Summer is a brilliant time to explore science outdoors with children. You don’t have to set up fancy experiments, even just looking at properties of plants and leaves or testing to see if different items sink or float in a paddling pool is great, simple science for little ones.
Older children will love building bottle rockets, setting up chain reactions and making square bubbles.
I’ve compiled a fun list of our favourite summer science ideas from Science Sparks and many other fantastic blogs to keep kids of all ages happy all summer.
My DIY science camp also has some great summer science ideas, so check those out, too!
Awesome summer science ideas for kids
Summer Science Experiments Using Water
Garden washing line
Set up an Aliens LOVE Underpants washing line to investigate how different materials absorb different amounts of water. This is a brilliant hands-on science activity for learning about the different properties of materials.
Paddling Pool Science Experiments
Next time you get the paddling pool out, try one of my five paddling pool experiment ideas. These include sinking and floating, making boats and learning about density!
Ice Excavation
Set up some simple ice excavations. These are super easy. Just freeze some small plastic toys in ice and ask children to rescue them using warm water or salt!
Waterproof a roof
Test different materials on a small LEGO® house to learn about their properties and discover which are waterproof.
Try a fun trick for keeping a paper towel dry from Creative connections for Kids.
Weather Science Investigations
Homemade Barometer
Make an easy barometer to learn about air pressure! This is a great science activity for observing changes over time.
DIY Wind Vane
Build a homemade wind vane to learn about wind strength, or follow Red Ted Art’s easy instructions for making a DIY kite.
Rain Gauge from a Bottle
Make a super simple rain gauge from a plastic bottle to measure rainfall. A rain gauge is another easy activity for observing changes over time.
Pinecone Weather Station
A pinecone weather station is ALWAYS fun and a great example of super simple, inexpensive science for kids.
DIY Sundial
Find out how to tell the time with a sundial. This is another brilliant low resource science activity.
Summer Bubble Science Experiments
Rainbow Bubbles
Make rainbow bubbles. Bubbles are great fun for any time of year, but there’s not much better than chasing bubbles around a sunny garden.
Bubble Snakes
Bubble Snakes are fantastic fun, too! As an extra challenge, children can experiment with different materials at the end of the bottle to find out which makes the best bubbles. This activity now comes with a FREE bubble machine experiment sheet.
Square Bubble
Did you know you can make a square bubble? You can’t really, but you can create an illusion of a slightly wonky cube with a special frame!
Summer Science Experiments Using Sand
Sand Volcano
Last winter, we made an awesome snow volcano, but sand also works really well. If you do it in a tray, it is a great low-prep erupting volcano project.
Evaporation Activities
Learn about evaporation using sand and water on a sunny day. Another visual way to learn about evaporation is using coloured water and salt.
Sand and Water Ratio for a Sandcastle
Investigate to find what you need to make the perfect sandcastle. We experimented to find the perfect ratio of sand to water.
Set yourself up with a science lab in the garden and try a dissolving investigation.
Forces and Motion Experiments
Bottle Rocket
How high can you get a bottle rocket to launch? Remember to stand back as these shoot up with a bang!
Bottle rockets are a fantastic team building STEM challenge because they require a bit of engineering. They’d also make a fantastic class or school competition.
Straw Shooters
Make straw shooters with friends. We like to set up a competition to see whose mini rocket can travel the furthest.
Egg Parachute
Building a parachute for an egg is ALWAYS a fun activity. If you’re feeling brave, use an unboiled egg!
Lollystick Chain Reaction
We once had a great summer creating chain reactions with lolly sticks. They take a bit of setting up, but are most definitely worth the effort. A giant lollystick chain reaction would also make a fantastic start or finish to a science day or event.
Outdoor Kitchen Science for Summer
Oobleck
Oobleck is a fancy name for cornflour and water. It makes a lovely sensory mixture that feels solid when squeezed in your hands and then flows like a liquid when the pressure is released.
We can’t wait to try these goop and flower cupcakes from The Imagination Tree.
Melting ice cream investigation
Make ice cream soup with Rainy Day Mum to explore melting with a delicious reward.
Solar Oven
A solar oven is good for making s’mores, but you’ll need a hot, sunny day and some time.
Filtering Investigation
Test out filtering by cleaning up dirty water in the garden. Children can use kitchen towel, stones, charcoal or anything else they think might clean the water.
Learn, Play, Imagine has some great ideas for fun with balloons in the garden. I especially want to try the baking soda activity.
Summer Nature Science Experiments
How tall is a tree?
Find out how tall a tree is using a math trick. You might be surprised at how easy this is.
Flowers Activities
Learn about transpiration with white flowers, food colouring and water.
Dissect a flower to learn about the different parts. This is a very visual, hands-on way for children to learn about the structure of plants and flowers.
Make a wormery
Find out all about Earthworms and how useful they are with a wormery.
Butterfly Activities
Watch butterflies grow with Red Ted Art. I also have a delicious edible butterfly life cycle activity.
Explore the lifecycle of a ladybird with a simple fingerprint activity from Reading Confetti.
Make lovely Chromatography butterflies with Buggy and Buddy
Build a den with sticks and leaves. Do some research first. The Wildlife Trust has some great den-building tips.
Bug Hotel
Design and build a bug hotel. These can be made very simply or on a bigger scale with pallets.
Make rose petal perfume to explore mixing and scents with The Imagination Tree.
Ice Experiments for Kids
Try mixing some colour with ice made from fruit juice. At the end, you’ll have a delicious cold smoothie to drink.
Make lovely, pretty summery ice with The Imagination Tree. We like to either speed up the melting of the ice with a bit of salt or warm water, or leave cubes of ice in different places to find out where they melt the fastest.
Giant or even mini ice excavations are great for summer. We once created one so big it took ALL day to melt. One fun variation on trying to make ice melt is trying to make an ice cube last as long as possible without melting.
Summer Science Challenges
We’ve got enough easy summer science challenges to keep you busy ALL summer, too!
Phew, can you think of any more summer science ideas for us?
I also have a delicious round-up of 50 kitchen science experiments for a rainy day or if you need to escape the sun for a while.
Last Updated on May 15, 2025 by Emma Vanstone
www.science-sparks.com (Article Sourced Website)
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