Educational Search Engines

Hunkins Experiments
Tim Huskin's experiments are illustrated with cartoons. Browse the site or view categories in the Themes link. Themes include Food, Light, Sound, Electrical, Mathematical, Biological experiments, and more. It's a collection of useful, fun, funny, and sometimes absurd experiments. If you want to make a paper noise, change the color of a goldfish, or how to chop a doughnut into 13 pieces with three cuts, Hunskin's Experiments will have it. Even if you don't do the experiments, the cartoons make a great read for all ages and a model for some of your artistic scientists.

Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids
The creations at this experiment's page are geared to the high school level or to those working in a guided science club experience. They demonstrate fascinating scientific principles in magnetism, radio, thermodynamics, Aerodynamics, light and optics, and biology. Some, like the solar hot dog cooker can be done with lower grade levels. Each of the experiments has diagrams and photos accompanying the procedures.

Bizarre Stuff You Can Make in Your Kitchen
The best way to view the collection of experiments and projects at this site is to check the Index in Alphabetical order or Projects by categories. This site is a museum of classic science experiments, mainly from the 1930's-1960's. Most of the projects at this site require adult supervision or help. Many of the articles were originally published in project magazines or books, and the articles have the original publication dates. It's like visiting an antique shop for projects. There are some old favorites here like the pinhole camera, the underwater observation glass, and the vegetable litmus test. There are some really classic illustrations too.

Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab Experiments
Check out these experiments by categories or by skill level. Categories are divided into sections like chemistry, pressure, motion and energy. The skill levels are broken into easy, intermediate, and advanced. The experiments give material needed, procedures, and background information. Each experiment link is annotated to make the choice easier.

Science Playwiths
This Web site includes Science Experiments at Home and Science Fair Projects. The experiment listing includes two separate links that takes you directly to Science Experiments and Science Fair Projects. Science Experiments has experiments, diagrams, and explanations. The Science Fair Projects will help anyone do a science project from start to finish, and it includes examples.

The Kinetic City Lab Car Page
This Web site has some great elementary projects and experiments. Make your own paper, create your own shipwreck, test the laws of physics, and make a secret code.

Fun Science Gallery - The Site of the Amateur Scientist
Projects include instructions for making telescopes, microscopes, batteries, sidereal indicators, and several other instruments. Some of these are for high school level students but elementary level projects area available too at Science Experiments for Environmental Education and Biology.

Energy & Science Projects
The Energy and Science Projects Web site lists a number of illustrated science projects and energy activities for K-12 students. Each of them has a short description and a link to the actual activity. Some projects include lemon power, peanut power, using water to produce energy, and making an anemometer. At the bottom of the page there are more links to other science project sites.

The WWW Virtual Library - Science Fairs
This site offers ways to share science experiments and projects in a more formal way with and for your students. It is a great listing of science fairs from many places. They include national, international, local, and even virtual science fairs. This is a wonderful site for those interested in starting a science fair, and just as good for those already involved. Great modeling for teachers and students wishing to share their experiments and projects.

The Thinking Fountain
If I had to pick a favorite from this list of experiment sites, The Thinking Fountain would probably be my choice. It is an alphabetical listing of Activities and ideas, and Galleries to show your work, Books you can use, and inspired Surprises. A tiny icon precedes each category. While the other topics are worth a look, teachers looking for science projects, experiments, and activities should look in the Activities and Ideas links. They're the links with the yellow dot icon in front. You will find everything you need, including procedure, materials, and drawings for the project.

Yes Mag Projects
This is a great little page of projects. Each idea link leads to a page of materials, directions, and step-by-step drawings to follow. These are great activities for elementary students, although middle schoolers should still get a kick out of them. There's even an explanation of what's happening here. Students will enjoy Super Looper, Geodesic Dome, the Leaning Tower of Pasta, and the other easy to do activities at the site. Each is annotated for easy choosing.

Magnet Man Cool Experiments with Magnets
This web site is devoted to magnetism and the cool experiments you can do with permanent magnets and electro-magnets. Some of the experiments are very basic things you've done since second grade. Others are unique; perhaps you hadn't thought of doing some of these before, or had difficulty in trying to set them up. Lists of the materials needed for the demonstrations, directions on how to assemble them, instructions on how to show them, and notes on how they work are all here for you.

