Some of the science experiments for kids include static bulbs, bouncing egg, homemade rainbow, invisible ink, jumping coins, glowing water, homemade rock candy, tasting food without smell, balloon rocket, coke and mentos experiment, etc and much more.
Science is all around us and can be seen through the simplest of things. Discover the wonderful magic of science with the help of these experiments that are guaranteed to teach kids some basic facts about science and keep them busy for days with their fun and enjoyment. Even the requirements for these little experiments are easily available in and around the house. So grab your lab coat and your goggles because things are about to get scientific!
52 Simple Science Experiments For Children
- Lifting ice-cubes
Put an ice-cube in the glass of water. Rest one end of the string on the ice-cube. Sprinkle some salt over the ice-cube and leave for a few seconds. Pull the string upwards to lift the cube out of the glass.
Source: Pinterest
- Static Bulbs
Rub a comb with a woolen scarf for 5-10 minutes. Grab a light bulb and place the comb to its metal ends and watch it light up.
Source: Pinterest
- Bouncing Egg
Immerse a boiled egg in a jar of white vinegar. Store in a dark place for 1 week. After a week drain the liquid and wash the egg with water then dry it. Now bounce like crazy.
Source: Youtube
- Homemade Rainbow
In a glass of water place a mirror at an angle. In a dark room flash a torch at the mirror through the glass to form a rainbow on your palm. Change the mirror’s angle if you like.
Source: Heathers Moving Castle
- Invisible ink
Dip a clean paintbrush/ cotton swab in milk. Write your message on paper and let it dry. Reveal your message by warming it with the heat from a desk lamp.
Source: NSA Archive
- Jumping Coins
Invert a glass bottle in a cold water container. Put the coin in there too. (It should be slightly bigger than the bottle opening). Let them cool for 15-20 minutes. Take them out and place the coin on the bottle opening, wrap your hands around the bottle’s body and watch the coin jump.
Source: Hayes Family
- Quick Sand
Mix the maize corn flour and water. Just before using it, stir it as fast as possible, this way the mixture is easy to poke and punch. Otherwise, it will be drippy quicksand.
Source: Science Mag
- Glowing Water
In a dark room shine a black light near some tonic water to see the water glow.
Source: About.com
- Bottle Color Blobs
Fill a clear soda bottle with ¾ cup of water. Now pour some vegetable oil in it. Add food color. Throw in half of a fizzing tablet and enjoy the bubbly art.
Source: Pinterest
- Fizz Inflator
Pour vinegar into a bottle. Fill a balloon with baking soda. Stretch the balloon opening over the bottle mouth. Let the soda fall into the vinegar and watch the balloon fill with air from the reaction in the bottle.
Source: Youtube
- Milk Patterns
Fill a baking tray with milk. Add a few drops of different food color. (Do not mix). Dip a cotton swab in liquid soap, then dip in the center of the color drops to watch pretty patters emerge.
Source: Carlton Bloggers
- Homemade Rock Candy
Dissolve sugar in boiling water till no more will dissolve. Pour in a glass. Catch a chopstick with a clothes peg. Place the peg on the glass to suspend the chopstick in the liquid.
Source: Growing A Jeweled Rose
- Potato Stabbing
Hold a straw and jab it into a potato it doesn’t work. Now block one end and jab again. You should be able to pierce it with the straw.
Source: Steve Spangler Science
- Foamy Fountain
Place a big soda bottle on a baking tray. Fill it with Hydrogen peroxide. Add food color to it and some liquid soap, then swirl around to mix. Combine dry yeast and warm water and pour it into the bottle. In 30 minutes you should have a fancy foamy fountain.
Source: Youtube
- Water Bending
Charge up a plastic comb with some static electricity by rubbing it against your hair. Bring it close to a water stream from a tap to make the straight flow bend.
Source: Prime Time PBC
- Floating paper-clip
In a bowl of water place a dollar bill sized piece of tissue. Place a paper clip on top of it. With the eraser end of a pencil sink the tissue, leaving the paper-clip afloat.
