It's never too early to encourage a love of science in children, so if you fancy starting an Early Years or preschool science club or just trying some science at home, I've got lots of easy ideas to get you started!

10 Ideas for an Early Years Science Club

These activities are all easy to set up and complete with a little guidance and I've tried to choose investigations that only require inexpensive materials or things you probably already have.

1. Make a Superhero Float

Find the best materials to make a small superhero figure float. For this activity, you need only a selection of different materials to test and a water container. The idea is for children to design and create a float or lifejacket type item to make a small figure float on water.

As an extension task, children could investigate how to make the smallest possible item that still allows the toy figure to float.

2. Sorting Ariel’s Cave

This simple sorting activity themed around The Little Mermaid is great for learning about different types of materials and their properties. The idea of this activity is to sort items Ariel might have in her collection, depending on their properties.

3. Mini Magnet Maze

This easy activity for learning about magnetism needs a magnet, paperclip and paper plate.
Children can design the magnet maze however they want and to fit any theme you might have for the term.

4. Birds, Beaks and Adaptations

This is a brilliant, simple science activity for learning about features or adaptations that give animals a survival advantage. Children use different shaped tweezers to pick up pasta and other small items to demonstrate how some are easier to pick up than others.

5. A bridge for The Gingerbread Man

Help save The Gingerbread Man from the sly fox by building him a bridge. Children can use basic building materials such as lolly sticks, twigs and pipe cleaners to design, build and test a bridge.

6. Sea Pollution

This activity is a great visual way to demonstrate the effect of pollution on marine life. Children create a container with shells, pebbles, and plastic fish and then add litter to see the effect this has on the fish.

7. How to make oobleck

Oobleck, or cornflour goo, is a wonderful sensory material that feels solid when squashed in the hand but runs like a liquid when the pressure is released. It's great for use with sieves and small plastic figures.

8. Garden Zip Line

This mini teddy zip line is a great outdoor activity. I usually set up three separate lines with different gradients and ask the children to experiment with different types of harnesses to see how they can make the teddies fly the fastest.

9. Humpty Dumpty Egg Drop Investigation

A Humpty Dumpty egg drop is a great team activity that works extra well for a first or last science club of the term. The egg could be an elf at Christmas or part of a nursery rhyme themed term.

10. How many coins are needed to sink a boat?

Find out how many coins it takes to sink a foil boat. Create different size tinfoil boats and investigate to discover how many coins each can hold. This is also great for counting practice!

Top tips for an Early Years Science Club

Keep it simple!

Avoid activities that require a lot of adult intervention. For things like catapults, I always make a few in advance, ready for one group of children to use, while I make more catapults with another group.

Be prepared

Make any construction as easy as possible. For example with the catapults, I put the double sided tape on the back of the bottle top beforehand.

Have a back up ready

I try to have a second activity that is almost stand alone in case something goes wrong or some children get bored with the main task. This can be something as basic as threading pipe cleaners through a colander, or making play dough brain models.

More Science Club Ideas for Early Years

Have a pirate themed term or half term using these easy pirate based science investigations. Learn about directions with treasure maps, save pirate coins from getting too wet, create simple codes and more.

Popsicle stick catapults are brilliant fun too, but can be tricky for small people. I usually make a few up in advance and then work with small groups to make extras.

My story themed science activities are also great for an early years science club. Read the story and then try a related activity.

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Lolly stick or popsicle stick catapults are very easy to make, provide hours of fun and are brilliant engineering and design projects. We made our popsicle stick catapults space-themed and turned table tennis balls into planets. There are so many different catapult designs and themes to choose from; you'll be busy for weeks! Catapults are a brilliant way to learn about energy, gravity and Newton's Laws of Motion.

Popsicle stick catapults are also great for a maths-based activity if children record how far different sizes/weights of balls travel. We've found that small pom poms fly very well as they are light.

Lolly stick catapults are simple to make and use, although young children may need some help. Once you get the hang of them, each one takes only a couple of minutes to create. They're a great kids' activity for a rainy day.

What you need for a Popsicle Stick Catapult

Wide popsicle sticks/ lolly sticks

Elastic bands

Table tennis balls

Other items to test

Double-sided tape

Milk bottle top

Tape measure - optional

How to make a lolly stick catapult

• Start with about seven popsicle sticks and place them on top of each other. Twist an elastic band around each end to hold them in place.

