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science experiment

density

experiment

easy experiment

Turn a pair of bottles and foam pearls into a gravity-defying spectacle. Get your kids excited about the science of density while they watch time flow backwards!

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Gather your materials.

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Use the funnel to fill one bottle with foam pearls.

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Fill the other bottle with water.

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Cover the top of the water bottle with anything thin and flat.

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While keeping the top covered, flip the bottle over and align it on top of the bottle filled with pearls.

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Remove the cover.

Remove the cover and watch as the pearls rush into the top bottle.

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Reverse Hourglass

This activity is all about buoyancy and density! Density measures how tightly stuff is packed inside an object. Water is heavy and dense, while the tiny foam pearls are filled with air pockets, making them much lighter than water. When you connect the bottles, heavy water rushes down into the bottom bottle because gravity pulls harder on denser materials. As the water fills the bottom bottle, it pushes the lightweight foam pearls out of the way, sending them floating upward like an upside-down hourglass! If you don’t mind getting a little wet, this is an activity you can repeat over and over just by flipping the bottles back around.&nbsp;

small foam pearls

glass bottles

funnel

water

plastic card

Reverse Hourglass

physics

If you've ever been swimming, you know what happens if you stop moving. You start sinking! You can always spread out your arms and legs, but that only lets you float on the surface. So how do fish float in the water without rising up to the surface, or sinking down to the bottom? Let's investigate!Expand your oceanic adventure with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store">KiwiCo's</a> <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/professions-marine-biologist-project-kit/5457">Marine Biologist Starter Kit</a>! This kit includes everything needed to create a color-changing reef, build ocean animals, and more!

1. Draw a different fish face on each balloon. 

3. Fill each balloon and tie a knot in the end. - Balloon 1: add 1/3 cup vegetable oil- Balloon 2: add 1/3 cup water- Balloon 3: blow it up until it's the same size as the others

4. Put each balloon in a deep bowl or bathtub full of water and observe what happens.

5. Record your results! Draw or write what happened with each of your balloons. 

Keep experimenting! Can you change the buoyancy of your fish balloons? 	- Try adding more marbles	- Try it without marbles	- Try putting oil and water in the same balloonWhat happens to the balloons? (Tip: Fish balloons make great bath toys!)

balloons

marbles

permanent marker

vegetable oil

deep bowl or bathtub

Floating Fish

eruptions

science project

chemistry

This fun science project that is guaranteed to impress! This is a cheap and easy way for your child to explore the nature of different properties in a super cool way. Talk about a groovy project!Want to learn more about chemistry without the hassle of gathering materials? Explore the science of crystallization with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/crystal-chemistry-garden-project-kit/2640">Crystal Chemistry Garden</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store">KiwiCo Store!</a>

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Have your child fill 3/4 of the bottle with vegetable oil.

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Fill the rest of the bottle with water, leaving about an inch from the top.

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Now add your food coloring, adding about 10 drops.

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 My kids loved this part because of the way the food coloring stayed in droplet form while it moved through the oil and only mixed when it hit the water at the bottom. You may want to let the mixture settle a little before moving on because there are a lot of bubbles in it.

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Now break up your alka seltzer tablet into several pieces (about 4) and have your child drop them into the solution one at a time and observe the effect! (You don't want them to put them in all at once.) Now repeat with the other bottles, using different colored food coloring. 

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My kids were fascinated by their DIY "lava lamps." They said, "this is so awesome!" again and again--high praise indeed! 

plastic water bottle, empty (tall and skinny bottle, e.g., SmartWater brand)

food coloring

alka seltzer tablets

Lava Bottle

indoor project

motion

quick experiment

Explore the science behind density and pressure with this DIY bottle diver!Expand your oceanic adventure with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store">KiwiCo's</a> <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/professions-marine-biologist-project-kit/5457">Marine Biologist Starter Kit</a>! This kit includes everything needed to create a color-changing reef, build ocean animals, and more!

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Draw a 1.5"x1" rectangle on your foil, and sketch out a basic diver shape within the rectangle. Cut out the diver

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Cut a 1.5" segment of the bendy portion of the straw.

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Use the paper clip to secure one end of the straw to the diver.

It helps to bend the paperclip like the paperclip on the right of the diver.

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Add on some clay on the diver's feet. If the diver sinks, try removing some of the clay. If the diver lies flat horizontally, try adding some more clay. 

Test your diver in a glass of water to make sure it floats in a vertical position.

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Fill your liter bottle top the top with water. Place the diver inside and make sure it floats. Tightly close the bottle.

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Squeeze the bottle to watch the diver sink towards the bottom! What's happening? When you place the diver in the bottle, air is trapped in the upside-down U shape of the straw. Squeezing the bottle causes the water to compress the air inside the straw. This makes the toy diver denser, which makes it sink to the bottom. When the pressure is released, the diver floats back to the top!

two liter bottle (empty, plastic)

bendy straw

small paper clip

clay

thick foil

Scissors

Cartesian Diver

time

at-home learning

STEM

Since it's almost time to turn our clocks back for Daylight Savings, it's fun to think about new and interesting ways to keep time. I'm sure you've heard of an hourglass, but did you know that you can make one out of liquids? We recently made this liquid hourglass using water and vegetable oil for a mesmerizing result. With just a few simple materials, you can create your own!Want to learn more about chemistry without the hassle of gathering materials? Explore the science of crystallization with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/crystal-chemistry-garden-project-kit/2640" target="_self">Crystal Chemistry Garden </a>from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Remove the two caps from the plastic bottles and use hot glue or super glue to attach the top of the caps. Make sure you get a good seal by pressing them towards each other.

Let an adult handle the hot glue or super glue!

