110 Awesome Chemistry Experiments For All Ages
Chemistry experiments are a great way to get kids excited about studying chemistry even at a young age. I mean, what child doesn’t think about creating bubbling potions or sending secret messages?
The study of chemistry has a scary connotation for many people. Chemistry has this stigma of being only for really, really smart students who want a career in the sciences. The truth is that, like all science, chemistry is everywhere.
In fact, chemistry experiments for kids can be bubbly and full of fungi! Check out the video below of our Making Peeps Blow Up a Balloon chemistry activity.
It is in the way water freezes into ice. It is in the way apples turn brown when you leave their flesh exposed to the air. Chemistry is in the way sugar dissolves in water.
How does chemistry apply to our bodies? Check out our version of the egg with vinegar experiment. We added a little twist that makes an excellent connection between chemistry and our dental health. Includes a free 25+ page printable pack.
Showing how chemistry is involved in everyday life can take that scary factor out of studying chemistry for students. When it comes time to study chemistry, they will be more excited about jumping in.
Table of Contents
Chemistry Experiments For All Ages
I wanted to create a resource for you to be able to find the perfect chemistry experiments for your students no matter their age or interests. This post contains 100 chemistry experiments for students from preschool age through high school. I have divided them into 3 age ranges.
- Preschool and Primary
- Elementary
- Middle and High School
Here are a few disclaimers to my divisions of the experiments.
I realize that all students are different and are ready for different levels of experiments. For instance, some students in the elementary age group might be ready for more advanced experiments found in the Middle and High School section, while others need something more basic like those experiments found in the Preschool and Primary section.
Some may question why I put certain experiments in certain sections. First, I looked at the level of maturity I felt needed to conduct the experiment and if parental help was necessary. Next, I looked at the level of understanding the child would need to learn from the experiment.
Some experiments could teach something at different levels or could be done with parental help or independently and still be successful. When this was the case, I put the experiment in the lowest recommended age level.
With all that being said, these are just guidelines. Feel free to try experiments in sections that differ from your students’ age range if you think they would work.
For chemistry experiments, lesson ideas, and resources, check out my Homeschool Chemistry Pinterest board.
First, download the STEM Resource Guide
We have put together a FREE resource for parents and teachers that includes STEM activities, links to no-cost or low-cost coding, math, engineering, an robotics resources. You’ll find everything from preschool worksheets to high school apprenticeship information. Plus, there are articles to help you get your kids interested in STEM activities or ready for a career in STEM. Our contributors include The STEMKids, a mechanical engineer, and a biologist.
Preschool Science Experiments
Color Changing Flowers – includes free printable
Dissolving Candy Canes (has a free printable with some fun puzzle pages too)
The ever-popular Skittles experiment with a twist and free printable lesson
Glow Stick Experiment – this one is especially easy for preschoolers – includes their own little observation sheet and coloring pages
Walking Water Experiment – includes free worksheets
Making Fizzy Moon Rocks (and learning about Moon rocks)
Puffy Paint turned Slime activity (This is also good for older students who are studying polymers.)
Dissovling Candy Corn – In this pumpkin and candy-themed printable, your little scientist will enjoying dissolving candy corn (or any candy for that matter) and recording what they observed. Includes three science activities, preschool/kindergarten math resources, and coloring and puzzle pages.
Make Crystal Snowflakes with Borax
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Color Changing Flowers – learn about capillary action in plants
Vitamin C And Apple Experiment
Secret Messages Science Experiment
120 Kitchen Chemistry & Culinary Science Resources – This is a very comprehensive list. If you want to also get some ideas for teaching your children about chemistry while cooking, this is a good place to look too!
Experimenting With Viscosity And Sensory Bottles
Dissolving Egg Shell Experiment
Skittles Rainbow Science Experiment
Erupting Lemon Volcano Chemistry
Make Heat Changing Color Sensitive Slime
Elementary School Science Experiments
Glow Stick Experiment – learn about chemiluminescence, chemical reactions, and kinetic energy. The printable is definitely geared towards elementary and middle school
Easy Science Experiments with Oranges – The Homeschool Scientist
Making Fizzy Moon Craters turned out to be a fun chemistry study and a lesson in realy Moon rocks!
