Are you a science teacher looking to spice up your scientific method activities? If you need some fun scientific method activities, you’ll want to keep reading and infuse the following ideas into your classroom.
The best part of teaching the scientific method is that these activities can be used at the beginning of the year or throughout the year to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the scientific method.
Five Fun Scientific Method Activities
This is one of my favorite activities to use with my students. Not only does this activity allow my students to practice the steps of the scientific method, but it is a great team-building activity.
Students work together to save Sam (a gummy worm) from an untimely demise after falling out of a boat. Sadly, Sam forgot to put on his (gummy version of a) life preserver.
Students need to work together to save Sam by putting on the life preserver and getting Sam back on the boat (a cup). To do this, students will each have two paper clips and need to work together to complete the task.
Students can complete this fun scientific method activity in about 40 minutes.
Items need for this activity include:
- Gummy worm (1 per group)
- Gummy life preserver (1 per group)
- Plastic cup (1 per group)
- Paper clips (2 per student)
Paper Tower Challenge
Using materials that are easy to obtain makes it easy for you to bring in fun scientific method activities. For example, the paper tower challenge will give students a new twist on how they use paper. Giving students a challenge is always a motivator for them in the classroom.
Give each group of students
- two pieces of 8.5″ x 11″ paper
- scissors
- scotch tape
Challenge:
Build the tallest free-standing paper tower
Constraints:
- Use as much or little scotch tape as you want
- rip/cut/fold paper
- cannot tape tower to floor or desk
- 20 minutes to design and build
- cannot get extra pieces of paper, so make a plan before cutting or ripping the paper
- height is from base to top only counting paper (cannot make a tape spire)
This activity can usually yield towers that are 130-150cm tall.
Sometimes the easiest activities can be so fun!
This activity will literally have students put drops of water on a penny!
While that may sound dreadful to you, trust me, students LOVE this activity.
Students will need to hypothesize which side of a penny can hold more drops of water. Once they do that, they’ll need the following materials for this fun scientific method activity:
- dropper
- penny
- cup
- water
- paper towels (in case of spills)
Students will work independently to count the number of drops that each side of the penny can hold. Then, they will repeat their procedure three times to ensure correct results.
Fun scientific method ideas using food
If you can use food in your classroom, here are a few ideas that you can use to make learning the steps of the scientific method engaging for your students.
Cookies!
Use different types of cookies dunked in water to see whether they will sink or float. Students will explore hypotheses about what would make a cookie sink vs. float.
Another idea is to have students predict which type of chocolate chip cookie has the most chocolate chips. Then, students will break apart the cookie to count the number of chips. This activity can also lend itself to a conversation about variables as students discuss the different sizes of the chips.
Colors
Use M&Ms, Skittles, Fruit Loops, etc., to determine which color is found more in the different bags. Students will make a prediction based on their background information, then categorize the food by color, and then count each.
Apples
Use different types of substances such as lemon juice, water, soda, etc. Students will record the time it takes for the apples to turn brown. This activity ties in nicely to a unit on acids and bases.
Using videos
If you are short on supplies but still want to engage students in learning about the scientific method, don’t forget about using videos.
Mythbusters has many different activities that you can use to review the steps of the scientific method. Using one of these videos is also good for sub plans. Have students fill in a scientific method template as they watch the video to determine their level of understanding.
