Chemistry STEM Activities for Kids (84 results)

STEM Activity

7 reviews

Pop Science Quiz: What happens to water when it reaches 0°C (32°F)? Answer: It freezes! But does water always freeze when it reaches 0°C (32°F)? Believe it or not, water can sometimes be cooled to temperatures below its freezing point and still remain liquid. In this state the water is supercool. How can this happen? In this activity you will create your own supercool water, and initiate its transition from liquid to solid. All while making a tasty snack! Read more

How to Help Pass Gas

STEM Activity

1 review

Has your stomach ever ached so bad you felt as if it was blown up like a balloon—maybe after the big Thanksgiving meal? You may have had a large amount of gas trapped in your stomach and intestines. But where does the gas come from that makes you feel so uncomfortable, and how does it disappear again? In this activity, you will blow some bubbles to investigate how a specific medicine can help you feel better, so next time your tummy hurts because you are bloated, you will know how to cure… Read more

Keep Your Candy Cool With the Power of Evaporation!

STEM Activity

13 reviews

Have you ever wondered how sweating helps keep you cool on a hot summer day? Sweat, which is mostly water, cools us down when it evaporates. When water evaporates, it changes from a liquid to a gas. The gas carries away heat with it, helping to remove heat from your skin. Not only can evaporation cool down your body, it can also cool down other things, such as chocolate. Heat on a hot summer day can turn your solid candy bar into a gooey, melted mess, but how well can evaporation keep your… Read more

Featured

Make String from Algae

STEM Activity

226 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

Mac and Cheese Science: What Makes a Thick Sauce?

STEM Activity

2 reviews

There’s nothing like your favorite comfort food after a long day, right? Maybe it’s beef stew or a really great salad, or many people’s favorite, macaroni and cheese. The sauce has got to be just the right texture, though, or your noodles are either swimming in the sauce, or just one big glob! So how can you get just the right texture? Get ready to invite some friends over to taste-test. With this science activity, you can be a scientist, a cook and a crowd pleaser all at the… Read more

Make Boba for Bubble Tea

STEM Activity

24 reviews

Ever wondered how the boba in bubble tea are made? Bubble tea or boba tea is a sweetened drink made of flavored tea, milk and bubbles. The translucent, squishy bubbles called boba are remarkably easy to make. You only need three ingredients: tapioca flour, water, and brown sugar. The skill lays in one little detail: the temperature of the water used. Curious? Try it out and make bubble tea from scratch! Read more

Marble Race – In Liquid!

STEM Activity

11 reviews

Have you ever tried to squeeze honey or syrup out of a bottle at breakfast on a cold winter morning? Do you notice that it's harder to do that than on a hot summer day? As the liquid gets colder, its viscosity, or resistance to flow, increases. Viscosity is a properly of liquids that can be hugely important in wildly different applications – from how the syrup flows out of your bottle, to how blood flows through the human body, to how lava flows out of a volcano. In this project you will… Read more

Shattering Sugar – Make Your Own Hollywood Sugar Glass

STEM Activity

6 reviews

You’re watching an action movie, and suddenly the hero dives through a glass window! Or a car window shatters as the hero navigates an exciting car chase! The glass looks so real, but believe it or not, Hollywood movie sets rarely use real glass for those scenes. Can you guess what they use instead? If you guessed candy…you’re right! Instead of using real glass, which is expensive and difficult to replace for multiple shots, Hollywood movie sets use Sugar Glass! This cheap,… Read more

Springtime Science: Exploring the Pigments in Red Flowers

STEM Activity

9 reviews

In the springtime it can be easy to spot flowers in a dazzling array of colors at flower gardens and in plant nurseries. And with Mother’s Day just around the corner, stunning flower bouquets are even more readily available in stores. Have you ever wondered what pigments make a flower appear a certain color to us? For example, what pigments make a rose be a deep, rich shade of red? Do different flowers use the same pigments? In this activity you’ll get… Read more

Staining Science: Making the Boldest, Brightest Tie-Dye!

STEM Activity

3 reviews

Have you ever wondered about the materials that your clothes are made out of? The clothes you wear are made of fibers that come from many different sources. Some fabrics are made from natural fibers, and some from manufactured or totally synthetic fibers. In this activity, you’ll explore how well different fiber types are dyed using fiber-reactive dye. Aren’t you just dye-ing to find out which fabric works best? Read more

The Business of Fizziness: Test Your Soda Fizz!

STEM Activity

12 reviews

You’ve probably seen the reaction that happens when you add Mentos candy to a diet soda. The resulting eruption is powerful enough to be dangerous, and is the source of many online videos! While many people are familiar with this reaction, few of them understand why it takes place. The Mentos + Soda reaction is not actually a chemical one, but a physical one called ‘nucleation’. In this activity we will explore nucleation in soda at a smaller scale by adding some unusual… Read more

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