Apple Oxidation

AMY STULTS/JENNIFER FINDLEY

What works best for keeping an apple from turning brown? Test to find out! Slice up an
apple, and let each slice soak in a different liquid. Then take them out, lay them on a
tray, and check the brownness after three minutes, six minutes and so on. Not only does
this test the properties of different liquids, it also helps students practice the scientific
method if they create hypotheses about which liquids would be most effective.

Get the tutorial at Jennifer Findley »

RELATED: 50 Fun Activities for Kids Will Keep Them Entertained for Hours

Brush, Brush!
PHILIP FRIEDMAN

This one will really get them into brushing their teeth once they scientifically prove all
the good things that toothpaste can do.

1. Write on sticky notes: Soda 1, Soda 2, Juice 1, and Juice 2. Place them in a row on
a counter.
2. Fill two glasses halfway with brown soda and place behind the Soda 1 and Soda 2
sticky notes. Fill two glasses halfway with lemon juice and place behind the Juice
1 and Juice 2 sticky notes.
3. Carefully place one egg in the bowl. Squeeze a big dollop — about one tablespoon
— of toothpaste on top of the egg and gently rub the toothpaste all around with
your hands until the egg is completely covered in a thick layer of toothpaste.
Repeat with a second egg.
4. Gently submerge the toothpaste-covered eggs into the liquids: one egg in the
glass labeled Soda 1 and the other egg in the glass labeled Juice 1. Wash and dry
your hands.
5. Gently submerge the remaining eggs, without toothpaste on them, in the
remaining glasses: one in the glass labeled Soda 2 and the other in the glass of
juice labeled Juice 2. Wash and dry your hands. Leave the eggs in the glasses for
12 hours.
 6. After 12 hours, remove the eggs from the glasses of soda one at a time. Rinse
them in cool water and pat them dry with the towel. Place each egg by the sticky
note of the glass it was in. Are the eggs the same or different colors?
7. Remove the eggs from the glasses of juice one at a time. Rinse them under the
faucet and pat them dry. Place each egg by the sticky note of the glass it was in.
Feel the eggs gently. Does one feel stronger or weaker than the other?
8. Write down your observations in your science notebook.

The eggshells in this experiment represent the enamel (outer coating) on your teeth.
Toothpaste cleans your teeth and prevents stains: it removes food and drink particles
that are stuck on your teeth. Teeth can be stained easily by dark-colored liquids like
cola, coffee or tea. The egg without toothpaste will be brown and discolored. The egg
covered in toothpaste was protected from turning brown.

Toothpaste also protects your pearly whites from decay (breaking down). The egg
without toothpaste left in the lemon juice was worn down and soft to the touch, while
the egg that was protected with toothpaste is stronger. The lemon juice is acidic, and
those acids broke down the shell just as acidic drinks can wear away your tooth enamel.
When a tooth is worn down, a cavity can form more easily. But the fluoride in toothpaste
mixes with your saliva to create a protective coating around your tooth enamel. It helps
keep your teeth strong and cavity-free.

From Good Housekeeping Amazing Science: 83 Hands-on S.T.E.A.M Experiments for

Curious Kids! See more in the book »

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Coffee Ground Fossils
CRAFTS BY AMANDA

By making a salt dough with coffee grounds and pressing various shapes into it (toy
dinosaur feet, seashells), kids can get a better understanding of how fossils are made. If
you poke a hole in the top before it dries, the kids can hang their "fossils" up in their
rooms.

Get the tutorial at Crafts by Amanda »

Chromatography Flowers
STEAM POWERED FAMILY

Chromatography is the process of separating a solution into different parts — like the
pigments in the ink used in markers. If you draw stripes around a coffee filter, then fold
it up and dip the tip in water, the water will travel up the filter and separate the marker
ink into its different pigments (in cool patterns that you can display as a craft project).
This family made the end-result even brighter by adding an LED circuit to the center.

Get the tutorial at Steam Powered Family »

Water Walking
FUN LEARNING FOR KIDS

You'll need six containers of water for this one: three with clear water, one with red food
coloring, one with blue coloring, and one with yellow coloring. Arrange them in a circle,
alternating colored and clear containers, and make bridges between the containers with
folded paper towels. Your kids will be amazed to see the colored water "walk" over the
bridges and into the clear containers, mixing colors, and giving them a first-hand look at
the magic of capillarity.

