It’s officially summer and there’s probably some bored kiddos at home. TV, video games, and books might have lost their appeal and you have a child looking to do something. Good news! Science experiments are always a fun and educational way to pass the time. Summer provides some great challenges but for the purpose of science, summer gives us so much to work with! Read ahead for fun, cheap science experiments for kids that are perfect for summer.

Best summer science experiment for kids of all ages

1. Solar oven

2. Water cycle

3. Parachute making

4. Make raisins

5. Sun tea

6. Melting chocolate challenge

7. Sun printing & sun fading

8. Water balloon pitching

9. Lego waterwheel and stamping

10. Make a rain gauge

11. Test sunscreen

Bonus Art! Shadow tracing on paper

Build a solar oven

All you need is scissors, a clean pizza box, plastic wrap, black paper, aluminum foil, and s’mores materials! To construct, wrap aluminum foil on the underside of the pizza box lid. This will need to stay up and facing the sun to reflect the light and solar energy into the insulated part of the box. On the bottom of the box, place the black paper on the bottom (should fit into box) and on top of that, your s’mores materials on a plate. Wrap plastic all over the top and securing on the side flaps to trap the heat. Play around with the construction, noting to your kiddos via questions that two things must happen: the s’mores must collect light (i.e. through reflection of sunlight via the foil) and the s’mores must get hot enough at a constant temperature (i.e. the trapping/insulation effect made by the black paper and plastic). By understanding how the pizza box works, kids can try different constructions!

Explore the rain cycle

For this experiment, simply use Ziploc bags, a Sharpie, blue food coloring, tape, and water. Draw the sun, clouds, and an ocean on the bag. Fill the baggie with water about 1/3 of the way and then add blue food coloring. Seal and then tape to a window. Observe the changes over the next few days as the temperature changes. Download our printable and worksheet to accompany the activity and better understand the water cycle process.

Make a parachute

Test drag and the speed of things falling by recycling plastic bags, old fabric, and more. You need various objects to drop as well as string to tie the parachute on. Start dropping at various heights such as the top of a playground structure-just be sure nobody is beneath you! Record how long different items take to drop and make a graph together or just keep it simple having fun dropping stuff!

Make raisins

Have some grapes? Use the power of the sun and time to make raisins by dehydrating grapes. Wash and fully dry the grapes. Place them on a tray and cover them with a flour sack towel (these are useful for so many things so I always have a bunch!). Leave outside for at minimum three days and as much as in a sunny place as possible. Once all the water has evaporated out of them, enjoy! Ask your children if the grapes and raisins are the same thing just called by a different name and see what they say!

Make sun tea

Continuing with the food and beverage theme, make some sun tea to go with the raisin snack! All you need is a pitcher, tea bags, water, and a lemon or sweetener if you’d like. Place clean water in a pitcher and then place a tea bag inside with the sweetener. Place in sun to brew. Leave for a few hours, but no more than four, stir, and add lemon. A quick note for safety: sun tea does have the potential to harbor bacteria so make sure you do not leave longer than four hours, that it is really hot (ideally the internal temperature should reach 170-200 degrees), and that the container is completely sanitized prior to use. It is helpful to use distilled water as well to lower the risk.

Melting chocolate challenge

If you live in a really hot environment, this experiment is super fun! Grab some plates and some chocolate of all kinds-milk, dark, and white. Test and time how quickly the various chocolates begin to melt in the sun. If you want to eat the chocolate, use bowls so you can mix them into your baked good! This is a great experiment to talk about food chemistry and plan different desserts to make.

Sun printing and sun fading

Calling all artists! Light, especially extreme light from the sun has the power to weaken the chromophores in color. All those photons break down those beautiful hues and at different points in the fading process, result in various colors that make up the totality of the original color! So you might see blue as purple breaks down. Anyway, there are two different ways to do this project. You can paint a highly pigmented picture together or even use a magazine page, and set in the sun via a window. Watch how it fades over time. Or, you can make sun prints with construction paper and leaves. If you have clear glass to put over the paper, even better. For this way, place your dark blue or purple construction paper on the table and forage leaves. Place leaves on paper and cover with the glass. Let sit in sun for thirty minutes to three hours depending on how sunny it is. Notice what happens!

Water balloon pitching

Fill those balloons! Use water to fill multiple balloons at various volumes. Next, place markers of distance using sticks, ribbons, chalk, etc. on the ground. Designate a starting place. Pitch the balloons and try to make each go as far as it can. This exercise helps kids see that volume and mass has an effect on distance. In addition, you can add some math by taking an average of distance thrown by writing in a notebook how often you threw to each marker. Be sure to wear your swimsuit because you will get wet and be kind to the Earth by making sure all plastic is removed when finished.

Make a Lego waterwheel and stamps

Legos are so versatile even if they are little demons if left on the floor! Build a Lego waterwheel by placing a water hose strategically in your structure. Get creative with this STEM challenge remembering that the force of water pushes wheels and will flow when there are flows and channels.

For stamping, build various shapes but keep them small and handheld. Dip Lego into inkpad and stamp onto paper in different intensities and patters.

Make a rain gauge

Recycle those plastic jugs and bottles. Use a Sharpie to mark the inches as well as milliliters. Place outside and take advantage of those summer rainstorms. Utilize our rain gauge worksheet to measure how much rain you get! This experiment is a great way to chase the rainstorm blues away while also exploring your own individual climate and the impact the amount of rain has on your locality.

Test sunscreen

Have a kiddo who is reluctant to wear their sunscreen? Try this! Similar to sun printing, this experiment utilizes sun energy to focus its photons on an object. Fold a black piece of paper in half. Have kiddos smear sunscreen, at least 60 SPF or higher, on one side of paper leaving the other side bare. Place in sun at hottest time of day (ask your kiddo why we might choose 11 AM-3 PM to see what they know). Once done, bring in and compare the two sides. Ask your kiddo why wearing sunscreen is important!

Bonus! Tracing shadows

You can try this project at different times of day for different results! Put a poster board down on the ground. Place small toys (less than 1-2 inches) on board. Have kiddos trace the shadows of each toys with different color markers! If you are doing this project in the morning, noon, and evening, designate one part of the board such as left, middle, and right to create a cool artistic effect in shape, size, and direction of traced objects.

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