Experimental Science Projects
Experimental Science Projects has two guide levels. An Introductory Level Guide presents basic information for doing a science project. An Intermediate Level Guide contains information from the Experimental Science Projects with additional material added to help distinguish between different types of scientific studies. More details are available about the experimental scientific method, and the steps involved. There are several new sections, including one that introduces experimental errors. As you read about the various steps, you may want to follow along with an Example Science Project.

WonderNet - Your Science Place in Cyberspace
Three activities are listed monthly and are archived. The hands-on science activities in WonderNet are adapted from The Best of WonderScience, Volumes 1 and 2, a hands-on elementary school physical science activity books for teachers and students published by the Education Division of the American Chemical Society. WonderNet's simple activities, like float or sink or stuff that sticks, gives students at elementary levels a chance to do what scientists do, ask questions, make predictions, design and modify experiments, make observations, and draw reasonable conclusions.

Cool Science Experiments with Alka-Seltzer
Here you'll find five Cool Science Experiments with Alka-Seltzer. These experiments range from easy to hard, but all are interesting! And you'd be right in assuming that a couple of them have Alka-Seltzer on the materials list. Experiments include Chemistry Colors Mix and Match and the Effect of Particle Size on Reactants.

The Hands-On Technology Program
The Hands-On Technology Program has science experiments and other hands-on activities for K-8 students. All of the activities are designed so that the students can do them using every day, inexpensive materials. Many of the pages can be photocopied and used directly in class. Others are teacher's notes and materials lists. Subjects are Physical Science, Life Science, Earth Science, and Math. The subheadings lead to the experiments and activities. An example of this is the subheading dinosaurs in Life Science. One of the experiment choices is Practicing Paleontology. A student activity sheet is provide, which includes "What you need, What to do, and Think about." Students fill in the information. I especially like the Classifying dinosaurs, which could easily be used for classifying other things too.

Junk Box Wars
All of these activities are in pdf and presented by The Science Spot. These are challenges similar to those presented on a British TV show called Junk Yard Wars. The object is to create something and solve a problem using scrap, in other words junk. Each challenge is annotated to let the challenger know what is to be created. Topics include Battle of the Boats and Rocket Rally. Rules, possible supplies in the junk box, machine requirements, and testing procedures are offered in the pdfs. Junk Box Wars will have you creating your own challenges at all age levels.

Aeronautics
The Aeronautics site offers 26 hands on experiments that deal with basic relationships, pressure versus velocity, lift versus velocity, experiments using a wind tunnel, and some advanced experiments about piloting a plane and recording measurements. The Flying Ping Pong Ball is an example of a simple experiment, which uses a simple funnel and a ping-pong ball to demonstrate pressure. The experiments include objectives, materials, procedure, explanation, and illustrations.

Bubbles
Everyone loves bubbles! This site is the bubble experimenters dream. Learn a simple formula for making the biggest and longest lasting bubbles. Younger students will enjoy making the formula and chasing the bubbles on the playground field. Older students can use their bubble making to fine tune measuring skills. It's not a big site but it will certainly make young scientists (and old) smile.

Weather Eye Experiments
These experiments cover a wide range of topics and they are not just about weather. The Department of Education designed these activities for families to do together but they can certainly be done in the classroom too. Topics include Attack of the Straws, Soap Power, and Celery Stalks at Midnight, Moldy Oldies, and Crystals. Each activity lists What You'll Need, What to Do, and if needed a Grown-up Alert, like the one found in an Activity called Splish Splash.

TryScience - Experiment
TryScience is a wonderfully produced site. The direct link for experiments has a topic links chooser with activity categories. My choice is View All, which gives a scrolling list of hyperlinked experiments to choose from. When a choice is made, for instance Gravity in Action, an animated box with sound appears, showing the experiment. In the case of this example, homemade parachute animation appears. Clicking on the animation box brings you to the experiment page, complete with objective, materials, procedure, and illustrations. Parent and Teacher tips are included, along with additional cool related links.

http://www.galaxy.net/~k12 (scroll down)

http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/SCIFUN.HTML

www.sciencemonster.com

Light-Experiments

www.howstuffworks.com/light.htm

www.exploratorium.edu/light_walk/lw_main.html

Animals

Animals found in British Columbia

http://www.fishbc.com/adventure/wilderness/animals/

Electricity-experiments for kids

www.energy.ca.gov/education/projects//projects-html/projects.html

http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/toe.html