GRADE 2

Enjoy fun science experiments for kids that feature awesome hands-on projects and
activities that help bring the exciting world of science to life.
Learn interesting science and technology facts by experimenting with different materials
that react in surprising ways. You'll find a lot of experiments can be done using simple
ingredients found around your house. Basic materials can help you perform experiments
that are simple, safe and perfect for kids. Enjoy our fun science experiments, make cool
projects with easy ideas for children, show friends & family what you've discovered and most
importantly, have fun!
Experiments are an awesome part of science that allow students of all ages to engage in fun
and exciting hands on learning experiences that they are sure to enjoy.
Experiment with different things and see what happens, which substances react with each
other and which don't? Were your results surprising or as expected?

Contents
1.

Mixing Oil and Water............................................................................................ 2

2.

Make an Egg Float in Salt Water...........................................................................3

3.

Raw or Boiled Egg?............................................................................................... 4

4.

Static Electricity Experiment................................................................................ 5

5.

Making Music with Water...................................................................................... 6

6.

Make Your Own Rainbow...................................................................................... 7

7.

Invisible Ink with Lemon Juice..............................................................................8

8.

Warm Air Needs More Room.................................................................................9

9.

Energy Transfer through Balls............................................................................10

10.

Bending Water with Static...............................................................................11

1. Mixing Oil and Water

Some things just don't get along well with each other. Take oil and water as an example, you can mix
them together and shake as hard as you like but they'll never become friends.....or will they? Take this fun
experiment a step further and find out how bringing oil and water together can help you do your dishes.

What you'll need:

Small soft drink bottle

Water

Food colouring

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Dish washing liquid or detergent

Instructions:
1. Add a few drops of food colouring to the water.
2. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the coloured water along with the 2 tablespoons of cooking oil into
the small soft drink bottle.
3. Screw the lid on tight and shake the bottle as hard as you can.
4. Put the bottle back down and have a look, it may have seemed as though the liquids were mixing
together but the oil will float back to the top.

What's happening?

While water often mixes with other liquids to form solutions, oil and water does not. Water molecules are
strongly attracted to each other, this is the same for oil, because they are more attracted to their own
molecules they just don't mix together. They separate and the oil floats above the water because it has a
lower density.
If you really think oil and water belong together then try adding some dish washing liquid or detergent.
Detergent is attracted to both water and oil helping them all join together and form something called an
emulsion. This is extra handy when washing those greasy dishes; the detergent takes the oil and grime
off the plates and into the water, yay!

2. Make an Egg Float in Salt Water

An egg sinks to the bottom if you drop it into a glass of ordinary drinking water but what happens if you
add salt? The results are very interesting and can teach you some fun facts about density.

What you'll need:

One egg

Water

Salt

A tall drinking glass

Instructions:
1. Pour water into the glass until it is about half full.
2. Stir in lots of salt (about 6 tablespoons).
3. Carefully pour in plain water until the glass is nearly full (be careful to not disturb or mix the salty
water with the plain water).
4. Gently lower the egg into the water and watch what happens.

What's happening?
Salt water is denser than ordinary tap water, the denser the liquid the easier it is for an object to float in it.
When you lower the egg into the liquid it drops through the normal tap water until it reaches the salty
water, at this point the water is dense enough for the egg to float. If you were careful when you added the
tap water to the salt water, they will not have mixed, enabling the egg to amazingly float in the middle of
the glass.

3. Raw or Boiled Egg?

Surprise your friends and family with an easy science experiment that answers an otherwise tricky
question. Two eggs look and feel the same but there is a big difference, one is raw and the other hard
boiled, find out which is which with this fun experiment.

What you'll need:

Two eggs, one hard boiled and one raw. Make sure the hard boiled egg has been in the fridge
long enough to be the same temperature as the raw egg.

Instructions:
1. Spin the eggs and watch what happens, one egg should spin while the other wobbles.
2. You can also lightly touch each of the eggs while they are spinning, one should stop quickly while
the other keeps moving after you have touched it.