• Place another stick above and one below the stack of 7 so they make a cross shape. You should have more lolly sticks on the end to use for the milk top.

• Tie an elastic band around the middle of the cross.

• Twist another elastic band around the bottom of two sticks, as you can see in the photo.

• Attach a milk bottle top using double sided tape or strong glue.

• Experiment with your table tennis balls.

Popsicle Stick Catapult Investigation Ideas

Remember to only change one variable at a time

Change the design

Try adding extra or fewer sticks to the central part of the catapult.

Make the throwing arm shorter.

Change the item being catapulted

Investigate to find out if a heavier ball travels further.

Make it a challenge!

Set a challenge to find out how far you can make a ball travel!

Add some maths

Create a target with different numbers in different areas and use the lolly stick catapult to fire balls at the target. See who can score the most with a set number of balls.

How Does a Popsicle Stick Catapult Work?

Newton's First Law states that an object stays at rest until a force is applied to the object.

When you pull down on the catapult arm, elastic potential energy is stored. When you release the catapult arm, the potential energy changes to kinetic energy ( energy of motion ), which is transferred to the object, which then flies through the air.

Catapults and conservation of energy

A lolly stick catapult demonstrates energy being converted from one type to another ( potential to kinetic ) and transferred from one object to another ( catapult arm to the ball ).

If you push the catapult arm down further you are storing more elastic potential energy which means more kinetic energy is transferred to the ball when you release it. The further you push the catapult arm down ( which takes more force from you ) the further the ball will travel.

If you want to learn more about Newton's Laws of Motion, try our film canister rocket.

More Catapult Design Ideas

Can you build a giant catapult? We used this one to launch tennis balls over a net.

Another fun STEM challenge is a LEGO catapult. Ours took some engineering and lots of tweaking, but it worked very well!

Create a simple shoe box catapult. Again this is a brilliant easy engineering project for kids with lots of possible variations on the design and theme.

Try some catapult painting like Fun-a-Day.

Frugal Fun for Boys has another catapult design.

How about a snowman popsicle stick catapult? Or a pokemon catapult?

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Here at Science Sparks we believe you're never too young to develop a passion for science, engineering and learning and so have pulled together a collection of simple engineering projects for kids to inspire even the youngest potential engineer.

Did you know the word 'engine' comes from the Latin ingenium which means clever? Engineering is all about inventing things to make life easier and better, solving problems with science and mathematics.

The world of engineering is vast and the possibilities endless with advances in nanotechnology, bioengineering, AI and other technologies. With a global climate crisis and ageing population the human race needs engineers more than ever.

Fun engineering projects for kids

Structures and Stability

Edible engineering challenges

I know not everyone likes edible experiments, but if you can eat them afterwards and avoid food waste I think they are a great way to learn and often something children remember for a long time afterwards.

Edible candy house

This edible house has candy walls built with different kinds of edible 'cement' to stick it together. We found thick icing sugar was the best way to attach the bricks to each other.

If you don't want to build a whole house but like the idea of an edible activity simple towers made from sweets also work well, opening up the opportunity for discussion about choosing the best shapes for a stable structure.

These meringue towers were also great fun and a delicious dessert.

Foundations and Earthquakes

If you have an earthquake topic coming up this earthquake investigation using gum drop toothpick towers with different edible foundations is a fun activity to try. Will a jelly foundation or a brownie foundation be the strongest?

Strong Shape Investigations

Discover why domes are a strong shape using egg shells. Can you think of any structures which use domes for strength?

Find out why an egg can be almost unbreakable in certain circumstances.

How about building stable structures using spaghetti and marshmallows? Incorporating triangle shapes will make these stronger.

Experiment with different shape paper columns to find out which is the strongest shape.

Make your own paper building blocks like Babble Dabble Do.

Bridge Building Engineering Project for Kids

Left Brain, Craft Brain has an amazing DIY suspension bridge. I love the use of loom bands.

Try this simple bridge building engineering task using paper folded in different ways.

This bridge with string and craft sticks was great fun to build and can be set up as a challenge using different materials for the bridge base.

Properties of materials

Engineers have to understand the properties of different materials and consider how they behave in different situations. There are lots of brilliant engineering projects where this concept can be introduced.

First learn how to classify objects by the material they're made from. How can you tell the difference between a metal and a non metal for example?

