Cool Science Activities for Kids

"I'm going to do this with MY kids!" my daughter said after we did the pepper experiment. With ingredients from your kitchen and only minutes of time...you can do these cool science activities with your kids. Great for a summer science week theme or just if you have some time to kill between camp and dinner...

Scare the Pepper! Science Experiment

You'll Need:

Cereal bowl
Water
Pepper
Dish soap
A finger or two

Directions:

Fill the cereal bowl with water (about 1/3 cup). Dash in some pepper. LOOK at it floating on the surface. WRITE-DOWN what you see.
Then, put a smudge of dish soap at the tip of child's finger. Have child strike finger down to the bottom of the milk bowl.
WHAT HAPPENS? The pepper all runs away to the side of the bowl.

Tie-Die Milk Science Experiment

(This was the one my kids loved most)

You'll Need:

Cereal bowl
Milk
4 different colours of food colouring
Dish soap
Toothpick

Directions:

Fill 1/3 cup of milk in cereal bowl. Have kids drop 2 drops of food colouring in the four corners (don't let the colours touch). WARNING: food colouring stains so maybe have kids put on old t-shirts or art smocks).
Put a drop of dish soap on the end of the toothpicks. Have kids strike toothpick into CENTRE of milk bowl. LOOK at what happens. WRITE-DOWN what you see.
WHAT HAPPENS? The milk become tie-died as the food & milk colouring reacts with the dish soap. The milk seems to move through the food colouring making ripples.

*No, you can't drink the water or milk afterwards*

Both of these activities took minutes but entertained the kids greatly. And they don't know it yet, but later this week we are going to see what happens when you mix Mentos and Coke.