Ninth Grade STEM Activities for Kids (86 results)

Dye Eggs Using Silk Ties for Egg-cellent Colors

STEM Activity

8 reviews

Have you ever dyed eggs? Turning eggshells from white into different, dazzling colors can be a lot of fun! People often do this using dye tablets to make different colors in a liquid bath. They then dip the egg into the liquid and wait till it turns the desired color. Eggs can be dyed in many other ways, and one neat method uses silk ties. Sounds strange to use clothing to dye eggs, right? But it actually works really well! In this activity, you will dye eggs with silk ties and… Read more

Gingerbread House STEM Challenge

STEM Activity

75 reviews

How easy or difficult is it to build a gingerbread house? It depends on what you want your house to look like. Design possibilities are almost endless! You could make a multi-story building, try different shapes and sizes, or add extra features such as a balcony or chimney. The more complex your design gets, the more difficult it is to make sure that your house stays upright and keeps its shape. In this activity, you will become an engineer and design and build a gingerbread house that must… Read more

How Far Can Your Sneeze Go?

STEM Activity

23 reviews

Do you cover your coughs and sneezes? How far do you think the droplets can travel if you do not cover them? Why is this important to help prevent the spread of diseases like COVID-19? Try this activity to find out! Read more

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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

How Strong are Eggshells?

STEM Activity

91 reviews

Have you ever seen an arch structure in a building, such as over a doorway or surrounding large windows? Arches have been used in structural engineering since ancient times. In this activity you will test the strength of a naturally occurring arch shape: the shell of an egg. So grab some eggs and put them to good engineering use in trying to answer the following question: Just how much mass can an eggshell can support? Read more

Making Everyday Objects Out of Mushrooms: Environmentally Friendly Design

STEM Activity

10 reviews

Maybe you have grown vegetables or flowers, but have you ever grown the flowerpot? Yes, you read that right! In this activity, you will use mushroom roots to grow a biodegradable material that can be molded into a product of your liking, like a flowerpot! Growing a set of bowls, a lampshade, or a pot is easier than you might think. Once you try it out, you just might feel inspired to replace some of your plastic objects with ecological counterparts that you created from mushroom roots! 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

Space Elevator Problem Set

STEM Activity

9 reviews

Space elevators zipping people and materials up into space might seem like a very futuristic and improbable idea, but is it that difficult? This activity will guide you through the mathematics. Try it out and see what is possible with materials that can be produced with current technology. Read more

The Aerodynamics of Flying a Frisbee

STEM Activity

16 reviews

Are you good at tossing a Frisbee? Have you ever wondered how a Frisbee is able to fly through the air so well? If you can throw a perfect, arcing curve, right on target, you have already trained your arm on the aerodynamics of Frisbee flight! In this science activity, you will investigate how the angle at which you throw the Frisbee affects its flight's direction and distance. Next time you are out tossing a Frisbee, this little lesson in aerodynamics may help make your throws be even… Read more

The Wagon Wheel Effect Optical Illusion

STEM Activity

12 reviews

Have you ever seen a video where it looked like a car's wheels were spinning backwards even though the car was driving forward? This is called the wagon wheel effect, named after old movies where it looked like wagon wheels were spinning backwards. Even though you cannot see the effect in person, it can show up in videos of spinning objects. Find out why in this project and make your own videos of the wagon wheel effect! Read more

Automatic Drone Balancing

STEM Activity

10 reviews

How do drones automatically balance themselves when you let go of the controls? Find out in this project as you build and program an experimental setup to make a drone automatically control its tilt angle about a single axis. See this page for a complete list of our mini drone projects. You may wish to do the projects in order. Read more

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