Chemistry Experiments You Can Do at Home
- Activities for Kids
- Advanced Science Projects (45)
- Chemistry Supplies
- Glowing Projects (16)
- Home Chemistry Kit
- Make Your Own Chemicals
- Projects Involving Fire (24)
Top Chemistry Projects You Can Do at Home
Don't worry if you don't have a chemistry lab. These projects use materials you can find around the house.
Common Chemicals and Where to Find Them
This is a list of common chemicals and where you can find them.
Kitchen Science Experiments
Do you want to explore science, but can't find or can't afford chemicals? Here are science experiments and projects you can do that use common kitchen chemicals.
Best Crystals for Beginners
Are you interested in growing crystals, but unsure where to start? This is a list of the best crystal growing projects for beginners or anyone seeking top crystals projects based on simplicity, safety, and great results.
Safe Science Experiments
Many fun and interesting science experiments are also safe for kids. This is a collection of science experiments and projects that are safe enough for kids to try, even without adult supervision.
Home Science Projects - Reader Favorites
There are a lot of interesting and educational science projects that you can do at home. Typically these projects and experiments use common household chemicals and other materials found around the house. Examples of fun home science projects include making slime polymer, reacting baking soda and vinegar to erupt volcanoes, and growing sugar crystals. What is your favorite home science project?
Household Product Recipes
You can use home chemistry to make many of the everyday household products that you use. Making these products yourself can save you money and allow you to customize formulations to avoid toxic or irritating chemicals.
Top Chemistry Projects for Bored Kids
Are you searching for something fun and educational to do that suitable for kids? Here are some great chemistry activities and projects to get you started. They are safe and use easy-to-find materials.
Is It Safe to Use Kitchen Glassware for Chemistry?
Is it safe to use your kitchen glassware and utensils for chemistry experiments? Here's a look at some of the risks involved in using your dishes for chemistry.
Baking Soda & Vinegar Chemical Volcano
Making a baking soda and vinegar volcano is safe and easy, plus it only requires a few inexpensive kitchen ingredients. Here are detailed instructions for making a volcano, plus a look at the chemical reactions involved.
Chemistry How-To Guide
From your About Chemistry Guide, these are recipes for education and family fun, as well as interesting experiments and demonstrations.
Before You Buy a Chemistry Set
Getting a child a chemistry set is an excellent way to introduce principles of chemistry. However, not all chemistry sets are created equal. Check out these tips about age recommendations, supervision and safety, replacement chemicals, and prices.
Bubble Life & Temperature
This science fair project examines whether bubbles last the same length of time in hot temperatures as they do in cool temperatures.
Cabbage pH Indicator
Make your own pH indicator solution! Red cabbage juice indicator is easy to make, exhibits a wide range of colors, and can be used to make your own pH paper strips.
Baggie Chemistry - Experiment with Chemical Reactions
Introduce students to chemical reactions and experimentation using common materials and baggies.
Chemistry of Smoke Machines
Have you ever wondered how smoke machines work or wanted to make your own smoke or fog? Here's your chance to find out how it works. There are separate sections for each type of non-toxic smoke generator, together with important safety tips.
Bend Water with Static Electricity
Use static electricity to bend a stream of flowing water. This is an easy science activity that illustrates how opposite electrical charges attract each other.
Ice Cube on a Wire
Pull a wire through an ice cube without cutting the cube! This trick works thanks to a phenomenon called regelation, in which the ice melts from the pressure of the wire and freezes up after the wire passes. Here's how to put a wire through an ice cube or hang the ice on wire.
Bismuth Crystals
Bismuth is one of the easiest and prettiest metal crystals that you can grow yourself. The crystals have an interesting geometric hopper shape and are rainbow-colored from the oxide layer that quickly forms on them. Try these step-by-step instructions for growing bismuth crystals.
Blue Color Change Demo
Easy to find chemicals are used to make a pale blue solution, which becomes sky blue and finally deep royal blue. Try this color change chemistry demonstration at home or in the lab.
Crystal Geode Project
Natural geodes are hollow rock formations that contain deposits of crystals. Assuming you don't have a geological timeframe to obtain a geode, it's easy to make your own crystal geode using plaster of paris, alum, and food coloring.
Bouncing Polymer Ball
Use chemistry to make a bouncing polymer ball, then alter the procedure to see the effect the changes have on the charactertistics of the bouncing ball.
Black Snakes or Glow Worms
You can make black snake or glow worm fireworks yourself, safely and easily.
Blue Fire Instructions
It's very easy to make blue fire. Here are a few of the ways you can make blue fire yourself.
Chalk Chromatography
You can use chalk and alcohol to perfom chromatography to separate the pigments in food colorings or inks. After you've finished making your chromatogram, you'll have colored chalk.
Chemistry Fun with Pennies
Use pennies, nails, and a few simple household ingredients to explore some of the interesting properties of metals. Clean the pennies chemically, make verdigris, and plate the nails with copper.
Glowing Water Video
This glowing water video shows you two ways to make water glow. One is suitable for making glowing fountains or other decorations while the other can be used to make glow-in-the-dark drinks.
