You don’t need to visit a science centre or have your own lab to do lots of experimenting at home. You don’t need any fancy equipment, just use things that you have around the home. Here are our top tips for your home science kit…

See what you already have

Now is the time to do an inventory of random Christmas presents that got stuck in the back of a cupboard. Do you have any science kits gathering dust? Do you have any that have been ‘done’ but still have kit that could be used again? Is there a microscope or telescope just itching to be used? Many other toys can be useful for STEM projects: toy cars, construction toys (Lego, K’Nex, Magnetix etc), anything with magnets, marble runs, playdough, craft kits…let me know if you think of any more!

Stop recycling!

Every primary school has a stash of ‘junk’ for crafts and STEM projects. If we’re doing STEM at home, it’s probably the first thing that we need to build up! Kitchen roll tubes, egg boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt pots, jars, cardboard, packing materials (bubble wrap, pellets etc), cereal boxes, margarine tubs…in fact almost anything as long as its clean and doesn’t have any sharp edges. This is not just for primary kids! Teenagers and even adults love to build things if they have enough time. Time is something that we are usually so short of but now have in abundance, let’s use it! Set a family ‘junk box challenge’ and see where it takes you. You are allowed to recycle it afterwards though…if the kids will let you!

Some useful things to start gathering together

• Goggles – any type. From a science kit, DIY ones, swimming goggles, snorkelling mask, Nerf goggles…if they stop things splashing into your eyes, they’re all good.
• Containers – you don’t need test tubes or special equipment; plastic cups, yoghurt pots and old beakers are perfect.
• Old spoons – big ones and little ones.
• A tray to catch spillages and something to protect the table if doing chemistry indoors.
• Elastic bands, scissors, clips, string, sticky tape, glue, Blu Tack, balloons, marbles, zip lock bags.
• Vinegar and baking soda.
• Scrap paper and assorted junk.
• Funnels – you can make your own by cutting the top off a plastic bottle (and use the bottom half as a beaker). Just make sure there are no sharp edges.

Our favourite science buys

There is so much you can do with just what you have around your home. However, if you plan to buy any kit or resources to support your child’s science learning, you can find our top picks here.

Follow us on Facebook for regular updates and ideas for home science or join our Facebook group to share your own! You can find lots of ideas on our home school support page.

Being outdoors is always fun but there is also plenty of learning to be done! Look closely and you can find a whole lot of nature in your own garden, the park or out in the countryside. Here are some links to activities and spotter sheets to help.

Egg box scavenger hunt

Set your child a challenge to find the most interesting things that they can while outside…but they’re only allowed six things. Take an egg box along, they can fill the sections with anything they like as long as it’s interesting! If they fill it and find something else, they have to choose one thing to lose. Trickier than it sounds. They can tell you about their finds and why they chose them. For older children, you may want to challenge them to make links between the items. There can be some quite tenuous links but it’s good fun and gets them thinking!

Going on a bug hunt

There is a whole world of mini-beasts to be found in the garden or the woods. Try turning over a few stones or logs and see what you can find. You might find a magnifying glass is useful if you have one. You can use an empty tub to collect bugs to look at, make sure you use a brush or feather to gently push them into the container so that you don’t harm them. You should return them back to where you found them afterwards. If you’re feeling like a bit of DIY you could even make a pooter, which is like a mini vacuum cleaner to gently suck up tiny creatures so that you can have a good luck. You can find instructions to make a pooter on Discover Wildlife.

The Woodland Trust

This is a fantastic charity which aims to protect our woodland and educate children (and grown-ups!) on the importance of trees. They have published a blog specifically for activities to do in the garden if you are self isolating. Check out their top ten here. They have a huge range of spotter sheets and activities for schools on www.treetoolsforschools.org.uk and they have made them all available for free to anyone who needs them while home schooling.

Garden conservation activities from the RSPB

The RSPB has all sorts of activities on their website. From cafes for hedgehogs to hotels for bugs, even the smallest garden or balcony has room for a bee B&B!

