Physics is a subject that can be difficult for students to understand, so hands-on experiences like experiments are excellent to give your students a better understanding of tricky concepts and theories! Not only do experiments and activities help your kiddos’ understanding but they also create an interactive way to engage them in the learning. Read on to discover 60 phenomenal physics science experiments to try out with your middle school students!
1. Newton’s Cradle
Newton’s Cradle is a classic physics experiment that uses basic materials to demonstrate kinetic energy and potential energy. Your students will love creating their very own version using some string and straws! This is a great way to demonstrate the basic concept of energy transfer in an engaging way.
Learn More: 123 Homeschool 4 Me
2. Simple Bernoulli Experiment
The Bernoulli experiment is an excellent way to teach your kids about air pressure. Show your learners how to use construction paper, tape, a bendy straw, a ping pong ball, scissors, and a pencil to create a fun experiment that they can have a go at! This is a simple way to demonstrate to them how large vehicles like planes can stay high in the air. This abstract concept will be brought to life quickly!
Learn More: 123 Homeschool 4 Me
3. Car Science Experiment for Air Resistance and Mass
A physics concept that is sure to be fun to teach your kiddies is the impact of mass on motion! They’ll feel like modern physicists as they place cars with different masses on their race track and time them on their journey! While this may seem like a pretty simple experiment, you can challenge your kids to complete lots of different trials to find out how a range of different factors affects the speed of their cars.
Learn More: Frugal Fun 4 Boys
4. Archimedes’ Screw Simple Machine
Can water flow up? Your kids will be able to answer this question after completing this fun experiment! The Archimedes’ Screw is a commonly known invention that moves water upward and transfers it from one place to another. Help your learners construct their own using a piece of plastic pipe and some clear plastic tubing, then let them experiment and see if they can make it work!
Learn More: Frugal Fun 4 Boys
5. Layering Liquids Density Experiment
Children will love participating in this colorful activity. Have your students use different colored liquids to test out the density of each one by creating a density tower! Everyone will watch in amazement as the different colored liquids separate and float to different places in the jar!
Learn More: Green Kid Crafts
6. Launching Easter Eggs Experiment
This activity would make for an incredibly fun science fair project or a great science activity during the Easter season. Using a mini catapult and plastic eggs, your kiddies will have great fun testing how mass impacts the distance traveled by the egg. This experiment will definitely make you smile!
Learn More: STL Motherhood
7. Balloon in a Bottle Properties of Air Experiment
Challenge your learners to put a balloon inside a plastic bottle and blow it up; sounds easy enough, right? They’ll find this one to be a little trickier than they initially thought! As they work to try to blow up their balloons discuss the properties of air which makes this seemingly simple task almost impossible!
Learn More: Steve Spangler Science
8. How to Make a Pendulum Wave
This physics science project is both fun to make and incredible to look at! Using washers and a few other simple materials like string, your students will be captivated by their experiment for hours on end. Besides being completely mesmerized, they’ll also learn about waves and motion.
Learn More: YouTube
9. Creating Catapults
A homemade catapult is a great way to use cheap materials in a STEM project. Have your kiddos use simple household and craft materials to determine which combination makes for the best catapult. You can launch anything from scrunched-up paper to marshmallows! Encourage your middle schoolers to consider how they can scientifically measure which catapult is best!
Learn More: Science Gal
10. Inertia Tower Activity
Raise the stakes with this amazingly fun inertia activity. This creative activity uses sheets of paper or index cards to separate a tower of cups or blocks, which your students then need to pull out quickly without disturbing the tower. Can they remove all the pieces of paper?
Learn More: Perkin’s E-Learning
11. Rice Friction Experiment
Friction can be a challenging concept to teach middle school students. Thankfully this experiment makes it a little bit easier! Give your kids a better understanding of this tricky concept by using a plastic bottle, funnel, chopstick, and rice. They’ll learn how to increase and decrease friction and will be amazed when this amazing force lets them lift a bottle up with just a single chopstick!