Source: Robinage
- Shiny Pennies
In a bowl of white vinegar mixed with a tablespoon of salt place 5 pennies. Fish them out and rinse for shiny pennies.
Source: Mom 2 Posh Lil Divas
- Magic Balloon
Charge an inflated balloon with static electricity. Place an empty soda can on a flat surface. Now bring the balloon near the can and watch the can automatically roll towards the balloon.
Source: Suzy Homeschooler
- Dry ice
Add a little water in a bowl of dry ice. With a cloth soaked with soapy water create a bubble film over the mouth of the bowl. The bubble will slowly grow in size.
Source: Instructables
- Soda Eruptions
Do this outside because it will get messy. Uncap a big bottle of Coke and leave it on the ground. Drop into the bottle half a pack of Mentos in one go. Now run to a safe distance away from the experiment to watch a gorgeous eruption of bubbling fizz.
Source: Navigating By Joy
Bottled Tornado
In a bottle around 3 quarters full of water, add liquid dish soap. Dust in a little glitter for better visibility. Cap the bottle tightly, turn it upside down and whirl it around in circular motions for a few seconds. Pause your movement to see a tornado up close.
Source: Tornado Tube
- Testing Expansion
Stretch the open end of a balloon over the mouth of a bottle. Now place the bottle in a pot of boiling water. In a few minutes the balloon should start inflating.
Source: Physics Central
- Defying Gravity
Fill a glass to the brim with water. Place a cardboard on top of the glass without leaving any air bubbles inside. Turn the glass upside down and remove the hand holding the cardboard in place.
Source: Steve Spangler Science
- Amplify Sound
Blow up a balloon and knot its end. Hold it against your ear. Tap the side of the balloon away from you to hear a loud amplified sound.
Source: Kiddie Science Blog
- Egg in a Bottle
Take a bottle with a narrow opening. Light a piece of newspaper with matches and drop it in the bottle. Quickly place a hardboiled egg on top of the bottle’s opening to have it sucked into the bottle.
Source: Youtube
- Homemade Glue
You will need to pour one cup all purpose flour in a container. Add half a cup of water to it. Mix well to avoid lumps and till you get a pasty consistency. Try it out on some newspaper or the kind of paper you would like to glue together.
Source: Wikihow
- Balloon Rocket
Get a long piece of string. Secure one end to a wall or pole with tape and leave the other loose. Now blow a balloon and hold the end to avoid the air from escaping. Tape a straw to the balloon. Pass the thread through the straw now release the balloon for an air powered rocket.
Source: Broogly
- Bendy Bones
Save a chicken bone after dinner and rinse it clean. Try bending it you won’t be able to because it’s pretty strong. In a glass jar, place the bone and fill it with vinegar covering the bone completely. Cover the jar and leave it for 3 days. After 3 days you will be able to bend the bone easily.
Source: Youtube
- Colorful Flowers
Take a white carnation and snip 1 centimeter off the end. In a glass mix a good amount of food color in water. Place the flower in the solution and leave it for a day to give it a new appearance. For double colored flowers split the stalk. Then place each half in two different color solutions.
Source: Teaching Science Well
- Tiny Hovercraft
Grab an old CD and secure a liquid soap pop-top cap to its center. Inflate a balloon and pinch its end to avoid air escaping. Stretch the balloon over the pop-top cap. Release it over a smooth surface to see it hover.
Source: Youtube
- Dancing Ghost
Draw a tiny ghost on paper and cut it out. Charge an inflated balloon with static. Bring it close to your tiny ghost and watch it dance.
Source: Science Bob
- Floating Ping-Pong Ball
Connect a hair dryer to a power outlet and switch it on to high. Place a ping-pong ball over the stream of air to make it float.
Source: Prop Tricks Wonder How To
- Pricking Balloons
Inflate a balloon. Now hold it vertically and prick it with a knitting needle through and through, without popping it.
