10 Cool Science Activities for Boys

I’ve been hunting around for some fun, cool, and maybe a little gross science play for Trevor to do as an incentive for finishing up his main schoolwork. {On a side note… anyone have great suggestions for getting an almost ten year old boy to be somewhat independent for.goodness.sake. If you do, leave me a comment or drop me a note.}

Here are ten that we will be trying in the near future; I’ll report back and let you know how they turned out. Judging by the descriptions, any boy – especially those of the ten-year-old variety – will LOVE these:

1.Make Some Fake Snot Okay, a little gross, but really cool. Best of all, this uses simple to find materials, something I always appreciate. Maybe your son could add some yellow or green food coloring to really make it look authentic…or not.

2. Spoiled Milk Try this – have your guy predict {in his science journal} what a cup of milk will look like after a week if left in each of these three places – the refrigerator, a counter away from a window, on a sunny window sill. Pour a cup of water in each of three lidded cups – exactly the same type of cups – and seal. Place them in those locations and leave them alone for a week. Have your son take a look at each cup and write down his observations after the week has passed.

3. Make some Poop in the Kitchen Yeah, not sure pregnant Mommy can handle this one, especially with the warning not to use too much water or the results will be very messy {um, like diarrhea}. After showing some of these ideas to Trevor, though, this is the one he wants to try out first – go figure.

4. Flatulence Journal {Okay… Fart Journal… I said it} I know this one will be right up Trevor’s boy-mind-alley as he is stuck with prudish me who insists he says, “passing gas” when referring to this bodily function in my presence. I’ll have him keep a journal of every time he, um, passes gas for a week, and calculate the results. I’ll then encourage him to eat notoriously gas-inducing foods like broccoli and beans the next day and record again, asking him to conclude if beans really are, um, musical.

5. & 6. Create an Edible Model of the Skin then some Drinkable Blood to finish off the “snack.” Learning about the human body doesn’t have to be boring. These two activities use food to create layered {and gross} representations of these two body systems. Ummm… Trevor may need to do this one with Daddy. I’m not sure my pregnant tummy can handle this one either!

7. Majestic Fields of…Germs I keep telling my kids to wash their hands {over and over again, it seems} before they eat, drink, after they use the toilet, etc. But, like all kids, they seem to take more delight {and time} trying to come up with new ways to make me think they’re washing up, than actually doing it. {Seriously, if they spent half as much time actually washing their hands as they do running water and swirling soap so I think they’re clean, they’d be the most germ-free kids on Earth!} So, I’ll prove my point and have him do this: take several slices of preservative-free bread and, wearing sterile gloves, wipe each slice across a different surface {frequented by him often} and seal it with a few teaspoons of water in a baggie. Then, he’ll label the bag with the location of the swipe and leave it on a sunny sill for a few weeks – just to see how disgusting each becomes. Hopefully, he’ll start really washing his hands!

8. Mentos and Diet Coke Geyser This one is not new at all – not even to us – but it’s one thing Trevor loves and asks to do again and again. If you haven’t tried it with your son, you need to load up the next time 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke {it makes a difference} and Mentos candy are on sale. I usually supervise this, but Trevor has done it with me enough, and knows how to change his own clothes, so I think I’ll start throwing a tube of Mentos and bottle of Diet Coke in his last workbox from time to time, tell him to go outside and get sticky!

9. Choices from Some of My Books Trevor is one of the biggest supporters of my writing career. He loves doing an activity from books I’ve written, and shares my books with friends as often as he can. So, to give back some of that love {and because I have most of the materials on hand from testing out all those activities already!} I’ll give him a link to some of the samples on my website or drop one of my books and a few supplies into his workbox and let him choose an activity.

10. Melting Chocolate I came across this experiment and knew I needed to eat Trevor would love it. Really… it has nothing to do with chocolate cravings and everything to do with my son. Well, okay, maybe a little to do with chocolate cravings – but it looks like fun anyway!

There you have it, some fun {and gross} science to keep your boys loving school – and for me to keep mine motivated to get to the end of the “have to do it” work and on to the fun stuff. I hope you’ll stop back and let me know if you tried any of these activities with your kids. If you like it, I’d love for you to share this post with others on Pinterest, Twitter, or Facebook.

Have a great Tuesday!