Learn More: Carrots Are Orange
12. Balancing Robot
Combine arts and crafts and physics with this adorable activity! Use the printable template and have your kids customize their robots, decorating them however they like before cutting them out. Next, you’ll use some putty to stick a penny to the end of each of the robot’s arms. All that’s left is to let them find out where they can get their robots balancing!
Learn More: Buggy and Buddy
13. Make Your Own Ice Cream in a Bag
You had us at ice cream! Your kiddies will be so excited to have a go at making their own ice cream using just a few Ziplock bags. Have them start by measuring cream, sugar, and vanilla flavoring into one bag, making sure it’s sealed up. Then, get them to place this bag inside another bag that also has ice and salt inside and shake! Once they’re done learning, make sure you set aside time for some taste testing!
Learn More: Delish
14. Skittles Density Rainbow
Build the rainbow with this fun density experiment. Start by having your kiddies dissolve Skittles in water, using a different quantity of each color of Skittles in each liquid. They’ll then gently use a pipette to layer their liquids while you discuss how the solids have impacted the density of each liquid!
Learn More: Gift Of Curiosity
15. Dancing Raisins Science Experiment
Did you know that you can make raisins dance? Ok, well maybe they’re not actually dancing, but they’re definitely doing something! Your learners will love this fun science experiment where they’ll watch as they watch the carbonation and bubbles of the soda water lift the raisins and “make them dance”.
Learn More: Gift Of Curiosity
16. Learning With Dry Ice
Dry ice is so exciting for your little learners! It has almost magical properties that give it a mysterious element that kids are completely captivated by. Using dry ice is a great way to teach students about how clouds are formed and how they eventually evaporate by capturing a dry ice cloud in a bag! You’ll be inspiring future meteorologists with this visually appealing experiment!
Learn More: Penguin Dry Ice
17. Learning About Arches
Arches are surprisingly impressive feats of architecture. Their unique shape actually makes them surprisingly strong! Teach your kiddos about how heavy-weight objects such as cars on a bridge are supported as they test out different types of arches to see which one holds the most weight!
Learn More: Imagine Childhood
18. Heat Changing Colored Slime
This unique experiment requires very specific materials, but we promise it’s worth it! Blow your kids’ minds as they learn about thermodynamics and how heat can change the color of certain materials as they make some heat-sensitive color-changing slime!
Learn More: Left Brain Craft Brain
19. Homemade Marble Run
Let your kiddies get creative with any materials they can get their hands on with this next activity! Challenge them to create a track for marbles, testing out different course layouts to see how these impact the time it takes the marble to complete it. Encourage them to record their results and share their findings!
Learn More: Buggy And Buddy
20. Ice Hockey Puck Friction Experiment
The ice hockey fans in your class will love this next one! In this activity, your kids will use different flat circular items like bottle caps and coins to determine which materials make the best ice hockey puck! This is a great experiment to take outside on an icy winter day to let them learn about and see friction in action!
Learn More: Science Sparks
21. Transfer of Momentum Basketball Activity
Here’s a quick physics experiment your kiddos can do during recess or on a sunny day! Grab some basketballs and racquetballs and instruct your kids to hold the smaller ball on top of the basketball. Next, have them let go and watch in amazement as the basketball bounces up into the racquetball, transferring momentum as it makes contact!
Learn more: Frugal Fun 4 Boys
22. Pumpkin Boats
Wondering what to do with all those leftover pumpkins after Halloween? Look no further! Get your learners to make them into boats as they investigate the link between density and buoyancy. Support them to make differently-sized pumpkin boats and then make predictions about whether or not their pumpkin boat will sink or float.
Learn More: The Preschool Toolbox
23. How to Make a Hovercraft
Hovercrafts were once something that only appeared in sci-fi stories, but now your kids will be making them in your classroom! Using simple household materials, they’ll learn how to harness the power of air resistance in this unique craft. Neat!
Learn More: Science Sparks
24. St. Patrick’s Day Balloon Rockets
This holiday-themed activity is a great way to teach students about air resistance and acceleration! Your kids will craft their balloon rockets with a balloon, some tape, and a straw to keep it attached to the line. All that’s left is to let go to watch their balloon rockets blast off down the track! Why not make it competitive with a prize for the winning balloon of each race?
