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This a simple experiment that can be used for younger students to show them how sunlight refracts when it passes through water. Children are often amazed by rainbows, so why not let them make their own rainbow while learning how and why they appear.

This is an experiment for younger students to help get an understanding of how and why it rains. In this experiment, by using a glass jar, hot water, a bowl with holes, and ice, students will be able to visually see the process of rain. I chose this experiment because students will be able to form their own ideas by watching the "rain" before we have a whole group discussion. I will use this in the classroom while teaching the students about weather, specifically rain.

This page of experiment and projects has a bit more than the previous one I posted. It also has them for older ages. There are pictures of them completed with all of the work that went into them directly from the students. It is great!

Located in Makanda, Illinois, Touch of Nature has an Environmental Education program that, "offers exciting outdoor learning experiences in natural resource education, nature interpretation and resource management. Courses are designed to increase environment awareness, appreciation and stewardship. The do offer lodging (for a fee) to take older students for a fun learning experience. I don't think it's ever too early to get kids thinking about how they effect the environment so if I were in a school close to Makanda, I would take students as early as 3rd grade, however this would be an extremely cool field trip for grades 8 and up.

Experiments for very early learners may be a little hard to think of. This page is full of ideas with materials you will need, ways to tie it all together, and how to get the students to understand the big picture.

Many of these are more crafts projects than experiments, although they have potential linkages to science.

This is a booklet of experiments and worksheets to help the students understand the states of matter. This could be used throughout a unit on states of matter. There are 9 experiments included in this bundle so they can be place throughout the unit.

When teaching a lesson about natural disasters, making a vinegar volcano is a great way to keep the students interested and active in the lesson. This experiment would be really great to try with all of my students after a science unit on volcanoes. Using baking soda and Vinegar, the students will also be learning about chemical reactions and how baking soda ( a base) and vinegar (an acid) react to each other and cause frizzing. This lesson would allow my students to get creative in making their own volcano, while learning about what a volcano is, and the cause and effects of the volcano.

remove "science" tag and add something more specific, such as "earth science." The grade level tag should be K-2, 3-5, 5-8, and/or 9-12 to be consistent with other tags. Specify whether this is a lesson, activity, field trip, etc. in the tags.

This experiment uses a plastic bag, string, scissors and a small action figure. As you might have guested you are going to make a parachute. After you construct the parachute you will drop it as slow as you can. This shows air resistance. This is a great start to a lesson, an experiment, and even an example of a fair test! I would use this to start a lesson on air resistance ( or maybe even gravity). I would first drop my parachute in the class and ask students what happened. I might even drop both an action figure by himself, and an action figure on a parachute to farther demonstrate the air resistance. I might ask questions such as "why did this action figure fall more slowly? What was stopping him? Why/how? Then after a discussion I would get out materials for the whole class. I would ask students "What could we test using what we now know to create different parachutes and find out which one will work the best?" We would talk about how larger surface area creates more resistance and will make a parachute fall more slowly. In the aspects of a fair test I would try to guide the idea towards testing out maybe 5 different parachutes. The controlled aspect would be using the same material, and same size parachute. What would change would be how many holes we would put in the top of it. Holes in the top cause air to go through the parachute not around it, this causes the parachute to fall more straight. (This is something we might have found out through research.) The goal would be to make a parachute that falls as slow and straight as possible. The challenge would be where to place the holes and how big the holes should be.

This experiment is used to decipher which of the three types of erosion causes the greatest change. After setting up dirt or soil on one side of three separate pans, designate one pan for water erosion, one pan for wind erosion, and one pan for glacial erosion. Then, once a day for three days, spray the water five times on the dirt in the water pan, use a straw to blow on the dirt in the wind pan five times, and slide a piece of ice on the dirt in the glacial pan five times. Have students keep a daily record of their observations and predictions. I chose this experiment because I thought it would be a great way to bring the "real world" into my classroom. It is also an excellent opportunity for students to use their scientific skills by recording their theories. I would use this experiment during a unit on erosion and Earth Systems.

Most of us probably remember the classic science experiment of cleaning a penny with a mixture of vinegar and salt. This website demonstrates stepping that up a notch and experimenting cleaning a penny with different types of substances. This activity allows for the students to make inferences and predictions on what liquid will make the penny cleaner or shinier and what liquid or substance will make it duller.

This is a simple and fun experiment that is compatible for elementary school students. It teaches them about basic chemistry. This is a lab activity that can be conducted inside of the regular classroom. The students will be conducting experiments with apple slices, water, lemon juice, and oxygen to see the effects of what turns a sliced apple brown and what can prevent a sliced apple from turning brown. I would use this lab activity in my classroom when teaching students about chemistry because it is safe for younger students and is inexpensive.

