5 Fun Science Experiments for kids to try at home

Exploring science with children is a fantastic way to encourage a love of learning about science and how science is incorporated into our everyday lives. Introduce your children to some fun home-science experiments and turn learning about science into a fun and interactive experience.

Here at First Tutors we firmly believe in the importance of learning science from an early age and how encouraging a child to love science will have great benefits for their academic successes through their school days and into their adult lives. We have complied a list of 5 fun and interactive experiments for you to enjoy with your child and inspire their love for learning about science and the world we live in.

Experiment 1

Raw or Boiled Egg

Find the difference between a raw egg and a boiled egg with this simple experiment.

Things you'll need:

• One boiled egg

• One raw egg

(Make sure the hard boiled egg has been in the fridge long enough to have the same temperature as the raw egg!)

What to do:

• Spin both the eggs on a table and watch what happens.

• One egg will spin while the other will wobble.

• If you lightly touch each of the eggs while they are spinning one should stop quickly while the other will keep moving.

What you'll see:

• The wobbly egg is the raw egg. It's centre of gravity changes as the white and yolk move around inside the shell. Even after you touch the shell it will continue moving.

• This is called inertia - the same type of force you feel when you change direction. Inertia causes the raw egg to spin even after you have stopped it.

• The solid white and yolk of the boiled egg responds quicker if you touch is which is why it slows down.

• Try and see if your friends can tell the difference between the raw and boiled egg before showing them your fun trick!

Source: Science kids

Experiment 2

Make the mothballs dance

Have fun making mothballs dance in a glass of Sprite with this fun science experiment.

Things you'll need:

• A can of Sprite

• A tall plastic cup

• Some mothballs

What to do:

• Pour the Sprite into the glass.

• You will see the carbon dioxide bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass.

• Drop a few mothballs into the glass and observe their behaviour for a few minutes.

• Have they started dancing?

What you'll see:

• The density of mothballs is more than that of soda so at first they will sink to the bottom.

• Then the carbon dioxide bubbles rise and attach themselves to the rough surface of the mothballs and increase their lightness.

• This makes the mothballs rise to the surface and the bubbles pop, causing the carbon dioxide to escape into the air.

• The mothballs therefore lose their lightness and sink to the bottom of the glass.

• By now they are too heavy and soggy to rise to the surface.

Source: School of Dragons

Experiment 3

Magic Ketchup

Make a sachet of ketchup sink or float with this fun home-science experiment.

Things you'll need:

• A 1 litre plastic bottle

• Salt

• A ketchup sachet

What to do:

• Fill the plastic bottle completely with water. (Make sure it has no labels on it).

• Put the ketchup sachet in the bottle.

• If it floats, put the lid on the bottle and squeeze the sides of the bottle hard.

• The ketchup sachet should sink when you squeeze the sides of the bottle and float when you release them.

• If the ketchup sachet sinks when you put it in the bottle, add about 3 tablespoons of salt and shake the bottle until it dissolves.

• Add more salt until the ketchup floats tot he top of the bottle.

• Once you have the sachet floating to the top, replace any lost water and screw the cap on tightly again.

• Squeeze the bottle again and you should have the sachet sinking and floating at your command!

What you'll see:

• This experiment demonstrates the effects of density and buoyancy.

• The ketchup sachet contains a small bubble so when you squeeze the bottle, the pressure on the sachet makes the bubble become smaller and the sachet acquires more density than the water surrounding it.

• More density makes the sachet sink. When the pressure is released, the bubble becomes bigger and the sachet become lighter making it float to the top of the bottle.

Source: School of Dragons

Experiment 4

Make a big dry ice bubble

This experiment is great for kids to do with adults. By adding water to dry ice and covering it with a layer of soapy water you'll watch your bubble grow. How big will the bubble get before it bursts? Adult supervision is required here as dry ice can be dangerous and damage the skin of it's not used safely. Adults should handle the dry ice with gloves and make sure they avoid breathing in the vapour!

Things you'll need:

• Water

• A bowl with a lip around the top

• A strip of material

• A small bowl of soapy water (just add some dish-washing liquid to some water and mix together)

• Some dry ice

What to do:

• Place your dry ice in he bowl and add some water. (It should start looking like a witches cauldron!)

• Soak the strip of material in your soapy mixture and run it around the lip of the bowl before dragging it across the top of the bowl to form a bubble layer over the dry ice.

• Now stand back and watch your bubble grow!

What you'll see:

• Dry ice is carbon dioxide in its solid form.

• At temperatures above -56.4 °C dry ice changes from a solid to a gas, without ever being a liquid.

• This process is called sublimation. When dry ice is put in water it accelerates the sublimation process, creating clouds of fog that fill up your dry ice bubble until the pressure becomes too much and the bubble explodes, spilling fog over the edge of the bowl.

Source: Science kids

Experiment 5

The sound of a duck call

Try and create the sound of a duck call with this easy and fun science experiment.

Things you'll need:

• A plastic straw

• Some scissors

What to do:

• Use your fingers to press down one end of the straw to flatten it as much as you can.

• Cut the flattened end of the straw into a point and flatten it out again.

• Take a deep breath, put the pointed end of the straw in your mouth and blow hard into the straw. Do you hear a strange sound coming from the straw?

• If you can't hear a sound try flattening it out some more or cutting the straw in half.

• Now trying cutting the straw into different lengths and listening to the varying sounds.

• Which size straw sounds the most like a duck call?

• Which length of straw is the easiest or hardest to get a sound from?

What you'll see:

• The little triangle that you cut in the end of the straw forced the two ends to vibrate very fast against each other when you blew through the straw.

• The vibrations going through the straw created that funny duck-like sound that you heard!

Source: School of Dragons

Simple science experiments are a great way of spending quality time with your children whilst introducing them to basic scientific concepts. Explore science and make their learning journey both fun and interactive!