Learn More: Housing A Forest
25. Marshmallow Shooter
Your learners will love this silly activity that incorporates a favorite sweet treat and a unique contraption! As they launch their marshmallows through the air, you can discuss how the force of the pull impacts the motion of the marshmallows.
Learn More: Teky Teach
26. Use The Force
Star Wars fans will have fun with this one as they use “the force” to magically pick up paper clips! This exciting activity will have your kiddos wanting to learn more about magnetism and how it works! Simply have them place a large magnet on the back of their hand, reach toward a pile of paper clips, and watch as the paper clips magically fly into their hands!
Learn More: Rookie Parenting
27. Magic Toothpick Star Experiment
You’ll have a tough time convincing your kids that this experiment shows physics at work and not magic! Have your kids take five toothpicks and snap them in half. Let them arrange them as shown, and then drip water in the middle of the sticks. They’ll be amazed as the water moves the sticks, seemingly mending them and creating a star!
Learn More: Living Life And Learning
28. Water Powered Bottle Rocket
Bottle rockets are a fun science experiment to bring the science classroom outdoors. Your students will love learning about pressure and how it impacts the velocity of an item using just a recycled plastic bottle, a cork, some water, and a pump with a needle adaptor. To add even more excitement to this activity, let your kiddos decorate their own rockets!
Learn More: Science Sparks
29. Magnetic Levitation Activity
With all these seemingly magical experiments, your kids are really going to wonder if you attended Hogwarts instead of a teacher-training college! Use the power of magnets to make a pencil float! Show your kids how to position their magnets so that they repel each other enough to suspend a pencil in mid-air!
Learn More: Arvin D. Gupta Toys
30. Rubber Band Powered Car
This adorable craft will teach your kiddos about force and motion! Let them spend some time going through a trial and error process to make a working car that’s powered by applying force to a rubber band! Once they’ve got their models working, let them race to see whose creation goes the fastest and the farthest!
Learn More: Stem Inventions
31. Making a Water Wheel
Waterwheels have been around since Roman times, over 2000 years ago! Historically they were used in mills to grind grains into flour but nowadays they can be used as a source of renewable energy. Task your pupils with making a working waterwheel out of some simple household items like plastic cups, straws, and tape- are they up to the challenge?
Learn More: Deceptively Educational
32. DIY Pulley Physics
This pulley system will show your students that simple machines aren’t always so simple! Using whatever materials they can find and some string, they’ll need to create a fully functional, intricate pulley system along your classroom walls! This would make a great display for the entire school year!
Learn More: The Homeschool Scientist
33. How to Make an Orange Sink or Swim
What is more likely to float, a peeled or unpeeled orange? Let your kids vote on this seemingly straightforward question then reveal the answer with a simple demonstration. Your students will watch in awe as they learn that they can change the density and buoyancy of an object by slightly altering it. In the case of the orange, however, the results might not be what they were expecting!
Learn More: Woo Jr.
34. Paper Airplane Test
There’s nothing kids love more than making and throwing paper airplanes. If they’re usually banned in your classroom, then you might want to consider lifting that ban for one day! Turn this simple activity into an engineering investigation where your students will test out different designs to see which shape of the paper airplane will fly the furthest and which shape will stay in the air the longest! Physics made fun!
Learn More: Feels Like Home
35. Rising Water Experiment
Water experiments in the classroom can be so much fun! This activity will teach your students how temperature and oxygen levels can affect the density of the air! All you’ll need are some matches, a cork, a plate of water, and a glass! They’ll love watching what seems like magic!
Learn More: Teach Beside Me
36. Physics Mystery Bag Challenge
This unique physics activity will have your kiddos work in groups to solve a physics mystery. Each group will receive identical bags of mystery items and will be told what type of machine they need to create. The challenge is that there are no instructions! Using only the items in front of them and their ingenuity, your students will compete to see which group creates the best of the designated machine!
Learn More: Teaching Highschool Math
37. Solar Oven S’mores
Fun science experiments are even better when combined with food! This solar oven teaches your students about how transmission, absorption, and reflection are used in a solar cooker to cook food. Your middle schoolers will be amazed at how easy it is to make yummy smores using an array of simple supplies, such as plastic boxes, aluminum foil, cotton, and glass.