Get the tutorial at Fun Learning for Kids »

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Sunscreen Test
TONYA STAAB

This experiment puts the A (art) in STEAM: Paint different designs on construction
paper with different sunscreens, leave the papers out in the sun and compare the results.
Then, hang your "conclusions" on your fridge.

Get the tutorial at Tonya Staab »

Magic Milk
LIVING LIFE AND LEARNING

Put a few drops of food coloring in a shallow bowl of milk, and they'll stay that way — as
self-contained blobs. But add a little dish soap to a toothpick or a Q-tip and touch the
food coloring, and the colors will swirl around on their own like magic. It all has to do
with surface tension: At first, the food coloring stays on the surface, but the soap causes
a chemical reaction that breaks the surface tension.

Get the tutorial at Live Life and Learning »

RELATED: Fun Learning Activities for Kids to Enjoy at Home

Grow Crystals
ONE LITTLE PROJECT

Bend pipe cleaners into fun shapes, and watch them grow crystals when left overnight in
a Borax solution. (Words of warning: Borax should be handled by adults, and kids need
to understand that the end result is not candy even though it looks like it could be.)

Get the tutorial at One Little Project »

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Solar Oven
THE CRAFT TRAIN

Use a DIY backyard solar oven to teach kids about solar power and sustainability. Note:
While a solar oven can cook (and gets very hot!), for food safety reasons you might want
to stay away from solar oven-baked treats and use it for something else instead, like
melting crayon ends into rainbow crayons.

Get the tutorial at The Craft Train »

Gravity-Defying Magnets
BUGGY AND BUDDY

Hang paperclips from a ruler or dowel, and they dangle, as they should, because of
gravity. But you can show kids how other forces can overcome gravity by putting strong
magnets on a ruler and using them to get the paperclips to stand straight up.

Get the tutorial at Buggy and Buddy »

Pencils Through a Bag of Water

FUN WITH MAMA

Kids might guess that if you pierce a bag of water with a sharpened pencil, the water
would all leak out. In fact, if you do it right, the polymers of the bag's plastic will re-seal
around the pencil, and your counters will stay dry (and your kids will be amazed). You
can get them thinking about the chemical compositions that make up everyday items.

Get the tutorial at Fun With Mama »

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Milk Bottle Xylophone
DAVE KING

No for an experiment in sound!

1. Arrange six glass jars or bottles, all the same size with no lids, in a line. What will
each jar sound like when you tap it with a spoon? Make a prediction, then tap
each jar. Record your observations.
2. Next, put water in each of the jars. Pour 1⁄4 cup (60 ml) of water into the first jar.
Add 1⁄2 cup (120 ml) of water to the second jar. Continue in 1⁄4-cup increments,
adding 3⁄4 cup (180 ml) of water to the third jar, 1 cup (240 ml) of water to the
fourth jar, 11⁄4 cups (300 ml) of water to the fifth jar, and 11⁄2 cups (360 ml) to the
sixth jar. Add a couple of drops of food coloring to each jar.
3. What will each jar sound like? Will they sound the same or different than when
the container was empty? Will they sound the same or different from one
another? Record your predictions.
4. Tap each jar with a metal spoon. Write down your observations about each jar’s
pitch (how high or low a sound is) in your notebook.

Sound waves are created by vibrations, which are back-and-forth movements that are
repeated again and again. Pitch depends on the frequency of the waves — how many are
created each second. A high pitch is created by high-frequency sound waves, and can
sound squeaky. A low pitch is created by low-frequency sound waves, and sounds deep
and booming.

When you tapped the jar, it vibrated. The vibrations traveled from the jar to the water to
the air and eventually to your ears. The jars with more water had a low pitch. The sound
waves vibrated more slowly because they had more water to travel through. The jars
with less water had higher pitches. The sound waves vibrated faster because they had
less water to travel through. A jar with no water in it makes the highest pitch because it
has the least substance to travel through.

