Find Fun STEM Activities to Fit Science Needs
Quickly find free science activities for use with students at home!
Science Buddies has more than 200 free science activities for kids. These activities are short-term science and engineering explorations especially designed for use at home, in the classroom, or for programs at libraries, camps, or afterschool.
Science Buddies' resources are always free, but during the current widespread school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the free library of science activities offers a treasure trove of readymade science instruction that teachers can use as part of their online learning strategy and that parents can use at home.
Finding the STEM You Need
On the STEM Activities for Kids page, you can browse all activities by various thematic categories to find activities of interest. To make it easier for teachers to find activities that fit the units they are doing with students, we've sorted the list below by areas of science.
To learn more about using these activities as part of your online learning, see STEM activities. We also encourage you to share Science Buddies as a resource for your students' families. The 30 Free Picks for Fun Kid Science post highlights 30 activities families may especially enjoy at home in these days. We also are running a Doing Science at Homeseries, with posts on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as one of our own staff members chronicles her adventure doing science at home with her kids during the school closure in her area.
STEM Activities for Kids Sorted by Areas of Science
Aerodynamics and Hydrodynamics
- Build an Archimedes Screw
- Build a Paper Airplane Launcher
- Build a Paper Rocket
- Build a Two-Stage Balloon Rocket
- Build A Vortex Cannon!
- Explore Matchstick Rockets
- Flying Helicopters on Mars
- How Does a Hovercraft Hover?
- How Much Weight Can Aluminum Foil Boats Float?
- How Tails Help a Kite to Fly
- Make a Parachute
- Make a Toy Sailboat
- Make a Whirlybird from Paper
- Paper Airplanes: Why Flaps and Folds Matter
- The Aerodynamics of Flying a Frisbee
Astronomy
Chemistry
- Best Wand for Big Bubbles
- Blowing the Best Bubbles
- Build a Bathtub Toy Raft Powered by Surface Tension
- Candy Lightning: A Flashy Activity
- Candy Rainbow
- Color-changing Cabbage Chemistry
- Colorful Patterns in Melting Ice
- Dancing Candy Hearts
- Does Wet Hair Float or Cling?
- Dye Eggs Using Silk Ties for Egg-cellent Colors
- Elephant Toothpaste
- Explore Glow-in-the-Dark Water!
- Exploring Enzymes
- Foaming Fake Snow
- Homemade Rice Paper
- How to Grow the Best Crystals
- How to Make Slime
- Launching Homemade Baking Soda Rockets
- Make an Alka-Seltzer Powered Lava Lamp
- Make a Fire Snake
- Make a Lemon Volcano
- Make a Sunprint Using Objects from Nature!
- Make Marbled Cards Using Science!
- Make Tie-Dye T-shirts with Permanent Markers
- Make Your Drawings Float!
- Making Homemade Bath Bombs
- Milk Curdling with Enzymes!
- Secret Messages With Invisible Ink!
- Shrink a Potato with Osmosis!
- The Science of Frescoes
- Turn Milk into Plastic
- Underwater Color Bursts
- Use Chemistry to Lift Ice Cubes
Civil Engineering
Cooking and Food Science
- Bake Your Ice Cream
- Color Taste Test—Do You Taste with Your Eyes?
- Comparing Cranberry Condiments
- Fruits Gone Bad? Discover Enzymatic Browning
- Grow Rock Candy Crystals
- Homemade Slushies
- Is the Egg Raw or Cooked? That is the Question!
- Make Ice Cream in a Bag
- Make Your Own Marshmallows
- Maple Syrup Candy
Computer Science
Electricity, Electronics, Energy, and Power
Genetics and Genomics
Geology and Ocean Science
Human Behavior
Human Biology, Health, and Microbiology
- Apparent Motion in Flipbooks
- DIY Face Mask
- Explore How Lung Infection Influences Breathing
- Exploring Mummification with Hot Dogs
- Find Your Blind Spot!
- How Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Take Over
- How Do Viruses React To Soap?
- How Do We Breathe?
- How Far Can Your Sneeze Go?
- How Strong Is Your Hair?
- How Well Do You Wash Your Hands?
- Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer
- Make Your Own Stethoscope
- Model How Herd Immunity Works
- Model Your Blood Flow
- Seeing in the Dark
- The First Cartoon: Make Your Own Thaumatrope!
Materials Science
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
- Build a Mini Trebuchet
- Build a Rubber Band-Powered Car
- Build a Water Sprinkler Toy
- Build a Wind-Powered Car
- Build Your Own Sports Equipment
- Design a Back Scratcher
- Design a Cell Phone Stand
- Duplicate Your Drawings with a Machine
- Gear Up Your Candy
- Make Cardboard Automata
- Protect Your 'Eggstronaut': Build an Egg-Drop Lander
- The Trick to Beating a Carnival Game
- Train Wheel Science
Physics
- A Candle Seesaw Balancing Act
- A Really Long Straw
- Balance the Forces Within a Mobile
- Balancing Act
- Balloon Magic with Bernoulli's Principle
- Build a Balloon Car
- Build a Cooler
- Build a Disk Siren
- Build a Marble Roller Coaster
- Build a Paper Roller Coaster
- Build a Popsicle Stick Catapult
- Build A Wall Marble Run
- Build a Water Strider
- Make a Kazoo
- Candy Waterfalls: Can Candy Flow Like Water?
- Circus-Trick Science: How to Balance Anything
- Create a Sea Breeze
- Curl Metals With Heat!
- Discover the Flaming Colors of Fireworks
- Distorted Images in Curved Mirrors
- Explore the Wet Sand Effect
- Gelatin Pearls
- Go With the Flow
- Holes That Do Not Leak!
- How Empty Is an Empty Bottle?
- How Fish Sink and Float
- How to Harvest Water from Fog
- Hula Hooping with a Rubber Band
- Lights, Camera, (Capillary) Action!
- Make a Cotton Ball Launcher
- Make a Homemade Compass
- Make a Milk Rainbow
- Make a Rubber Band Guitar
- Make Sprinkles Vibrate with Sound
- Make a Self-Starting Siphon
- Make a Straw Siphon
- Making Shadow Puppets
- Measure Static Electricity With An Electroscope!
- Mini Golf Physics
- Phone Book Friction
- Physics Secrets for Hula Hooping
- Popsicle Stick Chain Reaction
- Shaping Hard-boiled Eggs
- Slippery Slopes and the Angle of Repose
- Theme Park Science with Jell-O® Loop-De-Loops
- Use a Drop of Water as Magnifying Glass
- Walking Water
- Why Soda Fizzes — Boyle's Law Demonstration
Plant Biology
Robotics
Weather and Atmosphere
Zoology
Browse all STEM Activities for Kids
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