Biology Science Experiments for Kids
Biology experiments ideally suited to kids are abundant. Get kids interested in science and, in particular, biology through easy, fun and thought-provoking experiments. Kids should always be encouraged to wear the appropriate health and safety attire, and you can reinforce this behavior by wearing the same gear yourself when completing experiments.
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What Is the Best Way to Wash Your Hands?
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One idea for a biology experiment that your kids can have fun with gets them to compare the effectiveness of hand sanitizer and bar soap. To perform the experiment, kids will require five petri dishes that contain sterile agar. Get kids to take the first of the petri dishes, open it for 10 seconds, seal it up and label it "control." Kids should then rub one of their hands through their hair for 30 seconds and wash their hands using hand sanitizer for 30 seconds. Have kids press one of the hands on the agar for five seconds, seal and label the petri dish. Kids should repeat this process for the bar of soap, and then repeat the process for both soaps but wash their hands for two minutes rather than 30 seconds. Have students observe their petri dishes after 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours later and compare the number of cultures in each dish.
Map Your Sense of Touch
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The mapping your sense of touch experiment is a simple task that a pair of kids can complete within the space of 10 minutes. Get kid A to draw a rough outline of kid B and, taking a pair of toothpicks, gently press them against the arms, hands, feet and legs of kid B. Kid A should start the toothpicks an inch apart and move them closer together until kid B only senses the touch of one toothpick. Kid A should note the smallest distance that the two points are felt on the outline. The smaller the distance between the two points, the more nerve endings there are in that part of the body.
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Plants and Water
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An example of a botany project that kids can complete allows them to understand how plants consume water. Have kids set up two glass beakers 1/2 full of tap water next to one another. Kids should then empty a pipette of their favorite colored food coloring into one of the beakers. Then, provide kids with two stems of celery, from which you should cut both the head and bottom tip leaving just the stem. Have kids place one stem in each of the beakers and leave them overnight. Kids should return to the celery the next day and strain away the liquid in the beakers. Cut the stems in half for kids and get them to compare the two plants to see how the liquid has been consumed.
How Do Crickets Respond to Light?
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To complete this experiment, have kids draw a line across the middle of the lid of an opaque box. Open it and put 12 live crickets inside. Have kids then switch on and position a desk lamp so it fills one half of the box evenly with light (leaving no dark corners). Have kids throw a towel over the dark side of the box and start a stopwatch. Kids should count the number of crickets in the light half of the box every 15 seconds for three minutes. This will give them an insight into how crickets react to different environments, such as light and dark.
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References
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