Learn about elasticity by adding different weights to an elastic band to investigate how far it stretches.

Find out which materials work best for muffling sound with a fun activity using a cardboard tube with different materials inside it.

Design and choose the best materials to make a boot waterproof.

Find out which materials make the best superhero cape? If you were a superhero would you want a long flowing cape or a shorter cape that didn't move so much?

Discover how to stand on a paper cup without it breaking! This is also a great activity to link with a topic about Greek Architecture!

Design and build a house for the Three Little Pigs that can withstand the wolf trying to blow it down. The challenge here is to think abut which materials will withstand the wolf's puff!

Another idea is to test different materials to find out which would be best for a waterproof roof!

Simple Machines

Find out how to move water upwards with this fun Archimedes Screw.

Design a drawing robot. We used HEXBUGS to power our drawing bots. Pens can also be positioned around a plastic container or cardboard cup with a hexbug inside.

This bouncy ball invention is genius from Inspiration Laboratories.

Design and build a drinks dispenser using the power of air pressure.

Vehicles - engineering investigations

You only need paper, scissors and a paperclip to make these easy paper helicopter spinners. Experiment with different size spinners to find out if they fall faster or more slowly.

Create a bumper for a car with this bumper car STEM challenge. For this activity little engineers need to think about which materials to choose to get the most rebound back from the car.

Design and build a balloon powered car. This is a brilliant activity for learning about forces and Newton's Third Law. Once you've got it working, try to supercharge it with extra balloon power!

Or, how about a baking soda boat? For this engineering challenge you need to think about how to release the gas produced by the baking soda and vinegar reaction to get the most thrust from the bottle boat.

Rockets are an incredible feat of engineering. Mini bottle rockets use the same basic concepts to launch that a real rocket uses and are another great introduction to Newton's Laws of Motion.

Red Ted Art also has a fantastic elastic band powered tugboat.

Ideas for learning about pneumatics

We had great fun designing this K'nex pneumatic crane using two syringes and a tube.

We also used the same concept to make a chicken hatch out of an egg!

More fun engineering projects for kids

How about making a guitar and learning about sound absorption and reflection like Red Ted Art.

Try one of these easy catapults using just lolly sticks, elastic bands and a milk carton top.

Practice your design skills with this cardboard kitchen. What fun gadgets and tools can you engineer?

Frugal fun for Boys have lots of wonderful creative ideas for budding engineers, one of our favourites is this LEGO Candy Dispenser.

Engineering projects for little ones

We love this sand and pipe engineering bin from Little Bins for Little Hands.

Happy Hooligans has a cardboard construction set that looks fantastic and so simple.

This play dough and straw spiderweb from Rainy Day Mum looks like great fun.

Try some building with playdough and wooden blocks like Fun with Play at Home.

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Print and Play - Paper Science Experiments is a free download containing 6 easy science experiments mainly using just the paper they are printed on! Simply print, experiment and then recycle the leftovers.

The activities are mess free ( apart from one ) with easy to follow instructions. Science at home doesn't get easier than this!

1. Paper Spinners

Use the template to make three paper spinners. Attach a paperclip to the ends of each one and drop from different heights, or add extra weight to see how that affects the speed at which they fall.

2. Magic Opening Flowers

Cut out the flower and fold up the petals. Place the folded flower in a bit of water and watch as the petals spring open. This clever science trick works because paper is made up of fibres which expand as they absorb water.

You can read the full explanation of flowers opening in water here.

3. Shadow Puppets

Cut out the hand shape and make creepy shadows on a wall! You'll need a torch or light source for this one. Try moving the torch towards the shadow puppet and then further away to investigate what happens to the shadow.

4. How Strong?

Discover which shape column can hold the most weight with this easy science activity. The download contains templates for creating each shape, making this paper strength investigation even easier!

5. Liquid Races

Use the paper to make a ramp and race your three favourite sauces! This viscosity race is always fun and can be done on a large scale as well as this mini version.

6. Water Drop Maze

Use your skills to move water around the maze. Do other liquids work better? Either draw your own maze or use this one!

Once you're done, recycle the paper! If you have any more ideas for easy paper-based science experiments, let me know!

Let me know how you get one with my Print and Play Paper Science Experiments!!

If you enjoyed these science activities, you'll love my full collection of paper science experiments.