From Good Housekeeping Amazing Science: 83 Hands-on S.T.E.A.M Experiments for

Curious Kids! See more in the book »

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Bubble Experiments

HELLO, WONDERFUL

The secret to giant bubbles, bubbles-within-bubbles and other trick bubbles? It's all
about surface tension. The more kids know how that works, the cooler their bubbles can
get.

Get the tutorial at Hello, Wonderful »

Mold Science

LIFE WITH MOORE BABIES

Mold experiments are always grossly fascinating, and you can see how different
additives (salt, vinegar, etc.) affect the growing of mold on bread. For a twist on this
experiment that might lead to more hygienic habits, you can also see how mold grows on
bread that's been touched by hands that have been washed with soap and water,
cleansed with hand sanitizer or not washed at all. That'll get them scrubbing for 20
seconds.

Get the tutorial at Life With Moore Babies »

Instant Ice
ONLY PASSIONATE CURIOSITY

Give your little scientists the powers of Elsa! Water can turn into ice as it's being poured.
The secret is to chill water in the freezer until it's almost frozen, then pour it over ice
placed on an overturned ceramic bowl. Kids can see the transformation between the
states of matter, and also how ice crystals are formed.

Get the tutorial at Only Passionate Curiosity »

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Tea Bag Rocket
PAGING FUN MUMS

Want a memorable way to teach kids that hot air rises? Take the tea out of a tea bag,
hollow it out and stand it up, and (carefully) take a match to it. The hollowed-out bag is
so light, it rises along with the hot air, and becomes a flying, flaming tea bag.

Get the tutorial at Paging Fun Mums »

Self-Inflating Balloon
MESS FOR LESS

A twist on a vinegar-and-baking-soda experiment, if you put baking soda in an empty

bottle and vinegar in a balloon, when you attach the ballon over the mouth of the bottle
and let the vinegar pour in, the resulting gas will be enough to inflate the balloon on its
own. Bonus: This experiment is less messy than a vinegar-baking-soda volcano.

Get the tutorial at Mess for Less »

Glitter Germ Hands

THESOCCERMOMBLOG.COM

Glitter can be used as a good way to visually represent germs and how they spread. Mix
glitter with hand sanitizer, rub the mixture on one set of hands, then do experiments
like shaking hands to see what happens, or seeing how long it takes to wash off with
soap.

Get the tutorial at The Soccer Mom Blog »

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Lava Lamp
ROOKIE PARENTING

Oil and water with food coloring don't mix, teaching kids about density. For fun, add an
antacid tablet, and bubbles start to flow all around like a groovy lava lamp.

Get the tutorial at Rookie Parenting »

Sundial
HAPPY BROWN HOUSE

Making a homemade sundial is one of the lowest-prep science experiments you can do:
You just need a dowel or a good stick, a paper plate and a marker. Mark the position of
the dowel's shadow every hour, and you've got an easy opening into talking about the
Earth's rotation. The next day, see if your sundial tells accurate time while playing
outside.

Get the tutorial at Happy Brown House »

Sink or Float?
FUN WITH MAMA

Having kids figure out what makes certain objects sink and what makes them float is a
good way to teach them about density — and an even better way to get them practicing
the scientific method, if they make a hypothesis first about what will sink and float and
then measure the results.

Get the tutorial at Fun with Mama »

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Tornado in a Bottle
GIFT OF CURIOSITY

Secure two two-liter bottles together with water inside, flip upside down, give a shake,
and watch a tornado form its distinctive funnel shape. You can also put glitter or small
items in the bottle to show how a tornado's winds would whip objects around in the real
world.

Get the tutorial at Gift of Curiosity »

Egg Drop
NO TIME FOR FLASH CARDS

If you want to raise a scientist, first you have to break a few eggs. For this classic
experiment, use what you have on-hand in your house to see if you can construct a
protective pod for a raw egg. Make some predictions, throw it off a porch or down some
steps and see what happens.

Get the tutorial at No Time for Flash Cards »

Ice Cream in a Bag

DELISH

Finally! An experiment you can actually eat. Toss the ingredients in a bag, seal it up and
have your kids shake it vigorously for 10 minutes. Will they absorb the lesson about how
energy transforms states of matter? Maybe, but, either way, you get to have a treat.