Oxidation And Reduction Experiment
Make a “Stained Glass” window – a lesson about states of matter and crystallization
Dissolving candy experiment with printables
Make butter – includes a free printable
Skittles experiment with worksheets – learn bout diffusion and polarity experiment using Skittles
Make Ice Cream in a Bag – Also covers how salt affects the freezing point of water
Making Peeps Candies Blow Up A Balloon – lesson with printable sheets
Add the FREE dental health printable pack
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Walking Water Experiment – includes free worksheets
Harry Potter Potions Experiment
Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda Experiment
Kitchen Chemistry: Cake Experiment
Polymer Science: Homemade Fruit Gummies
Food Chemistry: Turn Juice Into A Solid
Endothermic Chemical Reactions
Eggshell Geodes Science Experiment
Make Quicksand with Engineering Emily and her children
Using Lemons To Make Batteries
Make Ice Cream in a Bag – Also covers how salt affects the freezing point of water
Poke but Don’t Soak – a material science activity from the American Chemistry Society
Kitchen Chemistry – 2 projects
Big Hero 6 Chemistry Concoctions
Compare The Electrolytes In Sports Drinks
Gummy Bears Osmosis Experiment
Middle and High School Science Experiments
Parents of middle and high school students
What Happens to the pH and temperature of a solvent when you add candy corn??
Testing for Vitamin C with Iodine (We used a pumpkin, cranberries, oj, lemons, and more! It’s a lot of fun!)
Diffusion and polarity experiment using Skittles (with free worksheet packet)
Demonstrate cohesion, adhesion, and capillary action with our Walking Water experiment. Includes a free printable that covers capillary action in plants.
Make a “Stained Glass” window – a lesson about states of matter and crystallization
Peeps Science: Change In Mass Experiment
Peeps Science Experiment: Blowing Up a Balloon with Peeps
Dissolving candy experiment with printables
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Make Shrinky Dinks – has a free printable about monomers, polymers, and copolymers. Also includes 28 different templates for making Shrinky Dinks.
Dissolving Candy Canes (has a free printable with some fun puzzle pages too)
Make Poinsettia pH Paper from Bowling Green State University
Make A Rainbow Of Colored Flames
Check out ChemistryTalk.org. This is a charity non-profit (all of their content is free) whose mission is to make chemistry fun and easy. They have tutorials, experiments, videos, a podcast, and many resources to help your teen understand and enjoy chemistry.
Salt Formation From Chemical Reactions
Create A Compound Of Two Elements
Melting And Freezing Experiment
Need 120 MORE Kitchen Chemistry Experiments and Culinary Science Ideas?
.
Experiment with Yeast and Sugar – Making Peeps Blow Up a Balloon – Includes a free printable pack. Peeps make for interesting chemistry experiments. Whether you use the Peep snowmen or Peep chicks, you can make them blow up a balloon! Includes a free printable pack.
Make Crystals with Borax – This works every time and is exciting to watch throughout a 24-hour period. Obviously, adult supervision is needed when using the Borax, but your littlest scientists can twist their chenille sticks and make their own crazy creations! Plus, stirring the Borax and water will make them feel like real chemists! The activity can be adapted to make snowflake shapes in winter, hearts for Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. Flowers for spring or summer.
Another Baking Soda Fizz Experiment
Diet Coke and Mentos Explosion
An awesome Bouncing Bubbles Recipe and activity, and you don’t need glycerin or corn syrup from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Primary Science Experiments
An awesome Bouncing Bubbles Recipe and activity, and you don’t need glycerin or corn syrup from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Glow Stick Experiment – learn about chemiluminescence, chemical reactions, and kinetic energy.
Make Ice Cream in a Bag – Also covers how salt affects the freezing point of water
Walking Water Experiment – includes free worksheets
Dissolving candy experiment with printables
Make Shrinky Dinks – has a free printable about monomers, polymers, and copolymers. Also includes 28 different templates for making Shrinky Dinks.
Dissolving Candy Canes (has a free printable with some fun puzzle pages too)
A fun TWIST on the egg with vinegar experiment. This activity helps children see the chemical reactions that go on in our mouth! Free printable.
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Color Changing Flowers – learn about capillary action in plants
Vitamin C And Apple Experiment
Secret Messages Science Experiment
120 Kitchen Chemistry & Culinary Science Resources – This is a very comprehensive list. If you want to also get some ideas for teaching your children about chemistry while cooking, this is a good place to look too!
