24 Halloween Science Experiments!
From icky slime to candy coatings, fake blood, wearable LEDs, a fire snake, and things that foam, light up, or glow in the dark, we have STEM suggestions for spooky, Halloween-themed science and engineering to explore with students!
Update! This post has been updated for 2023!
Halloween Science and Engineering Projects!
Trick or treat! It's Halloween season! With its emphasis on the ghostly, the ghoulish, the gruesome, the spooky, the icky, and, of course, the sweet (to eat), Halloween brings an assortment of exciting themes to October. Science Buddies has science and engineering projects, activities, and experiments that tie in with Halloween and can make for great classroom, home, or independent science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning opportunities. With a bit of trick-or-treat-inspired thinking, teachers can plan fun Halloween-themed activities for science class!
Here are some of our favorite Halloween-themed science and engineering experiments to do with students at school or kids at home.
Free K-12 Halloween-themed Science Projects, STEM Activities, and Experiments
Try one of these 24 activities for hands-on science you can easily "dress up" for Halloween:
- How to Make Slime (Teachers! See also the Slime Shop: Engineer Your Own Slime lesson plan.)
- Electric Play Dough
- Use Sewable Circuits to Make Cool Costumes and Accessories
- Candy Core Samples
- Making Shadow Puppets
- Make an Alka-Seltzer Powered Lava Lamp
- 3D Print with Sand: No 3D Printer Required!
- Make a Fire Snake
- The Physics of Fake Blood
- Explore Glow-in-the-Dark Water!
- Wearable Light-up STEM
- Mouthwatering Candy Melt
- Make a Lemon Volcano (See also these other foaming, fizzing, and bubbling ideas.)
- Candy Corn Geodesic Dome
- Building a Halloween Brushbot
- Build a Balloon Car (A lesson plan is available!)
- Halloween Robots
- Pumpkin Power
- Light-up Glove
- Candy Color Chromatography
- Colored Shadows
- Build an Arduino Strobe Light for the Stroboscopic Effect
- DIY Light Up Unicorn Headband
- Design an LED Temporary Tattoo
Do More!
For even more fun Halloween science project ideas, see: Spooktacular Halloween Science Projects.
In addition to our Halloween collections, you and your students may enjoy activities and experiments from these "wizardly" science collections:
- 8 Wearables Science Projects
- Teach Chemical Reactions - 20+ Chemistry Lessons and Activities
- 14 Candy Science Experiments
- Wizardly STEM! (Awesome Summer Science Experiments)
- Wizards and Magic: Summer of STEM (Week 3)
Pin this collection:
Share Your Story!
What's your best Halloween-themed idea for hands-on science and engineering with students? We would love to hear how you tie Halloween in with your science class.
You Might Also Enjoy These Related Posts:
- Women in STEM! More than 60 Scientists and Engineers for Women's History Month
- Explore Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning with Student AI Projects
- 10 Reasons to Do the Rubber Band Car Engineering Challenge
- Black History Month - Learn More About these 38 Scientists for Black History Month!
- 49 New Science Projects in 2023!
- 25+ Coding Projects for Beginners and Beyond
- Diabetes Science Projects - Fostering Diabetes Awareness through Student STEM
- Native American Scientists and Engineers--Native American Heritage Month in Science Class