Physics STEM Activities for Kids (123 results)

STEM Activity

1 review

Have you ever wondered why we sweat when our environment is getting hot or when we exercise? Sweating is a life-saving strategy that cools our body down and maintains our body temperature. Without sweating, our body cannot regulate our temperature, which can lead to overheating or even heatstroke. But why does sweating have a cooling effect? The answer is evaporative cooling. Turning a liquid such as sweat from its liquid state into a gas requires energy. This energy is taken from our body, or… Read more

Explore the Wet Sand Effect

STEM Activity

8 reviews

Summer is the perfect time to take a stroll at the beach and walk barefoot along the shoreline. While doing that, have you ever looked at your footprints in the wet sand? If so, you might have noticed that with every step it looks like the sand around your feet dries out. Why is that? These dry footprints are caused by the pressure of your feet. You will find out exactly how this happens by doing this beachy activity! Read more

Find Out Why the Ocean is in Motion!

STEM Activity

1 review

You probably know that water never stays still. But did you know that there is something called the global “ocean conveyor belt” that moves massive amounts of water from one ocean to another? These water currents are essential for mixing and transporting nutrients and oxygen, and play a critical role in our climate. This is because they move warm and cold water over very long distances, which affects the temperature of the landmasses that border the ocean. The Gulf Stream, for… Read more

Featured

Make String from Algae

STEM Activity

214 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

Go With the Flow

STEM Activity

26 reviews

Do you ever wonder why we perform tasks in a particular way? Very often, we learn by copying someone and never stop to question if there is a more efficient or easier way to do something. This activity is about the tricky task of pouring from a full container. Could there be an easier way to do it? Read more

Gravity-Defying Water

STEM Activity

1 review

Can you turn a cup of water upside-down without the water pouring out? Sounds impossible, right? This project will show you how you can do it using a neat physics trick! Read more

How Heavy Is Your Air?

STEM Activity

2 reviews

If you’ve ever accidentally let go of a Helium balloon while outside, then you know that some gases are less dense than others. In the case of your Helium balloon, it most likely floated away before you could catch it, because Helium is much lighter (or less dense) than the air in our environment. We don’t often think about gases having density, but they do! In this activity you’re going to explore the different densities of some common household gases, including the air that… Read more

It’s About Time….To Make A Sundial!

STEM Activity

6 reviews

Have you ever watched an old movie, and when a character asks what time it is the other characters all look at the sky, instead of checking their watches, or their cell phones? There’s no giant digital clock in the sky, those characters are using the position of the Sun in the sky to tell time, as people have done for generations. The oldest known instruments for telling time, the sundial, allow us to track the position of the sun more accurately. Up until the early 19th century, sundials… Read more

Make Your Own Spring Scale

STEM Activity

6 reviews

Have you ever played with a Slinky, used a pinball machine, written with a click pen, or ridden in a car? If so, then you have used a spring. Springs are in machines all around us and have many useful purposes. In this activity you will learn how a spring can be used to make a scale to weigh objects. 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

Physics Secrets for Hula Hooping

STEM Activity

6 reviews

Have you ever spent time spinning a hula hoop around your waist or arm? Could you easily do it, or was it difficult? Have you ever wondered how hula hoops work, or, in other words, what makes them be able to spin around a person's waist or arm? It comes down to the physics that is involved. Physics can help you determine what makes one hula hoop a winner and another a flop. In this activity you will get to create your own hula hoops and investigate how their masses affect how they spin. … Read more

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