Fun Science Lessons for Students and Parents to do This Summer

Today is the first day of June and even though it was only 44F when I woke up this morning, summer is on my mind. I'm sure it's on the minds of many of you, your students, and their parents as well. If you have students whose parents are asking for some things they can do to keep their kids engaged in learning this summer, Discovery Education and 3M have you covered. 

Discovery Education and 3M host the Young Scientist Lab in which you will find science experiments that students can complete at home with the help of their parents (older students may be able to do them on their own). The Young Scientist Lab includes a section for students. In that section are fourteen videos providing directions for science experiments as well as a set of ten online simulation activities. 

The parent section of the Young Scientist Lab contains nineteen PDFs that provide directions for at-home science activities for K-8 students. That collection is divided into five activities for grade K-2, six activities for grades 3-5, and eight activities for grades 6-8. There are also five online simulations available in the parent section of the Young Scientist Lab. 

Applications for Education
The at-home activities featured in the Young Scientist Lab are exactly the kind of thing that I would include in a letter, email, or classroom blog post for parents who want ideas for ways to keep their kids interested in learning throughout the summer break. In fact, I plan to try this kitchen chemistry activity (link opens a PDF) with my daughters when their school is on break at the end this month.

Molecularium: Molecule Building Game

My Molecularium is a new free game app that challenges players to build a wide variety of molecules. It is available at the Apple App Store and Google Play.

This app is part of the Molecularium Project, which is the outreach and education effort of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Nanotechnology Center. The mission of the Molecularium Project is to expand science literacy and get people of all ages excited about science.

Applications for Education
This is a fun and engaging way for students to learn about molecules and the world around them. Games are a great way to introduce and reinforce ideas.

Try Science - Online and Offline Science Activities for Kids

TryScience, produced by the New York Hall of Science, offers a nice collection of online and offline science activities for elementary school students. On TryScience you will dozens of activities arranged by topic. The offline activities are hands-on activities like wind mapping with bubbles and building tin foil boats. The most of the online activities, like Catch the Wave, have an offline activity that you can use to teach the same concepts found in the online version.

Applications for Education
The next time that you are looking for an elementary school science activity that you can use with or without Internet access, take a look through TryScience's gallery of activities.

Wonderville - Science and Tech Games for Kids

Wonderville is a great website for kids developed by the Science Alberta Foundation. On Wonderville students can find games, videos, comics, and hands-on activities for learning about science and technology. The gallery of activities, games, videos, and comics is divided into three categories; fun science, awesome tech, and cool jobs.

A couple of the Wonderville games that I like are Reaction Action and Medieval Levers. In Medieval Levers students watch a short animated video about the physics of levers before trying to build their own catapults to use to attack the castle. In Reaction Action students learn about combustible gasses. The object of the game is to collect combustible gasses that can be used to create energy.

Applications for Education
Wonderville's games, comics, and videos can be used by elementary and middle school students on their own. The hands-on activities could be used by teachers as the basis for an elementary school science lesson plan. The hands-on activities include experiments in which students need to record observations.

Build Your Own Silicate Minerals

The University of Kentucky's College of Arts and Sciences has a nice interactive activity about silicate minerals. The activity has an overview section in which students read about the structure of silicate minerals before moving to attempt to create silicate mineral models. There are three models for students to try to construct.

Applications for Education 
This isn't a particularly fancy or complex activity, but it could be a good addition to a science teacher's collection of online activities for students.