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Art Bots or Scribble Bots are great fun and provide many investigative opportunities. This simple version uses a small motor and pens fixed around a pot. The motor makes the arm ( glue stick or cork ) spin, which in turn makes the Scribble Bot move.

Pupils can be given challenges, such as finding a way for the Scribble Bot to draw a dotted line or left to explore, freely going through an iterative process of designing, testing and amending their ideas.

How to make an Art Bot

Scribble Bot Materials

Small motor 1.5 -3 V( U.S link http://amzn.to/2bo57nn )

Thick elastic band 2 in x ½ in

AA Battery

Double-sided tape or strong glue

Pringles can or another small container

Two leads

Paper

Felt tip pens ( U.S link http://amzn.to/2bChQ9I )

Roll of paper - we like this Melissa and Doug roll ( U. S link http://amzn.to/2bo1qhq )

Instructions for making a scribble bot

Place the thick elastic band around your battery and sellotape it to the top of a pringle can or similarly shaped container.

Attach the motor to the top of the container; it needs to be close to the edge so the arm can spin freely.

Attach the leads to the motor and battery. The elastic band is perfect for holding the wires in place at each end of the battery, as they can easily be removed to turn the motor off.

Attach a glue gun stick to the motor and test to ensure it spins.

You can experiment with different lengths of glue sticks or other items such as corks or even plasticine.

Attach four felt tip pens around the sides.

Remove the lids and let your Scribble bot loose on paper.

More Art Bot Activity Ideas

Experiment with different types of mark-making materials:

• Chalk
• Paintbrushes
• Pencils

Experiment with different materials on your motor as the arm

• Different lengths of glue stick
• Cork
• Plasticine

Investigate what happens if you move the arm off-centre; we added a piece of K'nex to the one end of the cork in the picture above, which made a dotted line. A central arm made a smooth line.

Placement of the pens

Try the pens higher and lower and investigate how this changes the drawing.

Could you add a trailing pen behind or to the side of your scribble bot?

Can you add a switch or buzzer to your circuit?

More STEM Challenges using an electric motor

Once you finish the drawing robot, the motor and battery can be used for many other STEM challenges.

Make a mini motorised boat. You'll need a small propeller for this and the motor and battery.

Design and build brushbots. These are brilliant as children can use their imagination to make the brush bots look however they want and add fun decorations and extra features.

Lemon Lime Adventures also has a brilliant motorised toy car.

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We've got some easy ( and tasty ) earthquake experiments to share today! Did you know the Earth is made up of large pieces of rock called tectonic plates? Where two tectonic plates meet is called a fault. If two plates rub together at a fault waves of energy ( seismic waves ) come to the surface of the Earth which are felt as an Earthquake.

Earthquakes can be different magnitudes, sometimes they are just a small tremor and other times cause huge amounts of damage to the land above. An earthquake of magnitude 3 would be very small, 6 would cause substantial damage and 9 would have catastrophic effects.

The amount of damage an earthquake causes is measured by the Mercalli Scale, which is a measure of intensity.  This changes depending on the part of the Earthquake being measured. For example damage at the epicentre of an Earthquake would be more than further away from the epicentre.

If an Earthquake happens at the bottom of the sea it can push water upwards creating huge waves called tsunamis.

Earth like a Peach

Imagine the Earth as being like a peach made up of layers. The stone in the middle is the core, while the fleshy part is like the Earth's mantle which contains magma and the skin is like the crust.

Another way to picture this is to make a model of the Earth like this one we made with playdough.

Good Foundations - Earthquake Experiment

You'll need:

Jelly

Chocolate brownie or other foundation

Gummy sweets

Cocktail sticks

Earthquake Experiment Instructions

Make jelly and a brownie or other foundation layer to test in a tray or on a plate. If you don't want to use food items, play dough, clay etc would all work well too.

Build a tower using the cocktail sticks and jelly sweets. Ours looked like this.

We tested our tower on it's own and then in jelly, flapjack and brownie by counting the number of shakes needed to make it fall over and recorded our observations.

Images taken from Snackable Science

Earthquake Experiment - Make it fair

The same person shook all our towers, so we could try to make sure the same force was used each time.

We used a tower of the same height and using the same number of sweets/toothpicks each time.

Keep the depth of the foundations the same.

Extension ideas

What happens if you build a taller tower?

What other foundations could you use?

Can you think of a way to strengthen your tower?