What's happening?
The raw egg's centre of gravity changes as the white and yolk move around inside the shell, causing the
wobbling motion. Even after you touch the shell it continues moving. This is because of inertia, the same
type of force you feel when you change direction or stop suddenly in a car, your body wants to move one
way while the car wants to do something different. Inertia causes the raw egg to spin even after you have
stopped it, this contrasts with the solid white and yolk of the hard boiled egg, it responds much quicker if
you touch it.
This is a good experiment to test a friend or someone in your family with, see if they can figure out how to
tell the difference between the eggs (without smashing them of course) before showing them your nifty
trick.

4. Static Electricity Experiment

They say opposites attract and that couldn't be truer with these fun static electricity experiments. Find out
about positively and negatively charged particles using a few basic items, can you control if they will be
attracted or unattracted to each other?

What you'll need:

2 inflated balloons with string attached

Your hair

Aluminium can

Woolen fabric

Instructions:
1. Rub the 2 balloons one by one against the woolen fabric, then try moving the balloons together,
do they want to or are they unattracted to each other?
2. Rub 1 of the balloons back and forth on your hair then slowly it pull it away, ask someone nearby
what they can see or if there's nobody else around try looking in a mirror.
3. Put the aluminium can on its side on a table, after rubbing the balloon on your hair again hold the
balloon close to the can and watch as it rolls towards it, slowly move the balloon away from the
can and it will follow.

What's happening?
Rubbing the balloons against the woolen fabric or your hair creates static electricity. This involves
negatively charged particles (electrons) jumping to positively charged objects. When you rub the balloons
against your hair or the fabric they become negatively charged, they have taken some of the electrons
from the hair/fabric and left them positively charged.
They say opposites attract and that is certainly the case in these experiments, your positively charged
hair is attracted to the negatively charged balloon and starts to rise up to meet it. This is similar to the
aluminium can which is drawn to the negatively charged balloon as the area near it becomes positively
charged, once again opposites attract.
In the first experiment both the balloons were negatively charged after rubbing them against the woolen
fabric, because of this they were unattracted to each other.

5. Making Music with Water

Have you ever tried making music with glasses or bottles filled with water? I bet you favourite band hasn't.
Experiment with your own special sounds by turning glasses of water into instruments, make some cool
music and find out how it works.

What you'll need:

5 or more drinking glasses or glass bottles

Water

Wooden stick such as a pencil

Instructions:
1. Line the glasses up next to each other and fill them with different amounts of water. The first
should have just a little water while the last should almost full, the ones in between should have
slightly more than the last.
2. Hit the glass with the least amount of water and observe the sound, then hit the glass with the
most water, which makes the higher sound?
3. Hit the other glasses and see what noise they make, see if you can get a tune going by hitting the
glasses in a certain order.

What's happening?
Each of the glasses will have a different tone when hit with the pencil, the glass with the most water will
have the lowest tone while the glass with the least water will have the highest. Small vibrations are made
when you hit the glass, this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means
slower vibrations and a deeper tone.

6. Make Your Own Rainbow

Learn how to make a rainbow with this fun science experiment for kids. Using just a few simple everyday
items you can find out how rainbows work while enjoying an interactive, hands on activity thats perfect for
kids.

What you'll need:

A glass of water (about three quarters full)

White paper

A sunny day

Instructions:
1. Take the glass of water and paper to a part of the room with sunlight (near a window is good).
2. Hold the glass of water (being careful not to spill it) above the paper and watch as sunlight
passes through the glass of water, refracts (bends) and forms a rainbow of colors on your sheet
of paper.
3. Try holding the glass of water at different heights and angles to see if it has a different effect.

What's happening?
While you normally see a rainbow as an arc of color in the sky, they can also form in other situations. You
may have seen a rainbow in a water fountain or in the mist of a waterfall and you can even make your
own such as you did in this experiment.
Rainbows form in the sky when sunlight refracts (bends) as it passes through raindrops, it acts in the
same way when it passes through your glass of water. The sunlight refracts, separating it into the colors
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

7. Invisible Ink with Lemon Juice

Making invisible ink is a lot of fun, you can pretend you are a secret agent as you keep all your secret
codes and messages hidden from others. All you need is some basic household objects and the hidden
power of lemon juice.

