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Coffee-Can Cuíca
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Make a cuíca (“kwee-ka”), a traditional Brazilian musical instrument that originated in Africa. Played primarily in Brazil, now you can play it at home, too, with this Exploratorium produced activity.
Roller Coasters
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In this activity learners will build roller coasters and test them using small balls or marbles.
Mystery Sand
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In this activity, learners play with surprising sand that doesn’t get wet! Learners explore how water behaves differently when it comes in contact with "magic sand" and regular sand.
Soaring Satellites
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Using a vertical wind tube and using simple materials, individuals and groups attempt to design a "satellite" that floats for at least 5 seconds.
Homemade Rube Goldberg Machine
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In this fun and, at times, hilarious force and motion activity, learners will use household objects to build a crazy contraption and see how far they can get a tennis ball to move.
Making An Impact!
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In this activity (on page 14 of PDF), learners use a pan full of flour and some rocks to create a moonscape.
Hot and Cold: Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions
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Visitors mix urea with water in one flask and mix calcium chloride with water in another flask. They observe that the urea flask gets cold and the calcium chloride flask gets hot.
It's A Gas!
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Visitors mix water and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in a large flask. They then add citric acid to the mixture and stopper the flask. The resulting reaction creates carbon dioxide gas.
All Mixed Up!: Separating Mixtures
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Visitors separate a mixture of pebbles, salt crystals, and wood shavings by adding water and pouring the mixture through a strainer.
Lotus Leaf Effect
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This is a demonstration about how nature inspires nanotechnology. It is easily adapted into a hands-on activity for an individual or groups.
Wind Tubes
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In this activity, learners create and experiment with wind tubes. These tubes are a playful and inventive way to explore the effect that moving air has on objects.
Shrinkers
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Visitors use heat to shrink samples of polystyrene. They compare samples from containers that were shaped in different ways during manufacturing.
Concentrate: Concentrations and Reaction Rates
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Visitors incrementally increase the amount of iodate in three different test tubes containing the same amount of a starch solution.
Ancient Sun Observations
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In this activity, learners make their own Sun tracker to explore how ancient civilizations around the world studied the Sun.
Exploring Fabrication: Gummy Capsules
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In this activity, learners make self-assembled polymer spheres.
Seeing Is Believing
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This activity is designed to accompany the PBS documentary about African-American chemist "Percy Julian: Forgotten Genius." Learners look through two cups with small holes in them to simulate what it'
Sand, Plants and Pants
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In this activity, learners explore how the application of nano-sized particles or coatings can change a bigger material’s properties.
Biomimicry: Synthetic Gecko Tape Through Nanomolding
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In this activity/demo, learners examine a synthetic gecko tape with micron sized hairs that mimics the behavior of the gecko foot.