Snackable Science

This activity can also be found in my latest book, Snackable Science

Earthquake Facts for Kids

A seismometer is used to measure the magnitude of an earthquake. Earthquakes are measured on the Richter Scale.

Movement of a tectonic plate of just 20cm is enough to set off an earthquake!

Small earthquakes can be felt as a slight tremor, but larger earthquakes can cause severe damage, making buildings collapse, causing landslides, flooding and explosions. 

More Earthquake Science for Kids

Make your own Seismometer - this is super easy and great fun to engineer.

Find out about plate tectonics with an orange!

Scientific American have a brilliant LEGO based earthquake activity too!

Suitable for  – Key Stage 2 – Human and physical geography.

Key Stage 2 - Science

Post contains affiliate links

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Lots of people have been asking me for school science club ideas recently, so I've put together a collection of science experiments and activities that I think would work really well for Primary/Elementary school age children at a science club!

Scribble Bots/Art Bots

First up are our easy Scribble Bots. These are very simple to make using inexpensive and reusable materials. Children can try changing the size of the container, location of pens and alignment of the moving arm to see how the drawing pattern changes.

Scribble Bot Challenges

Build a robot that can draw an almost perfect circle.

Create a robot that can draw a dotted line.

Construct a robot with 8 pens.

Try using a small cleaning brush instead of a pringles can.

Earthquake Experiments

Build towers and test how stable they are with different edible foundations. I've also got instructions for how to make a simple seismometer.

If you don't want to use food, playdough and clay foundations work as well!

Earthquake Challenges

Investigate to find out how to make the tallest stable tower. One idea is to use stabilising toothpicks to form triangles.

Experiment to find the most stable edible foundation.

Craft Stick Chain Reaction

Craft stick chain reactions are great fun and easy to set up once you get the hang of them. It's definitely worth persevering with for the final spectacular result.

Chain Reaction Challenges

Have a mini competition to find out who can build the longest chain reaction.

Experiment with longer sticks to find out if the reaction jumps higher.

Design and build a different kind of chain reaction, this is sometimes called a Rube Goldberg Machine. Rube Goldberg machine's are fantastic for a science club as children can work in teams to set up unique chain reactions!

Make a Superhero Float

Give children a selection of buoyant and non buoyant materials and ask them to find a way to make a small action figure float.

Superhero Challenges

Investigate to fine the smallest amount of material that can be used to make a figure float.

Try to get an action figure to float by another method. Adding salt to water to increase the density is one idea. Or make a boat for the figure to lie in.

Blow up a balloon with Alka seltzer.

Try blowing up a balloon with Alka Seltzer, an effervescent vitamin tablet or popping candy. If you have the outdoor space this works really well followed by a film canister rocket. The fact that the children have seen just how much gas is released by an effervescent tablet makes it easier to understand why the pressure builds up so fast inside the film canister.

Extra Challenges

Experiment to find out how to speed up the blowing up a balloon reaction. Increasing the temperature of the water or adding more of the effervescent tablets are one way to do this.

Draw a picture on a balloon so it expands as the balloon grows.

Paper Spinners

These are a super easy, low cost activity using just paper and paper clips. Paper spinners can be used for lots of different investigations, children can try dropping them from different heights, making different sized spinners and observing how they fall differently or adding more or less weight to the bottom end.

Paper Spinner Challenges

Have a competition to see who can make the biggest paper spinner that spins at least once on its descent?

Find out the size of the smallest spinner that still spins.

Race to see who can make the slowest falling spinner.

Catapults

Try catapulting different size and weight balls to see which go the furthest, or release from different angles. Children could also design a target and find a way for the ball to make a mark when it hits.

Follow my easy catapult instructions to get started.

Catapult Challenges for Science Club

Who can make their ping pong ball go the furthest?

Who can build the biggest catapult?

Make ice cream with ice and salt

This is another easy activity and a great demonstration of how salt lowers the freezing point of ice.

To make ice cream with ice and salt, simply place sugar, cream and flavouring into one sealed bag, then place that big inside a bigger bag container ice and salt, roll and twist the bags together until your cream turns into lovely squishy ice cream! Experiment using milk, cream, flavoured milk and syrups to see which give the best flavour.

Remember this can get very cold for little hands so gloves or a tea towel might be a good idea.

