STEM Activities for Kids (482 results)

Making Sound Waves

STEM Activity

23 reviews

Have you ever heard of an “eardrum”? If the answer is yes, then you probably know that your eardrum is an essential part of your ear, allowing you to hear the world around you. But why do we call it a drum? It turns out that calling it a drum is a very accurate description of what your eardrum looks like, and what it does inside your ear. To understand how your eardrum works, imagine using a drumstick to bang on a real drum, and then touching the drum with your hand. When you do… Read more

Mars Rover Obstacle Course

STEM Activity

27 reviews

How do scientists and engineers control robots that drive around other planets millions of miles away? It's nowhere near as easy as driving a toy remote-control car here on Earth. In this activity you will experience some of the challenges you face when driving a "robot" that you can't see! Read more

Mini Golf Physics

STEM Activity

16 reviews

Have you ever played mini golf? It might seem like just a game, but there is a lot of science behind it! Learn about the physics behind a rolling, bouncing mini golf ball and design your own mini golf course in this fun science activity. Read more

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Make String from Algae

STEM Activity

224 reviews

Did you know that the seaweed you've seen in the ocean or even eaten as a snack is inspiring innovators to imagine new materials? Large brown algae, like kelp, contains polymers—long chains of molecules—that are more environmentally friendly than the ones in most plastics. These natural polymers (alginates) could eventually be used to create sustainable everyday objects. Try your hand at using a bit of chemistry to turn biodegradable polymers from algae into your own custom… Read more

Model How Herd Immunity Works

STEM Activity

22 reviews

Have you ever wondered why you need to get a flu shot regularly? The vaccine protects you from getting sick with the flu, which is an infectious disease. Such diseases, like the flu or COVID-19, can easily spread through a population and cause a pandemic by making many people sick. Measures such as social distancing can reduce the risk of catching the disease, but real protection only comes from gaining immunity against the disease. This is the reason for vaccinations—to make someone… Read more

No Stain, No Pain!

STEM Activity

32 reviews

It’s happened to most of us; you wear a brand new shirt to school or work, and in the middle of lunch, get a giant ketchup stain right in the middle of the shirt. Or maybe peanut butter. Or maybe spaghetti sauce. Whatever the stain is, it’s always ugly, and can be tricky to remove. Did you know that there are many different kinds of stains, and each requires different types of cleaning to get the stain out? If you try to clean a mustard stain using shower cleaner – you… Read more

Password hacker

STEM Activity

14 reviews

Do you have your own email or social media accounts? If so, you probably use a password to log into them. How did you pick your password? Is it something that might be easy for someone else to guess, like the name of your pet? This fun activity will teach you about password security and how to pick a stronger password. Read more

Phone Book Friction

STEM Activity

24 reviews

A popular science demonstration shows that when you overlap the pages of two phone books, they are nearly impossible to pull apart. Since most people do not have two phone books sitting around, we will show you how you can do the same experiment with sticky notes. Sticky notes are much smaller than phone books, so they should be easy to pull apart, right? Try this activity to find out! Read more

Program Your Own COVID-19 or Flu Simulator with Scratch

STEM Activity

35 reviews

Are you curious about how public health officials think about and model how diseases like flu and COVID-19 move from one person to another? In this activity, you will use the kid-friendly programming language Scratch to write a simulation that uses bouncing dots to represent healthy and sick people. The simulation will show how we can take measures to slow the spread of a transmissible disease. Read more

Puffing Up Marshmallows

STEM Activity

9 reviews

With the peak of camping season behind us, any leftover marshmallows can be offered up to science exploration! Did you realize that this sticky, tasty treat is nothing more than air trapped in a stretchy substance? Have you ever tried to expand a marshmallow without getting your hands all sticky? How did you do it? And how big did it get? Blowing up marshmallows is what this activity is about. You might not “see” a gas like air, but could it help puff up a marshmallow? Be ready to… Read more

Science with a Smartphone: Lux Meter

STEM Activity

5 reviews

Did you know that you can use a smartphone as a scientific instrument to explore the world around you? Smartphones contain many built-in electronic sensors that can measure phenomena such as sound, light, motion and more! In this activity, you’ll use your phone’s light sensor to examine the brightness of light from different light sources and locations. How bright is the reading lamp in your living room compared to direct sunlight? Try this activity to find out! Read more

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