What is a cloud? Why do boats float? How does a car work? If you have children in your life, you could hear 100 questions like this every day. Young learners have such a wide-open curiosity about the world, you may have caught yourself wishing you understood more about the science of clouds or bridge engineering or botany yourself—just to explain things. STEM activities need to be introduced early on because in today’s age of information, the ability to innovate, be technologically fluent, and understand how and why things work together is incredibly important. Try some of these fun activities. I will post more later.
Simple STEM Activities for Kids
To view the experiments, click on the link. NOTE: Some of the sites have several ads. Younger children should be monitored. All of the activities can be modified for various grade levels.
1. Cloud in a Jar
This activity can be very simple for the littlest ones—or scaled up for older kids into an experiment with two different methods to create a cloud, along with conversation about how water cycles work in the environment.
2. Oil Spill Cleanup Challenge
Category: Engineering/Science
Grades: 2nd - 6th
Grades: 2nd - 6th
Use this activity to show how oil spills can affect the environment. In this activity, you simply mix oil and water in a large container and add a few feathers to the mix. Use materials like sponges, cotton balls or little spoons to try to remove the oil from the water and feathers.
3. Sticky Note Number MatchCategory: Math
Grades: PreK-1 |
Materials
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With a sheet of paper taped to the wall, some sticky notes and a marker, you can set up this movement-oriented math activity to help kids understand the meaning of numeric values.
4. Coding a Lego MazeCategory: Technology
Grades: Kdg. - 12th (4 levels) |
Materials
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With free printable materials like different mazes and instruction cards, your child puts themselves in the shoes of the “user” and lines up different codes (printed instructions) in order to “guide” their LEGO person through the maze. This can be completed with or without the LEGO pr DUPLO blocks.
5. Crystal Sun CatchersCategory: Science/Art
Grades: Kdg. - 6th (4 levels) |
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Making crystals with salt is a popular kid’s science activity. This particular activity also involves making the crystals into a sun catcher.
6. Building a Hand Crank WinchCategory: Engineering
Grades: PreK - 5th |
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This STEM project is perfect for those kids who love to get crafty and learn how things work. The concept of the winch is a perfect way to build an early sense of how people can build awesome things with simple machines like pulleys.
7. Build a Balance ScaleCategory: Science
Grades: PreK - 4th |
Materials
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This activity involves a straws, plates and string. Make your young ones a hanging balance they can use to experiment with weights. Or, if you have an older child—enlist their help in building the scale as well!
8. Magnetic SlimeCategory: Science
Grades: Kdg. - 5th |
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Homemade “slime” activities are a staple for many parents and educators looking for a fun tactile activity. This variant adds a splash of science by adding iron oxide powder and magnets into the mix.
9. Jellybean BuildingCategory: Engineering
Grades: PreK and up |
Materials
(Amount of to materials depends on the number of students.)
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All you’ll need is a pile of jellybeans (or large marshmallows) and toothpicks for your student or child to start learning about structures. By connecting toothpicks with jellybeans, encourage your child to see which shapes hold together well, which shapes stack well and which shapes are most interesting to look at. Try challenging them to create a house or a specific structure.
10. Pipe Cleaner Counting
With just pipe cleaners and beads, you can help your child learn to count while also getting a visual of how numbers increase in size. Simply take small pieces of paper and label each pipe cleaner with a number. Then, have your child order the pipe cleaners from smallest to greatest and start stringing on the correct number of beads while counting aloud.
11. Stop-Motion Animation VideoCategory: Technology
Grades: 1st and up |
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We’ve all seen the fun stop-motion videos online. With just a few objects, a smartphone or iPad® and a stop-motion app, your kids can learn about the technology behind movie-making and create a video unique to their own likes and interests.