Learn More: PBS
38. Laser Jello
Here’s another edible science project for your class! In this fun project, your kiddos will put the concepts of reflection and refraction into practice in a hands-on experiment. Give them some red and blue Jello to investigate how differently colored lasers project through it; they’ll be amazed as the Jello changes the lasers’ color and sometimes blocks out the light altogether!
Learn More: Exploratorium
39. The Electric Butterfly
Elevate the basic static-electricity balloon experiment by adding a paper butterfly! Teach your learners about positive and negative electrons by charging up the balloon with static electricity and using it to move the paper butterfly’s wings. This hands-on activity is a super way for them to see what can be a very abstract concept in action!
Learn More: CACC Kids
40. Homemade Thermometer
This classic science experiment is great for showing how heat affects certain liquids by making them expand. Using the simple supplies of a bottle, cold water, rubbing alcohol, food coloring, a straw, and some modeling clay, have your students build their very own thermometer. As they heat or cool the surroundings, your kiddos will observe the liquid rising and falling in the straw!
Learn More: Teach Beside Me
41. DIY Electromagnet
Creating an electromagnet is a cool way of combining middle-grade physics and engineering! This fun activity uses screws, some wire, and batteries to demonstrate how an electric current flows through metal to create a magnetic field. After this simple experiment, you can challenge your kids to take this activity to the next level and create bigger versions like their own electromagnetic cranes!
Learn More: Teach Engineering
42. Optical Illusion Fun
Experiments don’t get much cooler than optical illusions! You can use these amazing visual activities to teach your middle graders about how our eyes process light and send signals to our brains. Simply print out the template and let your kids add some color before they cut them out and attach them to a pencil. As they spin, they won’t believe their eyes! What a fun way to make this lesson about our eyes memorable!
Learn More: YouTube
43. Water Cycle in a Bag
This cute little experiment is a great way to give your kids their very own visual of the water cycle! Print off the template and let your kids trace it onto their own Ziploc bag. All that’s left is to add water and tape it to a window where it’ll catch the sun! These little experiments are really quick to make and set up, but your kids will spend days analyzing them!
Learn More: Kiwi Co
44. Homemade Barometer
Your students might have already made a DIY thermometer, but what about a barometer? You can help them learn about atmospheric pressure by crafting barometers using a jar or can, a balloon, a wooden stick, rubber bands, and some tape! As the weather changes over the next few days, so will the air pressure which will move the wooden stick of their barometers! Cool, right?!
Learn More: Easy Science For Kids
45. Basic Motor Mechanics
It is amazing what you can do with some modeling clay, a magnet, a battery, and wire! This cool project showcases how electric energy works, demonstrating the interaction between the current and a magnetic field. This nifty little experiment will definitely get your students’ physics motors running!
Learn More: Education
46. Xylophone fun
Sound waves are much easier to teach and learn about when your kiddies can make visual connections. Have your learners fill empty jars with varying amounts of cold water (and a few drops of food coloring in each to make it look even more interesting) and then let them test the different pitches by hitting each one!
Learn More: Sugar, Spice And Glitter
47. Build a Paper Bridge
This fantastic activity uses some really simple materials to challenge your kiddies to ‘build a bridge’. What seems like a pretty basic activity actually teaches them all about the scientific method and physics concepts behind building a bridge. They’ll learn about concepts like compression and tension to explain how bridges stay in place even under pressure! This is one your future engineers will love!
Learn More: YouTube
48. Magnet Maze
Art and physics are combined in this clever classroom experiment! Task your students first of all, with drawing a colorful maze on the outside of the bottle. Next, have them put in different items like coins, marbles, paperclips, and buttons to explore which ones they can attach the magnet to from the outside and navigate through their maze. A-maze-ing, right?!
Learn More: Science Museum Group
49. Super Sundial
If you feel like taking your teaching outdoors, this sundial construction lesson is ideal! Bring some paper plates, bendy straws, and a pencil, and you’re good to go! Your learners won’t need a lot of background knowledge before the activity, but they’re sure to learn a lot about the Earth’s orbit and rotation in the process!
