Here at Science Sparks HQ we love a bit of magic, whether it be a memory trick, slight of hand or even a bit of science magic. These 10 easy science tricks for kids are great fun and mostly super simple. The density one is a little tricky and potentially messy, but well worth the effort for the incredible end result.
Put a few drops of food coloring in a shallow bowl of milk, and they’ll stay that way — as self-contained blobs. But add a little dish soap to a toothpick or a Q-tip and touch the food coloring, and the colors will swirl around on their own like magic. It all has to do with surface tension: At first, the food coloring stays on the surface, but the soap causes a chemical reaction that breaks the surface tension.
Kids might guess that if you pierce a bag of water with a sharpened pencil, the water would all leak out. In fact, if you do it right, the polymers of the bag’s plastic will re-seal around the pencil, and your counters will stay dry (and your kids will be amazed). You can get them thinking about the chemical compositions that make up everyday items.
Give your little scientists the powers of Elsa! Water can turn into ice as it’s being poured. The secret is to chill water in the freezer until it’s almost frozen, then pour it over ice placed on an overturned ceramic bowl. Kids can see the transformation between the states of matter, and also how ice crystals are formed.
Want a memorable way to teach kids that hot air rises? Take the tea out of a tea bag, hollow it out and stand it up, and (carefully) take a match to it. The hollowed-out bag is so light, it rises along with the hot air, and becomes a flying, flaming tea bag.
A twist on a vinegar-and-baking-soda experiment, if you put baking soda in an empty bottle and vinegar in a balloon when you attach the balloon over the mouth of the bottle and let the vinegar pour in, the resulting gas will be enough to inflate the balloon on its own. Bonus: This experiment is less messy than a vinegar-baking soda volcano.
Secure two two-liter bottles together with water inside, flip them upside down, give a shake, and watch a tornado form its distinctive funnel shape. You can also put glitter or small items in the bottle to show how a tornado’s winds would whip objects around in the real world.
A peeled hard-boiled egg can’t fit into a bottle without smushing into a big mess, can it? It can — if you put a burning piece of paper in the bottle first. The burning paper in the bottle causes the air to expand and the pressure to go up. When the fire runs out of oxygen, the temperature cools, and the air contracts, sucking the egg through the bottle opening. The fire and the sucking of the egg make this an extra-dramatic experiment.
Chromatography is the process of separating a solution into different parts — like the pigments in the ink used in markers. If you draw stripes around a coffee filter, then fold it up and dip the tip in water, the water will travel up the filter and separate the marker ink into its different pigments (in cool patterns that you can display as a craft project). This family made the end result even brighter by adding an LED circuit to the center.
8. Keeping Water Separate
Fill two identical glasses with water. Add two tablespoons of salt to the water in one glass and stir well. Add a few drops of food coloring to the water in the other glass. Cover the glass containing the colored water with a sheet of paper, turn it upside down and place it on top of the glass containing salt water. (Be sure to do this trick over a saucer or bowl.) Gently pull the paper out from between the glasses. The colored water and the salt water will remain separate.
9. A Candle That Sucks Water
Place a candle upright in the middle of a saucer. Fill the saucer with water. Light the candle. Place a glass over the candle. When the flame goes out, the water in the saucer will get sucked into the glass.
10. A Flying Trash Bag
Hold the mouth of a black trash bag in one hand. Use a hair dryer to blow hot air into the bag. Seal the mouth of the bag with tape. Tie a long piece of string around the tape so you can hold it. Take the bag out into the sun. The bag will rise slowly into the air. (It’s best to do this trick in an open area on a windless day).