Experimenting With Viscosity And Sensory Bottles
Dissolving Egg Shell Experiment
Skittles Rainbow Science Experiment
Erupting Lemon Volcano Chemistry
Make Heat Changing Color Sensitive Slime
Elementary School Science Experiments
Glow Stick Experiment – learn about chemiluminescence, chemical reactions, and kinetic energy. The printable is definitely geared towards elementary and middle school
Easy Science Experiments with Oranges – The Homeschool Scientist
Making Fizzy Moon Craters turned out to be a fun chemistry study and a lesson in realy Moon rocks!
Oxidation And Reduction Experiment
Make a “Stained Glass” window – a lesson about states of matter and crystallization
Dissolving candy experiment with printables
Make butter – includes a free printable
Skittles experiment with worksheets – learn bout diffusion and polarity experiment using Skittles
Make Ice Cream in a Bag – Also covers how salt affects the freezing point of water
Making Peeps Candies Blow Up A Balloon – lesson with printable sheets
Add the FREE dental health printable pack
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Walking Water Experiment – includes free worksheets
Harry Potter Potions Experiment
Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda Experiment
Kitchen Chemistry: Cake Experiment
Polymer Science: Homemade Fruit Gummies
Food Chemistry: Turn Juice Into A Solid
Endothermic Chemical Reactions
Eggshell Geodes Science Experiment
Make Quicksand with Engineering Emily and her children
Using Lemons To Make Batteries
Make Ice Cream in a Bag – Also covers how salt affects the freezing point of water
Poke but Don’t Soak – a material science activity from the American Chemistry Society
Kitchen Chemistry – 2 projects
Big Hero 6 Chemistry Concoctions
Compare The Electrolytes In Sports Drinks
Gummy Bears Osmosis Experiment
Middle and High School Science Experiments
Parents of middle and high school students
What Happens to the pH and temperature of a solvent when you add candy corn??
Testing for Vitamin C with Iodine (We used a pumpkin, cranberries, oj, lemons, and more! It’s a lot of fun!)
Diffusion and polarity experiment using Skittles (with free worksheet packet)
Demonstrate cohesion, adhesion, and capillary action with our Walking Water experiment. Includes a free printable that covers capillary action in plants.
Make a “Stained Glass” window – a lesson about states of matter and crystallization
Peeps Science: Change In Mass Experiment
Peeps Science Experiment: Blowing Up a Balloon with Peeps
Dissolving candy experiment with printables
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Make Shrinky Dinks – has a free printable about monomers, polymers, and copolymers. Also includes 28 different templates for making Shrinky Dinks.
Dissolving Candy Canes (has a free printable with some fun puzzle pages too)
Make Poinsettia pH Paper from Bowling Green State University
Make A Rainbow Of Colored Flames
Check out ChemistryTalk.org. This is a charity non-profit (all of their content is free) whose mission is to make chemistry fun and easy. They have tutorials, experiments, videos, a podcast, and many resources to help your teen understand and enjoy chemistry.
Salt Formation From Chemical Reactions
Create A Compound Of Two Elements
Melting And Freezing Experiment
Need 120 MORE Kitchen Chemistry Experiments and Culinary Science Ideas?
.
Experiment with Yeast and Sugar – Making Peeps Blow Up a Balloon – Includes a free printable pack. Peeps make for interesting chemistry experiments. Whether you use the Peep snowmen or Peep chicks, you can make them blow up a balloon! Includes a free printable pack.
Make Crystals with Borax – This works every time and is exciting to watch throughout a 24-hour period. Obviously, adult supervision is needed when using the Borax, but your littlest scientists can twist their chenille sticks and make their own crazy creations! Plus, stirring the Borax and water will make them feel like real chemists! The activity can be adapted to make snowflake shapes in winter, hearts for Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. Flowers for spring or summer.
Another Baking Soda Fizz Experiment
Diet Coke and Mentos Explosion
An awesome Bouncing Bubbles Recipe and activity, and you don’t need glycerin or corn syrup from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Primary Science Experiments
An awesome Bouncing Bubbles Recipe and activity, and you don’t need glycerin or corn syrup from A Little Pinch of Perfect
Glow Stick Experiment – learn about chemiluminescence, chemical reactions, and kinetic energy.
Make Ice Cream in a Bag – Also covers how salt affects the freezing point of water
Walking Water Experiment – includes free worksheets
Dissolving candy experiment with printables
Make Shrinky Dinks – has a free printable about monomers, polymers, and copolymers. Also includes 28 different templates for making Shrinky Dinks.
