Cooking & Food Science STEM Activities for Kids (38 results)

Bake Your Ice Cream

STEM Activity

59 reviews

Did you ever bake your ice cream? An insulated bag or a cooler filled with ice can keep a treat like ice cream cool. Using the same principles, it is even possible to bake ice cream in a hot oven and have it come out frozen! This activity will teach you how. Read more

Scrumptious Science: Shaking for Butter

STEM Activity

16 reviews

Have you ever wondered how butter is made? Butter is used in many tasty applications – hot pancakes with butter running down the sides, freshly baked biscuits and pastries with butter, and hot flaky potatoes with melted butter, to name just a few. Yum! While making butter can be hard work, it can also be easily made at home. In this activity you’ll not only get to find out how butter’s made, but also how temperature affects the butter-making process. … Read more

Solution Science: Candy Chromatography

STEM Activity

40 reviews

Do you have a favorite M&Ms or Skittle candy color? Have you ever wondered what dyes are used to make that particular color? Some candies are the color they are because of a single food coloring, while others may use a couple different dyes to create just the right appearance. In this activity you’ll get to do some scientific detective work at home to investigate which colored M&M’s candies use which dyes. If you have some M&M’s leftover… Read more

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Make String from Algae

STEM Activity

225 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

Gelatin Pearls

STEM Activity

9 reviews

Do you enjoy getting creative in the kitchen? If so, this activity is for you! Molecular cuisine—taking tools, ingredients, and methods typically used in science and using them in cooking—might sound fancy and complicated, but some techniques are easy to replicate! Get your hands wet, fire up your creativity, and see how rewarding it can be! Read more

Is the Egg Raw or Cooked? That is the Question!

STEM Activity

7 reviews

Have you ever found an egg in your refrigerator and wondered if it was cooked? Although eggs drastically change inside their shells when cooked, it is still remarkably difficult to distinguish a cooked egg from a raw one without cracking it open. In this activity, you will find out how physics can help you tell the difference! Read more

Make Your Own Fizzy Lemonade

STEM Activity

18 reviews

Did you know that the soda company Coca-Cola makes over 3,500 different types of soda to distribute around the world? If you tried a different one every day, it would take you over 9 years to try them all! Do you think you would like octopus-flavored soda? What about cheese-flavored soda? If you travel far enough around the world, you’ll find those and many other flavors that may seem exotic in the U.S. Although the flavors might differ, one thing that all sodas have in common is the… Read more

Shaping Hard-boiled Eggs

STEM Activity

16 reviews

Have you ever played with your food, creating funny faces or colorful edible artworks? In this activity, you can do just that, but with results you might not expect! You will learn a fascinating way to cook and shape boiled eggs, and explore some interesting chemistry about cooking an egg along the way. While exploring the flexibility of hard-boiled eggs, you will create a delicious, odd-shaped reward! Read more

Comparing Cranberry Condiments

STEM Activity

2 reviews

Does your family have jellied cranberry sauce with Thanksgiving dinner? Jellied cranberries are thick and retain the shape of the mold in which they are placed, which might mean a turkey-shaped mold or even the shape of the can if you use a canned version. Taking a bite of jiggly jellied cranberries can be a fun addition to a delicious meal, but cranberries can also be served as a liquid-like sauce. Both versions use the same ingredients, so what makes one turn into a gelatin while the other… Read more

Find the Missing Ingredient

STEM Activity

3 reviews

Food advertisements and labels bombard us with enticing slogans and attractive images, luring us into consuming the food. But have you ever wondered how nutritious the food is? Have you ever looked at a nutrition facts label and wondered what the columns of words and numbers meant? This activity will shed some light on the label. You will explore serving sizes and nutrients, and might find a discrepancy. Why would the sum of the nutrients not always add up to the total? Like a detective,… Read more

Freeze Your Fruit With Science!

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

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