Source: Science Wonder How To
- Will it Overflow #1
Fill a glass with warm water till the brim. Now carefully place an ice-cube in it without causing you movements to spill it. Once the ice melts will the water overflow?
- Will it Overflow #2
In a glass of water filled to the brim add a tablespoon of salt. Did it overflow?
- Exothermic reaction
Pour vinegar over steel wool placed in a beaker. Leave for a minute. Remove the steel wool and drain it. Check its temperature with a thermometer.
Source: Experiland
- Bending Objects in a Glass
Place a straw in filled half way with water. Observe it from the point where it enters the water, it appears to have bent there.
Source: smsm2a2012
- Taste Without Smell
Ask a friend to close their nose and have them eat a piece of raw potato or onion and apple. Could they tell the difference?
- Germination
Fill a container with some soil. Choose a seed and plant it in the container. Water it every day and observe the gradual sprouting of a seed.
Source: A Growing Tradition
- Colors Absorbing Heat
Take two glasses; wrap one in black paper and one with white paper. Fill them with the same amount of water. Leave them in the sunlight for a while, then check the temperature in each glass. Which has the highest temperature?
Source: Dr Diana Teacher Training
- Fizzy Lemonade
Mix some lemon juice and an equal amount of water. Stir in some baking soda for fizz and add sugar for sweetness.
Source: Elaine Vickers
- Freezing Water
Fill one cup with hot water and one with cold. Place them in the freezer. Every 15mins check on them. Which freezes faster?
Source: Visualizing Chemistry Ashley
- Making Rain
With an adult’s help boil water in saucepan. Now hold a tray of ice just above the steaming pan to see it rain indoors.
Source: I Can Teach My Child
- Magnet Chains
With a magnet grab a paper-clip. Grab another one with end of the paperclip attached to the magnet. See how low the chain will get.
Source: Dijital Imaj
- Making Magnets
Rub a magnet along a paper clip a couple of times. Now try to attract another paper-clip with your new magnet.
Source: Instructables
- String Phone
Pierce the ends of 2 paper cups. Thread a string through them and knot the ends. You should have 2 cups attached by string to their mouths facing outwards. When the string is taut one person can speak and the other can listen through the cups at the string’s ends.
Source: Ether Live
- Cooling Drinks
Cover a can or a glass bottle with wet paper towels and put them in the fridge to cool faster.
Source: John R Leeman
- Bread Mold
Bag 15 slices of bread and keep them in different locations, like the freezer, refrigerator, at a warm place. Pick a location for each. After a 5-10 days see which location encourages mold to grow the fastest.
Source: IZA 8389
- Testing Surface Tension
In a bowl of water, sprinkle pepper. Dip a cotton swab in liquid soap, then in the center of the bowl. The soap reduces the water’s surface tension, resulting in patterns.
Source: EECIS.UDEL
- Fire needs Oxygen
Light a candle and cover it with a glass jar. What happens as the oxygen inside runs out?
Source: Youtube
- Under Water Candle
Place a candle in a large tumbler filled with water and place a glass jar over the candle before lighting it. Watch what happens when the candle shuts off.
Source: Steve Spangler Science
52. Cleaning with Lemons
Lemon juice is excellent for removing stains, grease and stink. Squeeze a lemon and apply its juice on stains in the bathtub, greasy pans and the sink. After a few minutes, wipe it with a paper towel and check the results.
Source: Goods Home Design
Few safety precautions:
Before attempting any of these science experiments, please make sure that your kids put on safety glasses, gloves, etc, especially with experiments dealing with dry ice. Dry ice must not be touched by bare hands nor it should be placed on the skin. Also, be very careful with experiments that involve fire. Keep fire extinguisher and a bucket of cold water at hand, while doing any experiments with fire. The best way is to not to let your kids do any fire experiments. Instead, you show the experiments yourself.