We would love to see your learning adventures! You can share on the Fab Science Facebook group.

Have you ever tried to inflate a balloon using magic (and chemistry)? This experiment uses the reaction between an acid (vinegar) and an carbonate (baking soda) to produce lots of fizzy carbon dioxide gas.

What you need:

An empty plastic bottle, 500ml or smaller.

Vinegar (any type)

Baking soda

A balloon

Spoon

Funnel (or roll a piece of paper into a cone)

Safety goggles

What to do:

1.  Put your goggles on. This activity is safe but vinegar can squirt out if there’s a small hole in the balloon!
2.  Carefully pour about 100 ml of vinegar into the bottle.
3.  Use the funnel (or rolled up paper cone) to put a couple of teaspoons of baking soda into the balloon.
4.  Stretch the balloon over the top of the bottle without letting the powder drop in.
5.  When you’re ready, tip the balloon so that the powder falls into the bottle…it should inflate by itself!

If you want to impress your friends or family, you could say a ‘magic’ spell when you tip it and prove that you should be off to Hogwarts!

So what’s going on?

The vinegar is an acid and the baking soda is an alkali, these are opposite types of chemical and they will react together. Because the baking soda is a special kind of alkali called a carbonate, the reaction makes lots of carbon dioxide gas. This is the same gas that we make in our bodies when we release energy from our food (and then we breathe it out).

Think like a scientist:

This activity is a demonstration. To make it into an experiment, you could try changing the type of acid…you could use lemon juice, orange juice or a different type of vinegar. Or you could try adding a different amount of baking soda, use different shapes of balloons or different sized bottles. Remember, science is all about asking questions and working out a way to find out the answer!

You can find out more about acids and alkalis with our Colour changing cabbage experiment and if you like reactions with vinegar and baking soda, check out volcanoes.

If you would like to try out lots more experiments with your very own Fab Scientist, we can bring the Fab Science lab to your birthday party, school or event. Get in touch to find out more.

All living things* have DNA; animals, plants, fungi, even teeny tiny bacteria. It’s what makes us who we are. At ‘All About Me’ camps, we made models of DNA and also had a look at some real DNA that we extracted from strawberries. There were lots of requests for instructions on how to do this at home so here is the recipe!

You need:

• Two strawberries
• Surgical spirit (available in any chemist)
• Washing up liquid
• Table salt
• Ziplock bag (use pestle and mortar to avoid using plastic bag)
• Plastic cups or beakers
• Small glass (shot glass would be ideal)
• Small sieve or tea strainer
• Tweezers or cocktail sticks

What to do:

1. Put the surgical spirit in the freezer at least an hour before you start. Leave it there until step 8.
2. Remove the leaves from the strawberries and put the fruits in the bag.
3. Mash the strawberries! This is the fun bit…don’t break the bag though. You can squash the strawberries in a pestle and mortar (or bowl and spoon!) instead to avoid plastic waste.
4. To make the extraction mixture which will break open the cells and let the DNA escape: measure 90ml water into a beaker or cup, add a teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of washing up liquid. Stir slowly…we want it mixed but not bubbly.
5. Add 4 teaspoons of the extraction mixture to your bag of mashed up strawberries. Mix GENTLY.
6. Sieve the strawberries into a clean beaker.
7. Pour this into your small glass. The DNA is now free in the mixture instead of being stuck inside cells but it is VERY thin so we can’t see it.
8. Carefully pour some cold surgical spirit on top of the strawberry liquid. You should see a cloudy white layer appear, this the DNA! The alcohol makes it clump together so you can see it. You can pull this out with tweezers or a cocktail stick to have a proper look.

*All cellular life on Earth has DNA. Some viruses have another molecule called RNA instead but it’s a bit of tricky question to decide if viruses are actually alive anyway. Of course, we don’t know if any lifeforms that may exist on other planets have DNA or something else entirely.