Virtual classrooms can be complicated, but one can experience outstanding results if thoughtfully organized. A student can learn science well, even in remote teaching, with good coaching and well-crafted experiments. In addition, students can be encouraged to record their work themselves or share it live with their entire class.
One of the problems we face in remote learning is conducting science experiments. However, this is not a hurdle, as we will see below that there are numerous science activities students can do without entering a classroom.
Here are 36 science experiments for children to explore:
1) Water Walking experiment
Take six containers of water. Put clear water in three containers, red food coloring in one, blue color in one, and yellow color in another. Arrange them in a circle, alternating colored and clear containers, and make bridges between the containers with folded paper towels. The children will be amazed to see the magic of capillarity when the colored water “walks” over the bridges and into the clear containers, mixing colors.
2) Amplify a smartphone
Use paper cups and toilet paper tubes to amplify the phone.
3) Chromatography flowers experiment
Chromatography separates a solution into different parts — like the pigments in ink used in markers. If a student draws stripes around a coffee filter, then folds it up and dips the tip in water, the water will travel up the filter and separate the marker ink into its different pigments (in astonishing patterns that students can display as a craft project). One can an LED circuit to the center for a brighter result.
4) Fire leading a Teabag flying
Hot air rises from the fire and sends the tea bag flying in this one. Do supervise here for safety and preferably try outside.
5) Coffee Ground Fossils experiment
To better understand how fossils are made, the children can make salt dough with coffee grounds and make various shapes like toy dinosaurs, feet, seashells, etc. Then, if they poke a hole in the top before it dries, the kids can hang their “fossils” up in their rooms.
6) Watch the water rise
Learn about Charles’s Law with this simple experiment. As the candle burns, use oxygen and heat the glass air; the water rises as if by magic.
7) Watch raisins dance
This is a fun version of the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment, perfect for the younger crowd. The bubbly mixture causes raisins to dance around in the water.
8) Crystallize the own rock candy
9) Repel glitter with dish soap
10) Race a balloon-powered car
11) Design a cell phone stand
12) Create a “magic” leakproof bag from a zip-top plastic bag, sharp pencils, and some water to blow your kids’ minds.
13) Apple Oxidation experiment
Slice up an apple, let each slice soak in a different liquid, and later take them out, lay them on a tray, and check the brownness after three, six, and so on minutes. This test helps students know the properties of different liquids and allows them to practice the scientific method if they create hypotheses about which liquids would be most effective.
14) Blow the giant bubbles
15) Use vinegar to dissolve the calcium carbonate in an eggshell to discover the Naked egg—the membrane underneath that holds the egg together.
16) Learn to layer liquids
17) Use that homemade chalk for kids to turn into human sundials!
18) Make sparks with steel wool
19) Learn about plant transpiration- Grab a plastic bag and rubber band to learn how plants get rid of excess water they don’t need.
20) Turn milk into the plastic using kitchen supplies to create plastic polymers from plain old milk. Sculpt them into cool shapes once done!
21) Pull an egg into a bottle
22) Build a Ferris Wheel with basic things at home
23) Build a solar oven
24) Crush a can using air pressure
25) Build a da Vinci bridge with pencils
26) Grow a carbon sugar snake
27) Create eggshell chalk
28) Discover density with hot and cold water
29) Float a marker man and enjoy how the stick marker figure “levitates.”
30) Conduct an egg drop
31) Cotton ball launcher with basic stationery at home like pencils, cotton and rubber band.
32) Twist the empty bottle and open the cap to watch an instant cloud emerge.
33) Use baking soda, paper, and grape juice to write secret messages on cards.
34) Feed a ribbon through the straw- Tie the straw to a balloon and to a door and watch the balloon slide.
35) Explore liquid metal Gallium by heating it with hot water. It is safe and non-toxic to try.
36) Balloon Inflator experiment. Tie a balloon filled with baking soda over a glass bottle of vinegar and watch the chemical reaction inflate the balloon.
Conclusion
These science activities illustrate how remote learning can help a child do whatever it takes to ensure that education is holistic. The question is not whether remote learning is good or bad but how well we can take it forward and ensure that the learning meets the highest standards.