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Once the glue is dry, add a strip of duct tape around the conjoined caps to ensure a liquid-tight seal. Using your marker, mark two dots on one side of the cap. You will be using the dots as a reference for drilling holes. 

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Before you start this step, make sure to let an adult handle the drill. Find a drill bit that has the same circumference as the straws. Using the drill, drill the two holes through the caps. Don't worry about using a drill bit that is a bit bigger than your straw's circumference! 

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Cut out two 2" long straws. Fit one straw 1/3 down through one hole. Fit the second straw on the other side, 1/3 down through the second hole. If the straws don't have a snug fit, use hot glue or super glue to secure them. 

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Remove any wrappings around your plastic bottles. Take one bottle and fill it up with vegetable oil using a funnel. Fill the bottle nearly to the top, stopping about 1 cm from the rim.

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Fill the second bottle with water. Make sure to stop at the edge where the cap closes.  We added some blue and red food coloring to spice up our liquid hourglass! Add any colors you wish - just note that eventually the colors will mix, so ours turned purple-ish.

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When the glue on the straws is dry, screw one of the caps onto the bottle of oil. 

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Quickly flip over the bottle of oil and screw the other cap onto the bottle of water. Flip your hourglass over again so that the oil is on the bottom, and the water is on top. Watch as the exchange of liquids mimics an hourglass!

Make sure you don't squeeze the bottles as you're turning them. It's easier than it seems!

In this experiment, you saw that the oil floats on top of the water. This is because the water is denser than the oil. Density is a measure of how tightly packed a material is. When oil and water come together, the water will sink to the bottom, while the less dense oil floats to the top. Because the liquid has to pass through the holes in the lid, this happens drop-by-drop, creating your oil-and-water hourglass!

clear water bottles (2) (they must be identical)

drinking straws (2)

drill

duct tape

vegetable oil (enough to fill a bottle)

water (enough to fill a bottle)

markers (optional)

food coloring (optional)

funnel (optional)

hot glue (super glue)

Liquid Hourglass

food experiments

learning activity

Density is a foundational concept in physics, which explains why boats float, rocks sink, and balloons fly away when you let them go! With just a few materials from home, you can conduct your own colorful density experiment, and see how this principle works firsthand. Check it out!Looking for ways to keep your young scientist engaged and learning? Learn about chemistry and practice art skills with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/planet-bath-bombs/3702" target="_self">Planet Bath Bombs</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Arrange your materials from most dense to least dense: honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, milk, soap, water, oil, and then rubbing alcohol. Begin by pouring a centimeter or so of the most dense material, honey, into your jar. Try to avoid the walls of the jar.

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Next, pour about a centimeter of corn syrup in. Wait a few minutes for the honey and corn syrup to separate.

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Continue pouring liquids in from most dense to least dense. Starting with the maple syrup, we used a spoon to help us gently pour the liquid and prevent mixing between layers.

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Starting with the soap layer, we used a dropper to gently place the next layer on top of the previous to prevent mixing. We dyed our water blue so it was more visible.

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Once you've added the rubbing alcohol, you've completed your density column! If you'd like, you can now test the density of a variety of other materials by seeing how far they sink! How far does a peanut sink? How about a cherry tomato, grape, or raisin? Feel free to vary the individual layers as well! How does vinegar, or molasses compare to your other liquids? How it works: Density is defined as an object's mass, per unit volume, or, more generally, how compact a material is. An anchor is more dense than water, which is why it sinks. An air bubble is less dense than water, which is why it rises to the surface. And a balloon filled with Helium is less dense than air, which is why it will float away! Each layer in your column contains a liquid with a different density, which gives you the cool layered effect you observed!

honey

corn syrup

maple syrup (pure)

milk

soap

rubbing alcohol

clear jar

dropper or spoon

Density Tower

recycled craft materials

It seems like the things you can make with an egg carton are endless! When I challenged my son to create something out of an egg carton, he first said he wanted to build a spaceship. That idea quickly evolved into a "rocket-powered car transport ship"!

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First, we cut the hatchways.
(This is the only step I helped with.) I cut two hatchways, positioned so there was enough material left on the ends for our spaceship's rockets. I created really big hatches because I knew I needed to leave room for cars get on board.

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My son took duct tape and (with the help of his little brother) sealed the carton so that the only openings were the hatchways. We taped all the way around the edge, and then added more on top of the hatchways so they'd match.

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We used different colors of tape and markers to decorate our spaceship. (You could decorate your ship with any embellishments you'd like.) We used red duct tape for the rockets, outlined with the marker. (We used a permanent marker since washable markers don't work well on duct tape, but you could certainly use washable markers to decorate the carton). At that point, my son declared his spaceship "awesome," loaded it up with cars, and zoomed away!

egg carton

markers

scissors

Egg Carton Transport Ship

fall

sensory activity

Your toddler will have lots of fun making this fun fall-inspired project.

This activity works with fine motor skills as your child works on grasping the objects and pushing them through a small space.

It also serves as an introduction to science, watching whether the object will sink or float. All the while, it is something that is pretty to look at, too! Both my kiddos love sensory jars. My oldest, V, who is almost 3, loves making them for her and her little brother. She counts the objects as she puts them in the jar and she tries to see how many she can fit in the small little hole all at once. Meanwhile, T, her 15-month-old brother, watches and tries to patiently wait, ready to play with them.

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Start by gathering all your objects.  V loved sorting all the objects by type, but you could also have your kids sort the objects by color too.

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Next remove about 1"-2" (2.5-5.1 cm)&nbsp;of water from the bottle, then start adding objects to the bottle. 

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While the kids are adding each item, play a little game and have them guess which items will sink and which items will float.  We were both surprised to learn that the sequins sunk to the bottom!

21 easy density projects for kids

Screen-free fun!