Science experiments for 6yo

[DukeofEarlGrey]

Hi all,

My 6yo nephew has gone a bit quiet since Covid has happened and I’d like to plan some fun things to do with him over the summer break.

He likes science experiments and I wondered if anyone can recommend any ideas or kits I could get him for when he comes over? NB I live in a small flat and don’t have much space where he can do messy stuff (kitchen is a postage stamp), but we can do not-too messy stuff or else have a big park over the road where we can do other stuff. I don’t know how feasible experiments in the park are but mentioning in case of ideas!

Thanks in advance

Usborne do several books on experiments most of which can be done with things you have in the house.

When my DS was that age he loved PH test strips and would spend ages dipping them into all the different liquids we could find around the house. You can get them from Amazon or eBay.

This website has some great activities, all using pretty standard household stuff letsgolivescience.com/#

Mints in a bottle of coke is fun. But messy! That would be one for the park.

If you boil red cabbage in water and strain it the liquid tests pH levels and goes different colours. My 6 year old spent ages during the last lockdown making potions with it - he likes Harry Potter so I labelled all the bottles with things like 'bat's blood' and 'snake bile'.

The red cabbage as pH indicator one is fun www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/red-cabbage-chemistry/.

Oh, these are great ideas - thanks everyone! Please keep them coming if any more...

Another one that went down really well during the first lockdown was when we learnt about firefighters and tested different ways of putting out fires. I put tea lights in a baking tray full of sand and provided water pistols, pipettes, sand, glass jars etc and they spent ages (closely supervised of course) lighting the candles then seeing which ways of putting them out were most effective.

Magnet kits and clip-together circuit sets are fun and zero mess.

x post with @bluechameleon. Great minds think alike!

We did solution making, you need it orange squash and a range of clear glasses/bottles. Then measure different proportions of water to squash, see how the colour and smell differs, do a taste test, rate them out of 10, learn about making a solution. I’ve experiments eg seeing which melts quicker, with different things on it. Vinegar and copper coins, see which solution gets the tarnished coins clean. Making a parachutist with a square of cut out plastic bags of different thicknesses string and a Lego / playmobil character and launching down stairwell, which goes fastest.

Google science experiments for kids.

We have done the mentos in coke loads of times. Kids love it.

Made lava lamps recently.

Cornflour and water - food colouring optional. Non- Newtonian fluids. You can talk about solids and liquids and in between. Then do vinegar and bicarbonate and make carbon dioxide and talk about gases.

There's a way of making a rainbow by dissolving different amounts of sugar in different cups of water that you colour like the rainbow. When it's fully dissolved, carefully layer the different colours together and after a while they separate and sit on top of each other.

Put a fresh egg into a cup of vinegar for a week and the shell dissolves.

Put a couple of drops of food colouring into a shallow plate of milk, then drop a tiny bit of washing up liquid into it and watch the coloured blobs suddenly make star-like shapes.

Dissolve skittles into lemonade (we separated them into the different colours and made a few drinks. They tasted really nice!) and then sieve it so you can cat rid of the oily residue that sits on the top.

Make a volcano with oil and water (you might have to google because I can't remember what to do).

Put a white flower and a stick of celery with leaves on into a vase of coloured water. Over a few days the tips of the flower will take up the colour and when you split open the celery you should be able to see the lines of colour as it has moved up the plant.

Instant ice cream...

Whip cream, sugar and flavouring together (hot chocolate powder works particularly well)
Put in a sealed zip lock bag.

In a bigger zip lock bag, put ice and salt. Put first zip lock bag inside.

Wearing gloves, squeeze the bags so the ice and salt mix, and the cream mix moves around. Takes 5-10minutes. And the ice cream is edible as long as you've sealed the inner bag well.

The sciencey bit... adding salt changes the freezing point of water. So heat is sucked away from the ice cream mixture, causing it to freeze, as the ice melts.

Make a compass: stroke a needle against a magnet 20 times (the whole length of the needle and always in the same direction, not to-and-fro). Then place a single sheet of tissue paper on a bowl of water. Place the magnetised needle on the tissue and gently push the tissue underwater without touching the needle. If you get it right, the needle will float and swing around to point north or south, depending on which wayyou stroked the magnet. It also demonstrates surface tension.

When he loses a milk tooth, place it in a glass of coke for a day or two to demonstrate what sweet fizzy drinks do to your teeth.

Put some gaudy food colouring in a jar of water and put white flowers in it. Stem veg such as celery also work. You should be able to see the tips change colour as the plant draws up the dyed water.

The last two are good also as experiments that can be left running, for him to see the progress at his next visit. Or on Zoom calls between visits.

Chocolate is another project that can run across several weeks, and can also be used to learn scientific methods. Flavour melted chocolate in different ways, including unexpected ways like garlic or toothpaste. Keep a record of what sort of chocolate you use, the flavouring and the amounts of each. If you can, do blind testing so that the taster isn't prejudiced. Score for each of the 5 senses. Keep a spreadsheet and tweak your recipes.

Get some cornflower, add a little water and have fun with a non-Newtonian fluid (you can pour it but it reacts differently if you hit it or drop a marble on it).

Volcano 🌋

A small cup or egg cup
Bicarbonate of soda
Vinegar

My son spent a few hours doing this

Is anyone germinating a broad bean on damp blotting paper in a jam jar these days?

Thanks so much for all the brilliant ideas! I had no idea there were so many things of this kind you can do at home. I will be able to plan a lovely day for him using some of these.