Dissolving Candy Canes (has a free printable with some fun puzzle pages too)
A fun TWIST on the egg with vinegar experiment. This activity helps children see the chemical reactions that go on in our mouth! Free printable.
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Color Changing Flowers – learn about capillary action in plants
Vitamin C And Apple Experiment
Secret Messages Science Experiment
120 Kitchen Chemistry & Culinary Science Resources – This is a very comprehensive list. If you want to also get some ideas for teaching your children about chemistry while cooking, this is a good place to look too!
Experimenting With Viscosity And Sensory Bottles
Dissolving Egg Shell Experiment
Skittles Rainbow Science Experiment
Erupting Lemon Volcano Chemistry
Make Heat Changing Color Sensitive Slime
Elementary School Science Experiments
Glow Stick Experiment – learn about chemiluminescence, chemical reactions, and kinetic energy. The printable is definitely geared towards elementary and middle school
Easy Science Experiments with Oranges – The Homeschool Scientist
Making Fizzy Moon Craters turned out to be a fun chemistry study and a lesson in realy Moon rocks!
Oxidation And Reduction Experiment
Make a “Stained Glass” window – a lesson about states of matter and crystallization
Dissolving candy experiment with printables
Make butter – includes a free printable
Skittles experiment with worksheets – learn bout diffusion and polarity experiment using Skittles
Make Ice Cream in a Bag – Also covers how salt affects the freezing point of water
Making Peeps Candies Blow Up A Balloon – lesson with printable sheets
Add the FREE dental health printable pack
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Walking Water Experiment – includes free worksheets
Harry Potter Potions Experiment
Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda Experiment
Kitchen Chemistry: Cake Experiment
Polymer Science: Homemade Fruit Gummies
Food Chemistry: Turn Juice Into A Solid
Endothermic Chemical Reactions
Eggshell Geodes Science Experiment
Make Quicksand with Engineering Emily and her children
Using Lemons To Make Batteries
Make Ice Cream in a Bag – Also covers how salt affects the freezing point of water
Poke but Don’t Soak – a material science activity from the American Chemistry Society
Kitchen Chemistry – 2 projects
Big Hero 6 Chemistry Concoctions
Compare The Electrolytes In Sports Drinks
Gummy Bears Osmosis Experiment
Middle and High School Science Experiments
Parents of middle and high school students
What Happens to the pH and temperature of a solvent when you add candy corn??
Testing for Vitamin C with Iodine (We used a pumpkin, cranberries, oj, lemons, and more! It’s a lot of fun!)
Diffusion and polarity experiment using Skittles (with free worksheet packet)
Demonstrate cohesion, adhesion, and capillary action with our Walking Water experiment. Includes a free printable that covers capillary action in plants.
Make a “Stained Glass” window – a lesson about states of matter and crystallization
Peeps Science: Change In Mass Experiment
Peeps Science Experiment: Blowing Up a Balloon with Peeps
Dissolving candy experiment with printables
Do Some Soil Testing – This is important life skills information too!
Make Shrinky Dinks – has a free printable about monomers, polymers, and copolymers. Also includes 28 different templates for making Shrinky Dinks.
Dissolving Candy Canes (has a free printable with some fun puzzle pages too)
Make Poinsettia pH Paper from Bowling Green State University
Make A Rainbow Of Colored Flames
Check out ChemistryTalk.org. This is a charity non-profit (all of their content is free) whose mission is to make chemistry fun and easy. They have tutorials, experiments, videos, a podcast, and many resources to help your teen understand and enjoy chemistry.
Salt Formation From Chemical Reactions
Create A Compound Of Two Elements
Melting And Freezing Experiment
Need 120 MORE Kitchen Chemistry Experiments and Culinary Science Ideas?
.
I hold a master’s degree in child development and early education and am working on a post-baccalaureate in biology. I spent 15 years working for a biotechnology company developing IT systems in DNA testing laboratories across the US. I taught K4 in a private school, homeschooled my children, and have taught on the mission field in southern Asia. For 4 years, I served on our state’s FIRST Lego League tournament Board and served as the Judging Director. I own thehomeschoolscientist and also write a regular science column for Homeschooling Today Magazine. You’ll also find my writings on the CTCMath blog. Through this site, I have authored over 50 math and science resources.