Density Jar

Make a density jar and ask the children to find objects to float on each layer. Give the jar a good shake and watch how the layers separate and use a pipette to drop water into oil observing how it makes spherical shapes.

Once you're finished with the density jar you can add a bit of food colouring to the water and turn it into a lava lamp by adding an alka seltzer.

Density Challenges

Who can make a density jar with the most layers? Try treacle, golden syrup, ice cream syrup, milk, water, honey, washing up liquid.

Viscosity Races

Viscosity Races are brilliant fun and a great way to learn how the thickness of  liquid changes how it flows.

Simply mark two points on a large piece of paper and time how long each liquid takes to run between the two lines.

Viscosity Challenges

Experiment to find the fastest and slowest moving liquids you can.

Find out what happens to the speed of the liquids if you change the gradient of the ramp.

Skittle Magic

Place skittles in water and watch as the colour dissolves from the sweets. You could try using warm, hot and cold water to investigate if changing the temperature of the water speeds up the reaction.

Egg Drop Experiment

How about this nice twist on the traditional egg drop experiment? Ask children to place different materials into sealable plastic bags, place an egg inside and then drop from high up to see which protects the egg the best.

Try changing the material inside the bag, the surface the egg drops onto or size of the bag to extend the task.

Egg Drop Challenges

Who can build the most effective landing pad for an egg to drop on without breaking?

School Science Club STEM Challenges

Find out who can build the tallest spaghetti and marshmallow tower. Straws and plasticine also work well for this.

Construct a tower with sugar cubes.

Create a working water slide or marble run using cardboard tubes and foil.

I've also got 40 fun science challenges with FREE printable instructions available to download.

Let us know if you have more school science club ideas for us.

If you enjoyed these science activities don't forget I've got 100s more science experiments for kids and adults for you to try!

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Here at Science Sparks we LOVE a good science fair project but appreciate that not everyone feels the same way, so here are a few amazing ( and easy ) science fair project ideas to give you some inspiration.

Science Fair Top Tips

Let your child choose a science project that interests them, I find my children are much happier to get stuck into a project that they have chosen rather than something I think they should do. Obviously if they choose something too difficult you might have suggest something a little easier. A good starting point is to narrow it down to a selection of five you think would work for both of you and allow the child to make the final decision.

If you have a child who thinks they don't like science and just isn't enthusiastic, try to combine science with something they do love. For example, there are lots of brilliant art and science projects around. Or if you have a child who likes to build things, try one of our engineering projects. Books and stories can be a great source of inspiration too. We've got lots of story themed science activities for inspiration.

Try not to take over. I am terrible for interfering too much, but I'm really trying to take a step back and be the helper rather than the leader.

Messy Science Fair Projects

Slime Investigation Ideas

Why is slime slimy?

Find out why slimy has the properties that make it fun with a slime investigation using our easy slime recipe.

How can I make clear slime?

Make a batch of slime using opaque glue and one with transparent glue and compare the two. Slime made using soluble fibre is another variation you could try.

Can I make slime without glue?

YES! This slime recipe using Guar Gum looks great!

We have three borax and glue free slime recipes you could try too.

What's the science behind slime?

Glue flows because the polymer chains slide over each other. When you make slime with glue and saline solution ( which contains boric acid ) the boric acid in the saline solution reacts with baking soda to form borate ions which form bonds between the polymer chains of the glue. This is called cross linking and is what makes the slime mixture stick together, making it slimy!!

Make a soda dispenser

This AWESOME soda dispenser idea is from from Steve Spangler and uses the good old mento and soda trick where you drop a mento into a bottle of coke and watch it fizz. You could use the activity to investigate how different types of sodas have different levels of reaction, and challenge yourself to see how many cups you can fill.

If you'd rather a less messy DIY drinks dispenser, we have a version that uses air pressure to dispense the drink and can be used over and over again.

Erupt a volcano with baking soda and vinegar

Learn about chemical reactions with a baking soda volcano. Experiment to find the perfect combination of vinegar, baking soda and washing up liquid ( dish soap ) to make the most realistic looking lava. Does thicker lava flow more slowly?

You could make a volcano from papier mache, modroc, sand or snow! Try making different colours, sizes and shapes.

Babble Dabble Do has an amazing lemon volcano that we bet will smell amazing too!

Red Ted Art has a brilliant erupting papier mache volcano too!

