Engage your child’s curiosity! Boost their sense of wonder! It’s easier than you think, especially with these STEM activities for kids. These challenges encourage your young ones to use both their brains and their hands. Just grab a few simple items and watch as they take fun, educational learning to a whole new level.

Egg Zip-Line Challenge

A series of images showing how to do an egg zip-line STEM activity by tying string to create a taut downward slope, using pipe cleaners to create an egg harness and attaching it to the string

‍Want to distract the kids and teach them investigative and maths skills? Set up this action-packed STEM activity.

Step 1: Tie a length of string between the backs of two chairs (one high, one low) so there’s a steep incline. 

Step 2: Use pipe cleaners to build harnesses for different kinds of eggs. Try plastic eggs, egg-shaped chocolates of different sizes, or even hard-boiled eggs.

Step 3: Twist two extra pipe cleaners together to create a stronger wire and attach one end to the harness and the other in a loose loop around the string.

‍Step 4: Time how long it takes for eggs of a certain weight to travel down the wire. How does the weight of the egg affect the time it takes to travel? For a bonus challenge, swap the string out for wool or plastic tubing, and compare how the texture of the zip-line affects the times of your flying eggs.

What You’ll Need

Supplies needed to make an egg zip-line, including red string, pipe cleaners and eggs, arranged neatly on a yellow background.

SEE ALSO: Paper Plane Flight Challenge for Kids

Slingshot Straw Rocket

A series of images showing a slingshot straw rocket STEM activity: a rocket made of a straw, eraser, paperclip and cardboard is launched across a yellow background using a slingshot made of a rubber band taped to a craft stick.

If you’ve got a young aviator on your hands, give them this cool STEM challenge – it will demonstrate the principles of momentum, drag and stability!

Step 1: Push an eraser tip into the end of a jumbo straw.

Step 2: Straighten a paper clip so just one ‘hook’ is left, then attach it to the straw with two pieces of masking tape, so the bent tip is positioned just under the eraser.

Step 3: Cut three long triangular fins out of cardboard or index cards, and, ensuring they’re evenly spaced, tape each one to the bottom of the straw so it ends up looking like the bottom of a rocket.

Step 4: To make the slingshot, grab a craft stick and tape the middle of a large rubber band to the end of it. 

‍Step 5: Hold your slingshot in one hand and with the other, hook the rubber band with the bent hook on the rocket. Pull tight – like a slingshot – and aim your rocket. Let go and watch it zoom through the air!

What You’ll Need

Supplies needed to make a slingshot straw rocket, including colourful cardboard clips, masking tape, striped straws, colourful rubber bands, craft sticks and scissors, arranged neatly on a yellow background.

SEE ALSO: 5 Easy Gravity Experiments for Preschoolers

Make a Playdough Planet

A series of images showing how to do a playdough planet STEM activity by layering white, yellow, orange, red and blue playdough and adding land-shaped pieces using green playdough

Budding scientists will love delving deep into the Earth’s layers with this STEM project for kids. Not only will it help kids hone their engineering and technology skills, this activity also nurtures scientific learning and sensory play.

Step 1: Creating a white ball of playdough for the ‘inner core’ of the planet.

Step 2: Carefully wrap over the white playdough ball with a layer of yellow – almost like you’re wrapping a present – for the ‘outer core’. Then add an orange layer for the ‘mantle’, a red layer for the ‘crust’ and a blue layer for the ‘sea’. 

Step 3: Using tracing paper, roughly trace a country or two off of a world map and cut out.

Step 4: Roll out green playdough and use a plastic knife to cut around your tracing paper stencils for some ‘land’ pieces. Press these onto your planet. 

‍Step 5: Now, use the knife to open up the ball so you can see the cross sections – ta da!

What You’ll Need

Supplies needed to make a playdough planet, including blue, red, yellow, green and orange playdough, a lead pencil, scissors, rolling pin and art knife, arranged neatly on a yellow background.

SEE ALSO: STEM Activities for Preschoolers that Teach Problem Solving

String Phone Activity

A series of images showing how to do a string phone STEM activity by making holes in two black paper cups using a pencil then attaching a long piece of string between them.

This old-school string phone STEM activity is a brilliant way to teach kids about sound waves and vibrations.

Step 1: Use a pencil to poke holes in the bottom of two disposable cups.

Step 2: Cut a 20m length of string and thread each end through the holes in the cups. Knot it or fix the string in place inside each cup with a paperclip.

Step 3: Give each child a cup and move them apart so that the string is taut, and not touching anything. One child speaks into the cup, while the other puts the cup to their ear and listens. Does it work just like a phone? What happens when you try shorter or longer pieces of string?

What You’ll Need

SEE ALSO: 4 Construction Activities for Kids Who Love to Build‍

Rainbow Rubber Eggs

A series of images showing eggs in glass jars containing vinegar and different-coloured food dye to make rainbow coloured eggs as a STEM activity for kids.

This mind-boggling STEM project uses vinegar and food colouring to transform eggs – and you can expand on it to discuss chemical reactions and investigation skills along the way. 

Step 1: Put a raw egg inside a wide-mouth jar and cover it completely with white vinegar. Mix a little food colouring into the vinegar and leave for 24 hours. Repeat this with as many eggs and colours as you like to make a rainbow assortment of eggs.

Step 2: Replace the liquid in each jar with fresh vinegar and more food colouring, and leave for another 24 hours.

Step 3: Carefully lift the eggs out and rinse. Kids will find the hard shell is gone – dissolved by the vinegar – and the eggs now have a rubbery and bouncy texture on the outside. Just be warned that the rubbery membrane is fragile, and the egg is still raw inside, so best to do this bit somewhere easy to clean!

What You’ll Need

  • a wide-mouthed glass jar 
  • food colouring
  • raw whole egg
  • white vinegar

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This article was originally published in 2021 and has been updated.