15 Online STEM Activities At Home

As more districts have started closing, we’ve had a lot of parents and educators looking for “home STEM” distance learning ideas. Here are 15 resources, gathered by the STEAM Café team and from our beloved Facebook group that you can use. Please keep in mind that while these are fantastic resources for doing STEM at home, many of these activities are NOT entirely aligned to the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we’re practicing imperfect action, and we hope that these resources will get you through this difficult time.

You can also join our Facebook Group for more resources. We’ve encouraged our community to share what they’ve found to be helpful, and we’re tagging each post with “Remote1.” You should be able to search “Remote1” in the sidebar to find all the posts that relate to activities you can do at home.

We also have The Teachers Guide to Coronavirus, which has resources that will be useful to both parents and teachers.

Please be aware that some resources/websites may be experiencing large amounts of traffic, so it could take time to load or need to be re-loaded later.

Be safe, healthy, and wash your hands out there! With much love and admiration,

The STEAM Café Team

1. Germs and Soap Experiment

The first resource we want to share is one that you can use to help teach younger children about why handwashing is so important. If you check out this link you can watch how a Pre-K teacher, Amanda Lorenzo, used an experiment with pepper, water, and dish soap to explain how germs work to her students. You can set up the experiment by adding pepper to a plate or bowl full of water, and then do your own demonstration like in the video. You may also want to explain to your students that the “germs” are everywhere, so we can get them by touch surfaces. The science behind why this works can be found here. This link will talk about how soap works on the pathogens on your hands.  Here’s the link again: Germs and Soap Experiment.

2. Scholastic Learn at Home

Scholastic has created a daily at-home program for grades Pre-K-6th. They currently have five days worth of lessons, but they are working an additional fifteen days worth of content. Check it out here: Scholastic Learn At Home.

3. Maker Station Home Pack

This resource provides instructions and activities to create a Maker Station/Space at home. It includes a list of different activities you can try and sheets your students can fill out to create a blueprint of their design plans. Grab it here: Maker Station Home Pack.

4. Engineering Activities for Kids (Under Quarantine) – Engineering Bingo

Lindsey Nelson has created a Bingo card with engineering activities you can do at home with your children. Many of these activities could be adapted to be used with younger children. Here’s the link: Engineering Bingo.

5. Virtual Field Trips

A teacher compiled a list of 30 virtual field trips you can do at home with your students. Check them out here: 30 Virtual Field Trips.

6. Smithsonian Science Education Center: Free Resources

The Smithsonian offers several free lessons and resources for at-home learning. You can search for activities by grade to perfectly fit your student’s needs. Here’s the link: Smithsonian Science Education Center.

7. Khan Academy – Schedules for School Closures

Khan Academy has created a schedule you can use to structure your homeschooling activities. These schedules are based on your student’s age. Check it out here: Schedules for School Closures.

8. Education Companies Offering Free Subscriptions

Amazing Educational Resources has compiled a huge list of companies that are offering free subscriptions during school closures. They are continuing to update this list, so please keep the link handy. Check out their full list here: Free Subscriptions List.

9. Fun Science Demonstrations on Youtube

This channel has a bunch of different fun and engaging science demonstrations. You could even test some of these at home. Here’s the link: Fun Science Demos.

10. Paper Airplanes – Engineering Investigation

Yen put together this engineering activity you can do at home, where you investigate how airplanes fly with your children. Grab it here: Paper Airplanes Activity.

11. Fun Activities to Try With Toilet Paper Rolls

Momgineer Meredith Anderson put together STEM activities you can do with the roll itself and activities you can do with the cardboard tubes once you’ve finished the roll. Check it out here: Fun Activities with Toilet Paper Rolls.

12. Weather Journals

There are a bunch of free templates for these journals and this is a great activity you can do daily from home. Check out the templates here: Weather Journals.

13. PBS Design Squad

These activities can be done online or offline. If you’d like to do them offline, you can go to the activity and download a PDF of the instructions. Check out all their design activities here: PBS Design Squad.

14. STEM Connections With Family

Get Caught Engineering is offering their “STEM Connections with Family – Spring Packet” for free right now on teachers-pay-teachers. Click here to get it: STEM Connections With Family.

15. Challenger Center Lessons

The Challenger Center has a bunch of free, downloadable lessons you can print off for your kids. Grab them here: Challenger Center Resources.