Science Activities

To choose an activity that’s right for your child, look at the grade level that appears beside the title. If your child finishes all the activities at his or her actual grade level, you might want to try going to next grade level.

Sink or Float (K-1)
What a Reaction! (preK)
Now You See It, Now You Don't (preK-1)

Other Sites With Science Activities

Astronomy Activities
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/index.cfm
NASA’s Solar System Exploration site helps students understand the basics of space flight and our solar system.

Earth and Space Sciences
http://journeythroughtheuniverse.org
The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education invites entire communities—students, teachers, families, and the general public—to engage in learning. The site provides information about how to become a Journey community, lesson packages, teacher professional development, school visits by scientists and engineers, programs for family learning, and more.

Foundation for the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology: Robotics Competitions for All Grades
http://www.usfirst.org/what/default.aspx?id=366
Designed with the goal of inspiring young people to be science and technology leaders, FIRST competitions engage young people, their families, and their communities in programs that build skills and foster self-confidence, communication, and leadership. Programs are matched to age levels, beginning with Junior FIRST LEGO League (ages 6-9) and proceeding to FIRST LEGO League (9-14), FIRST Tech Challenge (high school), and FIRST Robotics Competition (high school). Families and community members get involved through mentoring and sponsorships.

Migration and Seasonal Change
http://www.learner.org/jnorth
The Journey North, from Annenberg Media, presents lessons and activities for K-12 students. It is also a “citizen science” project that welcomes the participation of all citizens.

National Science Foundation’s Science Education Resource Center
http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/index.html
The Pedagogy in Action section of this site offers ideas for teachers and parents to help children engage with learning. For example, teaching with data simulations means giving students opportunities to simulate data to answer a particular research question or solve a statistical problem. There are several ways to use simulations: physical simulations of a process (say, taking repeated samples of Reese's pieces candies to simulate a sampling distribution for the proportion of orange candies), simulating a game or situation to estimate the chances of certain outcomes (playing Let's Make a Deal to estimate the chances of winning using two different strategies, to determine which is the better strategy), and using probability models to simulate data to estimate the chance of a particular outcome (may be the chance of getting three of a kind when dealing five cards). Other topics include teaching with geographic information systems and teaching with visualizations.

Project Budburst
http://www.budburst.org
This spring, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research invites you to become a citizen scientist and help track climate change. Take your children, a notebook, and a pencil on a walk around the block, the schoolyard, or your own back yard and look for the first new flower on a dogwood tree or the first flowers on a live oak. Go to Project Budburst and enter your findings. Your data will be used by atmospheric and climate scientists, botanists, and ecologists.

Space-Related Engineering
http://edc.nasa.gov/index.html
NASA’s Engineering Design Challenges Program connects students with the work of NASA engineers. Classroom challenges include spacecraft design, thermal protection systems, and lunar plant growth.

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This Web site is supported in whole or in part by funds from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement, under grant #U310A060257. Its content does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Education, any other agency of the U.S. government, or any other source.