Weather Science Fair Projects

Track changes to the weather over a period of time by making a barometer to measure air pressure, a rain gauge to measure rain, a pinecone weather station and other fun weather science activities.

Weather based investigations are great if you have a period of weeks or months to track changes and a perfect for learning to record and display data. We love weather science!

Food Science Fair Projects

Why does fresh pineapple stop jelly setting?

Try some kitchen science and investigate why fresh pineapple stops jelly setting. You might find some other fruits have the same effect...

Edible Life Cycles

Create a series of edible life cycles. This butterfly life cycle is a great example to get you started.

Investigate tooth decay with egg shells

Egg shells are the perfect material for investigating the effect of different substances on teeth. Coffee, vinegar and fizzy drinks are great things to try first.

Density Science Fair Projects

A density jar makes for a wonderfully visual science demonstration. See how many layers you can float on to of each other and try to find an object to float on each layer.

You could even try a little science magic trick. Although this can get messy so be careful.

Osmosis Projects for a Science Fair

Osmosis always sounds like a really tricky subject, but actually it's pretty simple. You can use eggs with no shell to demonstrate easily.

Use eggs to investigate osmosis and diffusion.This simple, low cost activity is great for explaining quite complex processes and very visual as well.

The photo below shows how water has moved into one egg ( with the shell removed ) and out of the other.

Make a Scribble Bot

A Scribble or Art Bot is a fantastic creative science fair project. Try changing the position of the pens and size of spinner to change the effect.

If you didn't quite find what you were looking for, try one of our other easy science experiments for kids

If you're looking for an inexpensive prize for a science fair, how about one of our science books?

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Did you know you can make homemade ice cream in a bag in less than 10 minutes with just milk, salt and ice? You don't even need a freezer!! Our ice cream recipe is easy for kids to follow and a fun science activity at the same time.

Experiment with different flavours and toppings to find your favourite ice cream dessert!

This awesome kitchen science experiment for kids involves lots of interesting chemistry, is inexpensive and very simple!

What is ice cream?

Ice cream is made up of droplets of fat from milk jumbled up with millions of tiny crystals of ice and pockets of air.

This activity uses the freezing power of salt and ice to create ice crystals in milk without a freezer!

Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag Science Experiment

What you need to make ice cream in a bag

A large bag of ice

Salt

Milk - we used chocolate milk, but any kind of milk or non-dairy drink will work

A tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla essence - optional

Resealable bags

Tea towel

How to make ice cream in a bag

1. Pour a cup of milk into a resealable plastic bag. Add the sugar and vanilla essence ( or just use flavoured milk ). Make sure the bag is properly sealed.
2. Half-fill a bigger sealable bag with ice and add a good amount of salt.
3. Put the milk bag into the ice bag and give it a good shake.
4. Keep the milk in contact with the ice as much as possible.
5. Keep rolling the ice over the milk. The ice in the bag will get VERY cold, so put a towel around the bag to protect your hands.
6. Check the milk after 5 minutes. It should be a similar consistency to ice cream. If not, keep going for a bit longer.

Why does ice cream in a bag work?

Pure water freezes at 0°C. The addition of salt lowers the freezing point by a few degrees ( freezing point depression ). This means when salt is added to the ice in the outer bag, the ice (which is at 0°C) is above its freezing point, so it starts to melt. Melting needs energy, which in this case comes from the milk mixture in the inner bag. Heat energy is absorbed from the milk, making ice crystals form between the tiny fat molecules.

The more salt that is added to the ice, the lower the freezing point. For the ice to melt, heat must be absorbed from the surroundings ( in this case, the milk mixture ), causing it to freeze.

The ice will feel VERY cold, which is why you'll need a towel to cover the bag after a  few minutes.

Extension ideas

Create and test different homemade ice cream recipes.

Place a mixture of ice and salt in a freezer to investigate whether it freezes or not.

This activity would be perfect for a science club or a fun STEM Challenge. You could even have a competition to see who can make the COLDEST ice cream!

More Awesome Kitchen Science for Kids

Make a whole meal of science experiments! This is a great science or cooking challenge for homeschooling or school!

Try one of my other easy kitchen science experiments for kids, including finding out why cakes turn brown in the oven, why pineapple stops jelly setting, building towers with toothpicks in a flapjack or brownie base and lots more!

If your children love edible experiments, you might also like my kitchen science book, Snackable Science, which includes SIXTY fun and easy edible experiments!

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