Ready to do some hands-on STEAM activities, often inspired by children’s books? You’ve come to the right place.

From the Growing With Science Website:

• Science and the Scientific Method
• Seed Identification Challenge
• Butterfly and Moth Activities

Below is a list of the STEAM experiment or activity blog posts, organized by topic.

Math

STEAM Activities for Pi Day and International Day of Mathematics (many links to resources)

Preschool STEM Learning Centers:

• Math
• Insects
• Solar System
• Cars and Trucks (Physics)
• Human Senses
• Reptiles

Biology

Classification of Living Things (with activities)

Mycology (Fungi)

A Fungus Among Us

1. Making a spore print

Exploring yeast

1. Characteristics
2. Decomposition Experiment

Investigating a historical event with molasses and yeast

Ecology

• What’s Under a Rock?- Exploring a habitat
• Green Roof
• Desert Food Webs
• Decomposition

Botany

Plant Science Unit Lessons:

Preface: inspired by the Seed to Seed book

• Introduction:  What is a plant?
• What is a Seed?
• Seed Dispersal – and a book to accompany the lesson
• Germination of Seeds
• Plant Science in Space
• Plant Parts (roots, leaves, stems, etc.)
• Investigating Flowers
• Inside Plants (Leaf and cell anatomy)
• Chlorophyll and Other Leaf Pigments
• Plant Families I. Crop Plants
• Plant Families II. Trees

Older experiments:

Growing plants indoors

Algae

1. Make an algal collection
2. Investigate food chains
3. Investigate how humans use algae for food
4. Algae produce oils that can be used for biofuel

Mosses, Ferns, Liverworts and Horsetails: Science Activities

1. Identification
2. Searching for Spores
3. Moss habitats

• Avocados
• Carrots (scroll to bottom for a link and experiment idea.)
• Extract DNA from Strawberries and Bananas
• Pumpkin and Apple Science
• Popcorn science
• Winter Botany
• Weed Science
• Grapes and Grape Experiments
• Seed Dispersal
• Plants in Space
• Wildflowers

Trees:

Trees -botany

More tree science

1. Tree Transpiration
2. How far does the water have to travel from roots to top of the tree?

Experiments with Tree Leaves:

Leaf litter decomposition

Tree leaf age

Putting the leaves back on the trees- leaf identification

Fall leaf color chromatography

Saguaro Cactus Activities

1. Why Spines?
2. Waxy Coating

General Zoology (Animals)

Goats and Sheep

1. Fainting goats

Frog and Toads (2017)

1. External anatomy
2. Life Stages
3. Toad house

Frogs and Toads

1. Identification
2. Frog songs
3. Eat or be eaten

• Bats
• Beavers
• Desert Tortoises
• Lizards
• Garter Snakes
• Awesome Snake Science
• Whose Egg is This?
• Horses
• Groundhogs or woodchucks

Ornithology (Birds)

Observing Backyard Birds

Bird Counts – trends

Bird Migrations

Shore Birds

Build a human-sized bird nest

Birds of the rainforest

• bird beaks
• feeding
• drinking
• make a bird craft
• where rainforest birds live

Ocean and Shore Animals

Learn about Steller Sea Lions

Investigate an animal (sea slug) that can make its own food

Sea Horses and Other Fish

1. fish anatomy
2. moving through water

• Jellyfish
• Shore Birds
• Tide Pool Invertebrates
• Humpback Whales
• Week of Ocean-themed Books and Activities
• Fish Anatomy and Behavior

Science with Pets

• Mouse running a maze
• Cat communication
• Cats’ sense of smell
• More cat experiments
• Observing cat behavior

Science with your pet mice

1. Identification/Classification of Rodents
2. Food/Nutrition
3. Making Houses and Toys
4. Animal Behavior
5. Mouse Development

Do cats have cold feet?

Hands-on fun with guinea pigs

Earthworms

Arthropods (Insects and Their Relatives)

Spiders:

• Tips for identifying spiders
• Spiders into Space
• Spider Webs
• All about Tarantulas

Experiments with Isopods -  pillbugs or rolypolies)

Entomology (Insects)

Insects and Their Relatives Part 1

1. anatomy of various arthopod groups

Insects and Their Relatives Part 2.