What you'll need:

Half a lemon

Water

Spoon

Bowl

Cotton bud

White paper

Lamp or other light bulb

Instructions:
1. Squeeze some lemon juice into the bowl and add a few drops of water.
2. Mix the water and lemon juice with the spoon.
3. Dip the cotton bud into the mixture and write a message onto the white paper.
4. Wait for the juice to dry so it becomes completely invisible.
5. When you are ready to read your secret message or show it to someone else, heat the paper by
holding it close to a light bulb.

What's happening?
Lemon juice is an organic substance that oxidizes and turns brown when heated. Diluting the lemon juice
in water makes it very hard to notice when you apply it the paper, no one will be aware of its presence
until it is heated and the secret message is revealed. Other substances which work in the same way

include orange juice, honey, milk, onion juice, vinegar and wine. Invisible ink can also be made using
chemical reactions or by viewing certain liquids under ultraviolet (UV) light.

8. Warm Air Needs More Room

As its temperature rises, air starts to act a little differently. Find out what happens to a balloon when the
air inside it heats up with this fun science experiment for kids.

What you'll need:

Empty bottle

Balloon

Pot of hot water (not boiling)

Instructions:
1. Stretch the balloon over the mouth of the empty bottle.
2. Put the bottle in the pot of hot water, let it stand for a few minutes and watch what happens.

What's happening?
As the air inside the balloon heats up it starts to expand. The molecules begin to move faster and further
apart from each other. This is what makes the balloon stretch. There is still the same amount of air inside
the balloon and bottle, it has just expanded as it heats up.

Warm air therefore takes up more space than the same amount of cold air, it also weighs less than cold
air occupying the same space. You might have seen this principle in action if you've flown in or watched a
hot air balloon.

9. Energy Transfer through Balls

Energy is constantly changing forms and transferring between objects, try seeing for yourself how this
works. Use two balls to transfer kinetic energy from the the big ball to the smaller one and see what
happens.

What you'll need:

A large, heavy ball such as a basketball or soccer ball

A smaller, light ball such as a tennis ball or inflatable rubber ball

Instructions:
1. Make sure you're outside with plenty of room.
2. Carefully put the tennis ball on top of the basketball, holding one hand under the basketball and
the other on top of the tennis ball.
3. Let go of both the balls at exactly the same time and observe what happens.

What's happening?
If you dropped the balls at the same time, the tennis ball should bounce off the basketball and fly high into
the air. The two balls hit each other just after they hit the ground, a lot of the kinetic energy in the larger
basketball is transferred through to the smaller tennis ball, sending it high into the air.
While you held the balls in the air before dropping them they had another type of energy called 'potential
energy', the balls gained this through the effort it took you to lift the balls up, it is interesting to note that
energy is never lost, only transferred into other kinds of energy.

10.

Bending Water with Static

Heres an easy and fun science experiment thats great for helping kids learn about static electricity. Try
bending water with static electricity produced by combing your hair or rubbing it with an inflated balloon,
can it really be done? Give it a try and find out!

What you'll need:

A plastic comb (or an inflated balloon)

A narrow stream of water from a tap

Dry hair

Instructions:
1. Turn on the water so it is falling from the tap in a narrow stream (just a few millimetres across but
not droplets).
2. Run the comb through your hair just as you normally would when brushing it (do this around 10
times). If you are using a balloon then rub it back and forth against your hair for a few seconds.

3. Slowly move the comb or balloon towards the stream of water (without touching it) while watching
closely to see what happens.

What's happening?
The static electricity you built up by combing your hair or rubbing it against the balloon attracts the stream
of water, bending it towards the comb or balloon like magic!
Negatively charged particles called electrons jump from your hair to the comb as they rub together, the
comb now has extra electrons and is negatively charged. The water features both positive and negatively
charged particles and is neutral. Positive and negative charges are attracted to each other so when you
move the negatively charged comb (or balloon) towards the stream, it attracts the water's positively
charged particles and the stream bends!