Learn More: Generation Genius
50. Sound Sandwich
Your kiddies might initially be confused when you announce that they’ll be making sound sandwiches! Their confusion will soon turn to fascination at how such simple materials can make really interesting sounds! In this activity, they’ll be learning how to make music with sticks, straws, and rubber bands. See if they can figure out that it is the rubber band vibrating that makes the differently-pitched sounds!
Learn More: Exploratorium
51. Optical Lens Experiment
Did you know that you can actually bend light? Your students will be surprised to learn this for sure! Through this investigation, you’ll teach them how when light goes from one medium to another (e.g. from air to glass), it usually bends. This series of simple activities covers the effects of convex and concave lenses on light, and thus how refraction works.
Learn More: Discover Primary Science And Maths
52. Density Tower floating experiment
Combine the previously mentioned density tower and floating experiments in this cool activity! Using just a few simple ingredients that can be found around most homes, you can instruct your learners to combine cornstarch, vegetable oil, and rubbing alcohol. This will create the colored layers in this cool activity! Then they’ll add small items of their choosing to see which ones float in the various liquids, and at what density!
Learn More: Frugal Fun 4 Boys
53. Walking Water experiment
Capillary action isn’t a term that most of your kiddies will be familiar with but after doing this experiment they won’t forget it! Help your learners set up a row of cups with water and different colors of food dye. Next, they’ll add some strips of paper towels dipping each end into a different up and let them watch in amazement as the colored water seems to defy gravity and ‘walk’ up the paper and into the next cup!
Learn More: Made In A Pinch
54. Build a Solar Still
This easy experiment is the perfect way to demonstrate the water cycle and how sunlight can purify water. Start by letting your kiddos have a bit of fun to make ‘dirty’ water using assorted safe and edible kitchen ingredients. Then you’ll challenge them to make their own solar stills from plastic glasses, cling wrap, and, a bowl. Finally, they’ll set their glass of ‘dirty’ water inside the bowl, cover it with cling wrap, and then sit it out in the sun. And voila – clean water!
Learn More: Teach Beside Me
55. Slinky Sound Waves
A metal slinky is a super simple but really effective source of demonstrating sound waves for your kids. Get two volunteers to hold the ends of the slinky and encourage your other students to take note of the different wave patterns when one or both of them shake it. This is a super way to make this abstract concept a little more visual for your class.
Learn More: Fizzics Education
56. Bike Wheel Gyroscope
Momentum is an important concept that your little physicists will cover in middle school science. A bike wheel gyroscope activity will amaze and enthrall your students as you use it to show off how the wheel’s mass and rotation obey the laws of angular momentum! The best part is that you’ll only need a bike wheel and some willing participants!
Learn More: NASA
57. DIY Kaleidoscope
Teach your kids all about the law of multiple reflections with this super fun, customizable activity! Using a cardboard tube, some mirrors, and small colorful items like confetti or sequins, these kaleidoscopes will be something they’ll always remember making. If you don’t have mirrors, why not try using aluminum foil instead?
Learn More: Home Science Tools
58. Mapping Magnetic Field Lines
Teaching theoretical, intangible ideas is one of the hardest parts of teaching a subject like physics. Thankfully this short but practical activity makes this a whole lot easier by showcasing how the magnetic field lines of a bar magnet do not ever cross, are continuous, and go from north to south! All your kiddies will need is a magnet, a compass, and a marker!
Learn More: YouTube
59. Buzz Wire game
Electrical circuits can be really interesting to make, and this activity makes it fun too! Get your students to create their own ‘Buzz Wire’ game which will teach them about the loop system needed for electricity to work. Once they’ve made their loops, let them have a go at completing each others’ games! Can they get to the end without setting the buzzer off?
Learn More: YouTube
60. Galileo’s Gravity Experiment
As the story goes, Galileo dropped two items from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to see which hit the ground first. Though we can’t be sure he actually did this, you can be sure that your students will have fun trying out this similar activity to learn about the effects of mass and air resistance on falling objects! Simply have them pick out two different objects, drop them from a height, and record which lands first!
Learn More: Science-Sparks
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