Get the tutorial from Delish »

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Skittles Patterns
COFFEE CUPS AND CRAYONS

For another experiment you can do with food, set Skittles into a shallow bowl of water,
and see how the colors swirl. Skittles are basically pure sugar and dissolve in water, so
you can use this as in intro to solvents, solutes and solutions.

Get the tutorial at Coffee Cups and Crayons »

Floating Ms
COFFEE CUPS AND CRAYONS

Another way you can introduce kids to solvents, solutes and solutions is by "lifting" the
Ms off of M&Ms. All it takes is water!

Get the tutorial at Coffee Cups and Crayons Delish »

Floating Fish
PHILIP FRIEDMAN

Here's another one that deals with solubility and density.

1. Draw the outline of a fish on the bottom of a glass plate or tray in dry-erase
marker. Retrace your drawing to make sure all the lines are connected. Let dry
for a minute or two.
2. Fill the measuring cup with tap water. Place the pour spout just inside the corner
of the dish and add water very slowly until it just covers the bottom. Be careful
not to pour water directly onto your drawing or make splashes near it. The water
will move toward your drawing, eventually surrounding it. Observe what
happens. If the water splashes or it doesn’t work on your first try, empty the dish,
erase the drawing with a paper towel, dry off the dish, and try again.
3. Tilt the dish slightly from side to side. What happens? Jot it down.

The ink in dry erase markers is engineered to be slippery. It’s made with a chemical that
causes it to easily release from surfaces. (Permanent markers are made with a chemical
that makes the ink stick to surfaces, so be sure not to use these in your experiment!)
The easy-release ink lets go from a surface, but why does it float? There are two reasons.
First, dry erase ink isn’t soluble, which means it won’t dissolve in water. Second, dry
erase ink is less dense than the water, so it becomes buoyant, meaning it can float. When
you tilt the dish, the fish moves around on the water’s surface.

From Good Housekeeping Amazing Science: 83 Hands-on S.T.E.A.M Experiments for

Curious Kids! See more in the book »

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Egg in a Bottle

LEFT BRAIN CRAFT BRAIN

A peeled hard-boiled egg can't fit into a bottle without smushing into a big mess, can it?
It can — if you put a burning piece of paper in the bottle first. The burning paper in the
bottle causes the air to expand and the pressure to go up. When the fire runs out of
oxygen, the temperature cools and the air contracts, sucking the egg through the bottle
opening. The fire and the sucking of the egg makes this an extra-dramatic experiment.

Get the tutorial at Left Brain Craft Brain »

Make a Model Eardrum

MAKE AND TAKES

The eardrum makes it possible for us to hear by sending vibrations into the bones in the
inner ear — but that's so hard to visualize. With his experiment, a sheet of plastic wrap
acts like an eardrum. Spread grains of rice on top, then make a lot of noise — you'll see
the plastic wrap vibrate and the rice move.

Get the tutorial at Make and Takes »

Grow an Avocado Tree

INGRIDHSGETTY IMAGES

For an easy lesson in Earth Science, your family can grow an avocado tree from a pit.
You can buy an AvoSeedo kit, or just peel the seed and suspend it over water with
toothpicks.

Get the tutorial »

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Balloon-Powered Car
RAISING WHASIANS

This project focuses mostly on the engineering side of STEM. You need some household
items (toothpicks, bottle caps, coins) and an empty juicebox to construct the car — and
then you can inflate the balloon through the straw and watch it go!

Get the tutorial at Raising Whasians »

Shaving Cream Water Cycle

ALICE AND LOIS

Give students a brush-up on the water cycle by setting shaving-cream clouds on top of a
glass of water. Use a dropper to add in blue water, and when the clouds get saturated —
blue rain.

Get the tutorial at Alice and Lois »

RELATED: Amazing Indoor Activities for Kids' Rainy-Day Fun

Color Cabbage
ITSY SPARKS

You can show them how plants get water from their roots to their leaves — literally — by
putting cabbage (or celery, but cabbage is more colorful) in food coloring. You can also
use this as an an example of capillary action, like the water-walking experiment,

Get the tutorial at Itsy Sparks »

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