One of our favorite (and easiest) ways to have some science time in our house is food science. You can do so many simple experiments with your younger students that only require common household food items. Scientific exploration starts with a simple question, introducing some basic science words, and seeing what happens! For example: 

• What happens when we freeze 3 different liquids? 

• Which do you predict (or hypothesize!) will freeze first? 

• How can we make observations about our experiment? 

• What pictures would you draw to record your results? 

Here are more ideas for simple kitchen science that your students will love!

• Candy Rainbows- All you need is colored candy and water!

• Peep Science- Including Peep Slime, How do you make a Peep sink, and What happens when you heat a Peep?

• How Dirty are your Hands?- A simple experiment with slices of bread

• What reacts with Baking Soda? Demonstrate with vinegar, and then invite your students to find other liquids and predict what will happen!

Have students in multiple grades? Have older students learning more about the scientific method record the experiments more formally, set up variables and controls, and/or research why the experiments have specific results. 

Want more awesome kitchen science ideas? Check out these books on Amazon: 

• Kitchen Science Lab for Kids and Kitchen Science: Edible Edition by Liz Heinecke

• The Complete Cook Book for Young Scientists and Kitchen Explorers!  by America’s Test Kitchen

• Kitchen Science Experiments from Brain Games STEM

By Rebeka Heath