Activities | Carolina Knowledge Center

Boats and Buoyancy

Investigate physical science and engineering concepts including buoyancy, displacement, and density. Students construct an aluminum foil boat prototype and measure how much weight their boat can carry before taking on water or sinking.

Dollar Store Single Function Signal Generator

In this activity, students use a solar-powered model, such as the dancing flowers often sold at discount variety stores. They carefully disassemble the plastic housing and attach a sensor to the capacitor, then use probe ware to graph the voltage across the capacitor.

Determining Flavor

The Connection Between Taste, Smell, and Flavor The sense of taste and smell are closely related. Humans can distinguish 5…

Boost Your Anatomy and Physiology Lab Budget with Grants

Budgets and all the administrative work around them are always top frustrations and stressors for lab managers and college or…

Do-It-Yourself Snowflakes

Snow delights most students and frustrates most teachers. Please everyone when you create snowflakes in the comfort of your classroom….

Foaming Rainbow Demonstration

Dry ice is added to a basic solution of dish detergent and universal indicator. Commercially, dry ice is used as…

The Anatomy of a Human Leg

Sculpting the musculature of the lower leg Human anatomy is often taught using a systems approach—skeletal system, nervous system, digestive…

Borax Snowflake

This lab activity will guarantee a snow day! Teach solutions and crystallization while making snowflake decorations for your classroom. Looking…

Autumn Leaves Craft Project

This activity takes a look at autumn leaves as objects of aesthetic beauty and scientific interest. For this activity, each…

Holiday Demonstrations and Activities

As the holidays arrive, students tend to become distracted. Performing demonstrations and doing fun class activities can help keep their…

How to Make Slime

An Introduction to Polymer Chemistry Whether you want to introduce students to polymers, engage them with a fun science demo,…

Four Engaging Lab Activities for Spectroscopy

Help your students understand spectroscopy with these hand-on lab activities. Here are 4 engaging hands-on lab activities from Thermo Fisher…

Bloody Chlorophyll Lab

“Scare” your students by exciting the electrons of chlorophyll molecules with black light, causing the molecules to release their energy…

Kool-Aid® Chromatography

Chromatography is an important technique in the chemistry lab. This activity uses a popular beverage for a safe, engaging lab…

Chemoween and Other Spooky Science

Treat your ghosts and ghouls to some spirited demos and hands-on activities, and celebrate Halloween as the finale to your…

Explaining Patterns in the Periodic Table

Identifying family and period properties within the periodic table Too often, students remember for a short time certain trends and…

Move Your Classroom Outside

Outdoor Learning Activities Spring is in the air, and if your students are like mine, they’re just itching to be…

Shaving Cream and Food Coloring Chemistry

Decorate wrapping paper or eggs while illustrating scientific concepts and making real-world connections. Foam shaving cream is primarily composed of…

Egg Vacuum Activity

If you are looking for an attention-getting demonstration of the gas laws for physical science students at any grade level,…

Making Ice Cream

Demonstrate the colligative property freezing-point depression and make edible ice cream at the same time. This safe, inexpensive, and engaging experiment works well for a science night, open house, kids’ group, or anywhere fun and science meet. Using table salt, reduce the temperature of a mix of ice and liquid water to below the freezing point of water. After 5 minutes, open the cup for a tasty treat.

Eggsploring Enzymes Activity

Enzymes are specialized biological catalysts that complete biological work within cells. In this activity, students investigate the effect of pepsin,…

Crystallization Investigation

Crystallization through precipitation lab Crystals are solids that form when molecules join in a regular repeating pattern. Crystals mesmerized humans…

Color Change Chemical Reaction

Also known as the traffic light reaction, indigo carmine produces a colorful demonstration In this activity, a redox indicator (indigo…

Optics of the Human Eye

Background Geometric optics explains how optical devices (such as lenses and mirrors) create images by considering that light travels in…

Plant Biodiversity Field Activity

Take your class outdoors to study biodiversity. What is biodiversity? Simply stated, biodiversity is the number and variety of organisms…

Cooking Eggs with Chemicals

A demonstration of denaturing protein Introduce high school biology and chemistry students to the concept of denatured proteins with this…

Single-replacement Reaction

Create silver decorations with chemistry In this activity students perform a redox reaction in which silver take the place of…

3-D Imaging: The Mystery Unlocked

Seeing the Solar System in a New Dimension Moviegoers are demanding more from their sensory experience, and 3-D viewing has…

Make Your Own Indicators

Testing the pH of a solution is a fundamental skill in chemistry. Students typically test pH using a pH meter,…

Chicken Wing Musculature

Explore the structures and functions of muscle tissue Essential question What are the structures and functions of muscle tissue? Objectives…

Temperature Sensation Activity

How do the density and arrangement of cutaneous receptors vary on the human arm? The skin is the largest organ…

Balancing Chemical Equations

Using Models to Simplify Balancing Equation To balance chemical equations, students must know how to count atoms, understand the difference…

Maggot Michelangelos

Using Artwork to Gain Behavioral Insight Overview During this activity, students will use house fly larvae (i.e., maggots) to answer…

Mole Day (October 23) Celebration

How do you celebrate the value of the Avogadro constant and why would you want to anyway? Happy Mole Day….

Investigating Enzyme Reaction Rates Using Toothpickase

A dry lab activity Objectives At the end of this activity, students should be able to demonstrate their understanding of…

Rock Candy: An Edible Study of Crystallization

An Investigation of Supersaturated Solutions Making rock candy is a safe way to introduce students to solutions and crystal growth—and…

Classifying Chemical Reactions

Writing and balancing chemical equations is an essential skill for chemistry students, who must learn to predict the products of a reaction…

Silvering Glass

Create Silver-Mirrored Christmas Ornaments with a Redox Reaction Create silver ornaments with your students using a chemical process similar to…