It’s really important to learn about the four STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering, and math. Knowing a lot about these subjects will help you in school, and it can also help you to get a job once you’re an adult.
Another great thing about the STEM subjects is that they can actually be easy and fun to learn about. There are all sorts of neat activities and fun games you can try that can also help you learn. You might even find that they help you do better in school!
Activities
- Construct a Catapult: Put your problem-solving skills to work by using common things you might already have in your house to build a catapult that can shoot a ball across the room. Then, make a target and see how well you can hit it.
- Make Your Own Volcano: This is a classic science experiment that has really fun (and messy) results! When you mix baking soda and vinegar, you can create your own “lava” eruption.
- Apple Oxidation Experiment: Oxidation is a chemical reaction that happens when something touches oxygen. In this experiment, you can see an apple oxidize after you cut it open, then try using an antioxidant to stop the reaction from happening.
- Build a Pneumatic Machine: A pneumatic machine uses air pressure to work. With this activity, you can build your own pneumatic machine that can lift things using the power of air.
- Water Cycle in a Bag: Did you know that you can capture the process that makes clouds and rain inside of a simple plastic bag? Just put a little bit of water into the bag, seal it, and tape it to a sunny window. After a little while, you’ll see the water cycle start to work.
- Elephant Toothpaste Experiment: This messy chemical reaction uses hydrogen peroxide and yeast to make bubbles. When you add liquid dish soap to the mix, the result is a huge, foamy reaction that kind of looks like toothpaste coming out of a giant tube!
- Fireworks in a Jar: Slowly pour a mixture of oil and food coloring into a glass of warm water to watch a colorful explosion of “fireworks.”
- Make Ice Cream in a Bag: This is a tasty treat and a fun science project. Put your ice cream ingredients in a plastic bag, put this bag in a larger bag that contains ice and salt, and shake it for five minutes. When you’re done, you’ll have ice cream!
- How to Make a Wind-Powered Car: With a little science and engineering, you can create a car that runs on wind power.
- Alka-Seltzer Lava Lamp: Make a mixture of water and food coloring, then carefully pour it into a glass of vegetable oil. Then, drop in an Alka-Seltzer and watch the “lamp” work.
- Glow in the Dark Flowers: This page explains a few different ways that you can make flowers glow in the dark. Pick one idea to try, or try them all and see which results you like best.
- Magnetic Slime: Mix iron filings with glue and water. Then, add borax to make slime. The iron filings are magnetic, so when you place a magnet near the slime, the slime will move.
- Construct Pretzel and Marshmallow Buildings: This is an easy and fun engineering project, and when you’re all done, you can eat what you built.
- Make Your Own Water Fountain: See how physics forces water up and out of a straw when an inflated balloon is attached to the top of a water bottle.
Games
- Crack the Code: Put your analytical skills to the test by using a decoder to figure out secret messages.
- Blockly Maze: This maze game can help you learn about the basics of creating computer code.
- Explore Mars: Drive a rover on Mars and explore to learn interesting facts about this planet.
- Mission Motherboard: Play this game based on the show Cyberchase to practice your math and money skills while collecting the computer parts you need to save the day.
- Setting the Periodic Table: Click around the periodic table to learn about all of the different chemical elements, then play a game to see how well you know their abbreviations.
- Skeletal System Game: Learn about the bones in your body, then put together a skeleton yourself.
- Bridge Design: Can you build bridges to get your character across the gaps?
- Code Combat: Learn about coding while fighting your way through the different levels in this exciting game.
- Defuse the Bomb: Learn the ins and outs of the explosive device before using logic and science to deactivate it.
- One-Step Equations Race: Solve the math problems to win the car race.
- Lemonade Stand: Use your math skills to run a business selling lemonade and make money.
- Mad Neuron: Put together the parts of a neuron, a type of cell that carries messages in your body.
- Build a Virtual Frog: Grossed out by real frog dissections? Try building a virtual model of the insides of a frog instead.
- Acids and Bases Tester: Test the pH of different liquids.
