STEM Activities for Kids (482 results)

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

Seasonal Science: The Reasons for the Seasons

STEM Activity

22 reviews

Have you ever lived someplace where you get to experience the full glory of all four seasons? If so, you know well the heady blossoms and dramatic skies of spring; the long, sun-drenched days of summer; the trees shaking in crimson and gold in fall; and the sparkling, brittle snows of winter. But do you know why we have these seasons, over and over again, in a cycle as predictable as the rising and setting of the sun? It actually has to do with the Earth’s tilt and the Moon. In this… Read more

Separate Liquids with Salt!

STEM Activity

9 reviews

You probably know that some liquids, such as oil and water, do not mix together. If you pour them into the same container, they will form two separate liquid layers on top of each other. Other liquids, for example rubbing alcohol and water, can be mixed with each other. But did you know that once both of these liquids have mixed, you can separate them again into two different layers? How can you do that? The answer might surprise you: with salt! In this activity, you will find out how this… Read more

Featured

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

Separation By Distillation

STEM Activity

11 reviews

Do you like cooking? If you have helped in the kitchen at home, you have probably heated up lots of liquids, like water, milk, and soup. Did you notice that once the solution boils, a lot of steam develops; and have you ever wondered what the steam is made of? What happens to all the substances, such as sugar or salt, that are dissolved in the solution you are boiling? Do they boil off, too, or do they stay behind in the solution? In this activity, you will build a distillation device that… 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

Soil Science: Study Microorganisms in Winogradsky Columns

STEM Activity

10 reviews

Our planet recycles and reuses everything on it that is needed to support life. It is an amazing, giant recycling system called the biogeochemical cycle. You can actually model this on a small scale by using a plastic bottle and mud to build what is called a Winogradsky column. In this activity, you will build your own Winogradsky columns and investigate how including different nutrients can affect which soil microorganisms flourish and which fail. 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

Statistical Science: M&M Math

STEM Activity

20 reviews

Have you ever wondered weather the outcome of a certain activity is predictable? For example, if you’re randomly picking a chocolate out of a box of mixed chocolates, can you predict how likely it is that you’d end up with a specific type of chocolate, such as a caramel-filled chocolate? To investigate this tasty topic, in this activity you’ll determine the frequency of different colored M&M’s in a package of M&M candies. M&M’s are… Read more

Sunset Colors in a Glass

STEM Activity

73 reviews

Have you ever watched a sunset and wondered why the sky suddenly changes from blue to orange and red? Even during the day, the sky can have multiple colors ranging from bright blue to grey or white. Where do these colors come from? In this activity you will find out, and simulate your own sunset in a glass! Ready to let the sun go down? Read more

The Ambiguous Cylinder Illusion

STEM Activity

22 reviews