If you are a parent or teacher, you need some cool science projects to keep your kids occupied. And one of the best ways to keep kids occupied is the science experiments you can do at home! The good news is not all science experiments require expensive lab equipment or dangerous chemicals, and you can do lots of cool projects with regular household items.
What are some good science projects for kids?
The James Dyson Foundation and Dyson engineers designed twenty-two cool DIY science projects that you can do with everyday household items, including balloons, plastic bottles, dish soap, and eggs. And I have curated this big collection of easy science experiments that anybody can try, and kids will love them!
If you need more projects, you can also check our “22 Unique Homeschool Engineering Projects Ideas.”
Add water to ethanol and find out why it doesn’t add up. It’s similar to what happens when you mix a liter of sand and a liter of rocks. When mixed, the combined molecules fit together better than alone, so they take up less space. What’s more, the OH- component of the ethanol and the H+ of the water molecules are attracted to each other - creating hydrogen bonds. These bonds make a tight molecular formation, reducing the volume of...
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 2 hours
Use eggs to find out about momentum and changing direction. The fresh egg will start to spin again when the finger is released, while the other will remain at a dead stop. The fresh egg has egg fluid and yolk inside it, which gains momentum. When the egg is momentarily stopped, the yolk continues to turn inside the shell. When it is released, the fluid's viscosity between the still spinning yolk and the shell causes the shell to spin again....
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 2 hours
Create a working demonstration of Lenz’s law. As the magnet falls down the tube, it demonstrates Lenz’s law. Moving the magnet next to the non-magnetic metal induces an electrical current that generates a magnetic field. This magnetic field overlaps with the magnetic field of the falling magnet. This creates resistance and slows the magnet down....
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 1 hour
Clean a penny using cola. Pennies have a copper coating. As the copper gets older, it reacts with the oxygen in the air and begins to form a copper-oxygen compound. This compound is what makes the penny look dull. Meanwhile, cola contains phosphoric acid. This acid breaks down the copper-oxygen compound chemical bonds allowing a fresh, unoxidized layer of copper to be exposed....
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 12 hours
Create a liquid that turns into a solid when tapped. How does it work? When you mix corn starch with water, the large corn starch particles remain suspended in the liquid. When you stir the mixture slowly, it acts like a liquid because the suspended particles have time to move past each other. When you put sudden stress on the mixture, the water quickly flows out of the area, but the particles do not have enough time to move out...
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 30 min
Create a water vortex in a bottle. The water is rapidly spinning around the center of the vortex due to centripetal force. This is an inward force directing an object or fluid such as water towards the center of its circular path. By the way, vortices found in nature include tornadoes, hurricanes, and waterspouts....
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 2 hour
Find out what happens when gases are heated up or cooled down. The gas expands when it is heated. The rule is that if the gas's pressure remains constant, the volume of the gas will increase as the temperature increases. So if the temperature increases, the gas takes up more space. This is known as Charles' Law. The principle was first formulated by the French physicist Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles in 1787. Today, steam engines heat up air and allow...
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 2 hours
Layer different liquids in a tube and discover how and why they settle in a particular order. Density is a comparison between an object’s mass and volume. Different liquids have different densities and, therefore, different weights. The heaviest liquids will sink, the lighter liquids will rise to the top. Remember the equation:...
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 1 hour
Push a wooden skewer through a balloon without popping it, creating a "balloon kebab." Most of the balloon is stretched ePush a wooden skewer through a balloon without popping it, creating a "balloon kebab." Most of the balloon is stretched evenly, but there are two points where the rubber is least stretched. The tied section and the darker patch at the opposite side of the balloon have the lowest surface tension. Most of the balloon is under high tension, so...
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 1 hour
Make two ping-pong balls float in the airflow of a hairdryer simultaneously, without hitting each other. The hairdryer produces a high-velocity stream of air with low pressure. The surrounding air is at a higher pressure which keeps the ball inside the stream. When the upward force of the air equals the weight of the ping-pong ball, the ball is said to be in "equilibrium." The theory at work here is Bernoulli's principle. This is an equation linking air pressure, velocity,...
- Source: Dyson
- Duration: 2 hours
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