientific learning, as it teaches kids to look for connections in everyday life. This hands-on science activity for kids will show your little ones how their family members are related and point out physical similarities that such relationships can cause.

Vinegar is an acid, and when you combine it with limestone, it dissolves a little bit of calcium carbonate—releasing carbon dioxide in the form of fizzy bubbles. Allowing your kids to combine these two substances is a fun way to show them how different materials react together—and also to talk with them about different forms of matter.

Homemade ice cream is a fun way to keep kids entertained while introducing them to some foundational scientific concepts.

Playing I Spy does more than simply entertain your children—it sharpens their observation skills while teaching them about the many different objects that surround them. As such, it is a wonderfully educational game.

Kids love creating colorful artistic masterpieces, and now they can do so while learning a bit about science! This hands-on science activity for kids will teach your little ones about the freezing and melting processes. As they explore their artistic talent, they will learn about the differences between liquids and solids.

This hands-on science activity is a fantastic way to teach your kids about magnetism and have fun at the same time.  Teach your child how to observe events and record what they see.

Rain is very interesting to young children. In fact, many of them wonder where this precipitation comes from. This easy science activity for kids will help you teach them what rain is while spending quality time with your children. At this young age, an introduction to meteorology will help foster your kids' natural curiosity.

Lunar phases are apparent in every clear night sky. From full to new, these phases show something different about the movement of celestial bodies. This activity will not only teach your children about this movement, it will show them how the movement changes the way that the moon looks from Earth.

Magnetic fields may be invisible, but they are nevertheless powerful! For kids, however, it can be tough to understand the impact of forces that cannot be seen. With this experiment, your child will get to witness firsthand the real-world results of magnetic pull.

Understanding where food comes from is an important concept for kids. This fun activity will allow your toddler to take part in the creation of a food used frequently.  Not only will they develop an interest in how their foods are created, they will expend some energy and learn that materials can change their state, in this case going from a liquid to a solid.

Little ones love color, but learning the names of colors is sometimes a challenge. This fun science activity for kids allows your children to create their favorite colors while learning their names. As a result, they will enjoy the learning process while building knowledge that is fundamental to their growth.

Lemonade is the drink of choice for countless people—and now you can use it to teach your little ones the scientific method! This fun science activity for kids allows children to make their own lemonade while following directions, making a hypothesis, and collecting data through observation.

Nobody likes to pick up a piece of fruit or a slice of bread and find mold growing on it. Growing your own mold, intentionally, can be a lot of fun, though! In this simple activity, you can show your middle school student how to grow mold, and also help him or her understand precisely where mold comes from, and what conditions are needed to cultivate it.

When you submerge an orange in water, does it sink or does it float? The answer is not quite as simple as you might think. This experiment provides you and your child an easy way to determine the answer, and to get to the bottom of why an orange behaves the way that it does.

Asteroids have long held the attention of nearly all civilizations. From movies to books, these space objects have captivated the imaginations of people for decades. But the asteroids on the big screen are a bit different from the real deal. This fun activity will allow your children to learn what asteroids really are while making creative—and edible—replicas of these space objects.

Measuring rainfall will help your children understand why rain is important while mastering several scientific skills, including data collection, graphing and recording and observation. This fun science activity for kids will allow your child to enjoy playing in the rain while learning about the world around them.

Science classes have, for generations, taught basic scientific principles to students. These principles often seem abstract to middle school kids. For this reason, seeing these concepts in action is an important part of both learning and applying the valuable lessons that today’s science teachers offer. This fun science activity for kids will let your children exercise their observational skills while witnessing their science lessons in action.

Every season presents its own unique weather. As a result, people enjoy different activities during each season. Depicting these activities and weather patterns with a season tree will help your children learn the differences between spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Is a sense of taste the only thing that lets people enjoy their favorite foods? Surprisingly, no! Smelling food is just as important as putting it in your mouth when tasting. This experiment will show your kids how these two senses are intertwined while providing a fun and thought-provoking activity that they will enjoy.

Just because your kids aren’t in school doesn’t mean they can’t learn during their snow day! With this environmental science activity for kids, you can teach your children to measure snowfall, observe weather patterns, and collect and analyze data.

The sun is extremely hot—and a lot of its energy makes it all the way to the Earth! In fact, solar power is strong enough to cook a s’more. This activity will illustrate how strong the sun’s heat is while creating a delicious snack for your kids.

Often called "the final frontier," space is a topic your elementary school children may find fascinating. Learning about planets and their orbits is fun, but your kids will find creating their own solar systems even more exciting. Not only will children learn more about the planets and their orbits, they will learn how to construct models and further develop their spatial skills.

Learning about the stars is very exciting to many children. This fun science activity for kids will teach them how to identify several popular constellations. Additionally, it will let them explore ideas behind the structure of the universe, including the fact that these stars are outside of our solar system and, in some cases, outside of our galaxy.

The idea that sound travels through vibrations is not always easy for kids to grasp. This fun science experiment for kids will demonstrate this idea in an exciting and interactive way. Not only will the children have fun putting these tin can phones together—and using them—they will see firsthand the vibrations that sound makes as it travels from one tin can to the next.

Filtered water is an important part of everyday life. Humans need to drink water to survive, and clean water allows them to drink healthy water that promotes wellbeing. But filtering this water takes work! This hands-on science activity for kids will show your children how water filters remove sediment and other substances from drinking water.