The rock sandwich experiment is a hands-on way to learn about a very long process. The bread acts like two layers of sediment on top of each other that will eventually form metamorphic rock. This experiment is simple, cheap, and quick. It will make for a nice addition to a lesson on the different phases of the rock cycle. I could have pairs of students perform this experiment so everyone is involved and all of them have a chance to do a hands-on activity. It is also a great activity to do lab sheets with and a follow up journal entry on what they learned about the formation of metamorphic rock.

PBS's lesson on gravity is somewhat of a classic, dropping two objects of different weight from the same height. This lesson utilizes both hands-on experiments, videos, prediction, and a variety of other ways for students to stay engaged and involved in the lesson. Throughout the lesson students predict what may or may not happen to their own experiments, to those done on the moon, and comparatively between the two differing atmospheres. The resource is specifically valuable to me due to it's consistent student directed and inquiry-based nature, examples of higher order thinking questions can be found throughout the lesson. I can see this resource being used in the classroom during an introduction lesson to the concept of gravity, possibly taking place in multiple parts throughout a week or a unit.

The Children's Creativity Museum has a range of exploratory experiences for children throughout their site, their coding workshop field-trip is exploratory in a whole new manner. Children will experience a coding workshop that is structured to engage and entertain them, while also providing actual coding skills and knowledge that can be applied in other scenarios outside the workshop itself.I envision the field trip going along with coding that we do in class, possibly in conjunction with a school-wide "Hour of Code" via Khan Academy, or something similar.

This resource includes the information for attending a Planetarium show at the Saint Louis Science Center. This planetarium has a show currently being shown called "The Little Star that Could." The trailer for this video can be found at the site listed. I have attended many educational shows at several different locations, but none seem to ever compare to the ones shown at the Saint Louis Science Center Planetarium. The format of the presentation really resonates with the observers and leaves a lasting impression. I would invite my class to go on a field trip to this planetarium after a lesson on the solar system.

The Live Sky Tonight show at the Saint Louis Science Center could be an incredibly fun experience for students who are studying the night sky at home! In cooperation with creating some sort of sky map at home or at school using the internet as well as visual observations, both or either, the students could compare their own work with that displayed at the planetarium! This resource would serve as particularly helpful for visual learners who may benefit from this immersive model, and it might also encourage those who had not been as engaged in star mapping before to become more involved after the experience!

I liked this experiment because it involved an upcoming holiday, which students also seem to really enjoy (you could also do this experiment without involving Valentines Day.) This experiment is similar to the classic baking soda and vinegar. When you put a balloon on top of a water bottle that contains aka seltzer and water, the reaction bubbles form, they have nowhere to go and it fills up the balloon with carbon dioxide gas, inflating the balloon and showing the heart message. To use this in a classroom, I would have my students write down what they think is going to happen to the balloon and to the reaction. We could also try this experiment with a different type of liquid like sprite and see what happens.

Good place to go to get detailed information on science demonstrations you can do in class (or at home). This site is beneficial because not only does it outline the steps to doing the demo but each has a link to a video that shows a successful demo.

One of my favorite resources. Quick and easy experiments to wow your students!

This site was originally published as a book to provide resources for new Chemistry teachers. It describes lab experiments that the author has done with classes. It seems very useful because it goes beyond describing the experiments by explaining common problems students have and how to anticipate or resolve them. Other helpful information includes: estimated time, equipment needed, safety concerns, special clean up information, answer keys, and where these labs fit into the curriculum. While the link and all the information provided are free, the labs do require supplies. For some of the labs, the author discussed cost and how to save money when purchasing supplies. Overall, this resource seems very valuable, especially for new teachers. Even though we have the content background, anticipating mistakes and dealing with problems comes from experience.

This resource contains instructions on how to bend water. The object is to bend the water by using static electricity. The materials needed are a plastic comb or inflated balloon, a narrow steam of water from a faucet, and dry hair. I selected this resource because I believe the lower elementary grades would really enjoy the experiment. Someday, I would love to teach kindergarten and I can see myself making a lesson out of this resource.

This is an experiment in which students will compare three different solutions that have different levels of salt. Students will use food coloring in order to visually see which solution is the most dense and which is the least dense. They will also see how the density of a liquid affects the objects in it. I chose this experiment because while teaching about density, this will allow my students to receive a visual understanding. I also like this experiment's website because it offers questions to think about and has real life application as it talks about rivers, oceans, and the Dead Sea.