Characteristics of the five most common orders:

1. Coleoptera
2. Lepidoptera
3. Diptera
4. Hymenoptera
5. Hemiptera

Insect Science Investigations

Lessons in this series:

• Grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets
• Dragonflies and Damselflies
• Beetles
• Butterflies and moths
• Ants, bees and wasps

Other lessons:

Honey Bees

1. Gardening for bees
2. Honey bees and water
3. Honey bee communication and dances
4. Bee nests

More about honey and honey bees

• swarming
• honey
• how honey bees keep warm

Make an Insect STEAM Activity: Bees

Where do insects go in the winter?

Ants

1. Ant anatomy
2. Ant pheromones

1. Ant life cycles and ant nests (at Wild About Ants)

Butterfly Science Activities

• Butterfly anatomy
• Butterfly metamorphosis
• Raising butterflies
• Making a butterfly craft
• Butterfly gardening

Butterfly Gardening with Children Week:

• Monday: The basics of butterfly gardening with children.
• Tuesday: Figure out the five Mystery Seeds that will become great butterfly garden plants. (The answers)
• Wednesday: Identifying Butterflies for Beginners (with activity suggestions)
• Thursday: Pollination and butterflies (with activity suggestions)
• Friday: Adding trees to your butterfly garden.

Crickets singing

Dragonflies and Damselflies

Ladybugs

Insect life stages (nymphs, larvae and pupae)

Human Biology

Experiments with the senses of taste and smell

Human Body and Cells

1. Model cell
2. Cheek cell under microscope

Genetics

Extract DNA from Strawberries and Bananas

Chemistry

What is in seawater

Smart Materials

1. Shape-memory alloys
2. Shape memory polymers
3. UV beads

General Chemistry Projects

1. Density
2. A Density Column
3. Elephant’s toothpaste
4. Acids and Bases
5. Using chemicals to make light

Glowing Chemistry

1. Glowing under ultraviolet light
2. Light sticks
3. Day-Glo

• Iodine Starch Test and Plastic Bag Permeability Experiment
• Colors and acids and bases
• Classic lemon experiments
• Making cheese
• Fun with bubbles
• The Chemistry of Rust (Oxidation)

***New***
Chemistry Week:

• 
• Elements, Atoms and Molecules
• Using chemicals from plants to study pH
• Easy endothermic and exothermic reactions to explore
• Chemistry resources for young adults
• Chemistry Experiments for Kids using Table Salt

Some older Chemistry Links

Physics

Astronomy

Three basic astronomy activities – good place to start

Activities having to do with hunting for planets outside the solar system.

1. Make a rainbow
2. Activity:  Make your own spectrometer from a cereal box.
3. The Doppler Effect

• Investigate the amount of light pollution and how it effects how we see the stars at night
• Build a telescope
• Exploring Light and Its Relatives Part 1 (Electromagnetic Spectrum)
• Exploring Light and Its Relatives Part 2 (Electromagnetic Spectrum)
• Camouflage and Invisibility
• Transit of Venus

Experiments With Water

Exploring the Water Cycle

Water Can Be… Activities to accompany the picture book

Experiments with ice

1. Ice spikes
2. Ice cube rescues
3. Freezing and thawing water
4. Floating and sinking
5. dry ice

Wondrous Water

Water Density and Temperature

Boats and Floating

• How long can a paper boat float?
• Results of paper boats
• Can you make a boat travel across a bathtub without touching it?
• Results
• Do pumpkins or apples float?
• Why do they float?
• Movement of water in small containers

General Physics

• All about parachutes
• Toy car physics
• Photography for Kids
• Balloon Physics
• Activities with tin cans
• Magnets
• Groundhog day-shadows

Earth Science

Geology

• Petrified Wood
• Rocks and Minerals
• Metamorphic Rocks, Crystals and Fossils
• Growing crystals
• Exploring Soil
• Rock Around the World -get your rock identified
• Archelon and Other Fossils

Sand Experiments

1. Test sand samples with a magnet
2. Make sand

Volcanoes

Meteorology – Weather

• Hurricanes -measuring wind and hurricanes on a bubble
• Wind power
• Does building shape influence damage level by hurricanes?
• Dust Storms
• Snow Science
• Build a weather station
• Be a Meteorologist

Oceanography

Experiments with movement of floating trash