Glow in the Dark Slime
What is better than regular slime? Slime that glows in the dark, of course! This is an easy and fun project that is suitable for kids.
Candle Science Magic Trick
You know you can put out a candle flame by pouring water on it. In this science magic trick, the candle will go out when you pour 'air' onto it.
Color Fire
Have you ever wanted to color fire? Here are simple, nontechnical instructions for making your own colored flames. Add extra interest to your fireplace or campfire!
Green Fire Video
See how to make green fire using common chemicals. You can apply the same method to produce fire in other colors using different metal salts.
Colored Fire Spray Bottles
You can spritz a flame with chemicals to change the color of the fire. Colored fire spray bottles are easy to prepare and use common chemicals.
Handheld Fireball Video
All fire is not created equal! If you apply a little chemistry know-how, you can make a fireball cool enough to hold in your hand. See how it's done, then try this simple fire project yourself.
Hot Ice Video Tutorial
Hot ice is a non-toxic chemical you can make in the kitchen from baking soda and vinegar. You can cause the saturated solution of hot ice to crystallize in 'ice' that gives of heat or you can build crystalline towers as you pour the hot ice onto a container. Here a step-by-step video that shows you what to do.
How Do Lightsticks Work?
Find out how lightsticks or glowsticks work. Learn about the chemistry behind the process and get on-line purchase information. This article also explains how to make glow sticks last longer or become brighter!
How to Prepare Gases
Here are simple instructions for preparing common gases from ordinary chemicals. The gases include carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorine, and several others.
Laundry Detergent Recipe
It's easy to make your own laundry detergent, plus the cost of using it is about a tenth the price of using store-bought laundry detergent. Here's how you make this cleaner yourself.
Diving Ketchup Magic Trick
Place a ketchup packet in a bottle of water and make it rise and fall at your command, as if by magic. Of course, the magic involves some basic science. Here's how to do the diving ketchup trick and how it works.
Colored Fire Rainbow
These are instructions for making colored fire in all the colors of the rainbow.
Copper Plating Christmas Ornament
Copper plate a holiday decoration as a Christmas ornament or for other decorative uses.
Natural Easter Egg Dyes
These are easy instructions for making your own natural Easter egg dyes, using fruits, vegetables, and spices.
Copper Sulfate Crystals
Copper sulfate crystals are among the easiest and most beautiful crystals that you can grow. The brilliant blue crystals can be grown relatively quickly and can become quite large. Here's how you can grow copper sulfate crystals yourself.
Home and Garden pH Indicators
Here's a list of common household substances and garden plants that can be used as pH indicators. Many of the active molecules, expected color changes, and pH ranges are listed.
Copper Sulfate Preparation
Mske copper sulfate or copper sulphate yourself from copper and sulfuric acid.
How to Grow Great Crystals
Do you want to grow crystals, but you aren't sure where to start or what to do to make sure your crystals turn out well? Here's some basic information on crystal growing. I've provided links to recipes so you can start growing crystals. These instructions are general, so if your recipe calls for something special (like no vibrations or dark), be...
Rock Candy Video Tutorial
You don't have to visit a candy store to get colorful rock candy. See how easy it is to grow your own sparkling (and tasty) rock candy crystals at home.
Rock Tumbler Instructions
Here are instructions for tumbling rocks using a rotary drum tumbler and a vibratory tumbler, as well as instructions for polishing jewelry in a rock tumbler. Helpful tips are included for improving the polish and troubleshooting problems.
Rubber Chicken Bones
You can use vinegar to remove the calcium in chicken bones to make them rubbery. This is a simple project that illustrates what would happen to your own bones if the calcium in them is used more quickly than it is replaced.
Disappearing Ink Instructions
Learn how to make blue or red ink that will disappear after exposure to air. Tips for restoring the color and an explanation of the acid-base chemistry of the reaction are also included.
Shampoo Recipe
You can make your own shampoo from scratch using simple ingredients and a little chemistry know-how. Here's a shampoo recipe to get you started.
Slime Video
Slime is fun material that you can make yourself using common household ingredients. See how to make slime at home, and learn about the chemical process that occurs to form it.
Top Chemistry Sets and Kits
There are some truly exceptional chemistry sets out right now! Many of these chemistry kits introduce fundamental concepts through fun themes, such as 'slime' or 'glowing chemistry' or 'edible chemistry', while other sets are safer versions of the standard chemistry sets.
Top Science Toys
Harry Potter toys, chemistry sets, metal detectors, rock tumblers, telescopes, microscopes, rockets, creatures, and more! These are some great educational toys, along with helpful selection tips and price comparisons.
Fireworks in a Glass
Fireworks are a beautiful and fun part of many celebrations, but not something you want kids to make themselves. However, even very young explorers can experiment with these safe underwater fireworks.
Magic Crystal Christmas Tree
A magic crystal Christmas tree is an easy crystal project you can do for the holidays.
Fire Writing
Write a message using a special invisible ink. Reveal the message in fire with this fire writing chemistry project.
Glow in the Dark Crystal Geode
It's very easy to make a glow in the dark crystal geode. The rock is a natural mineral (eggshell). You can use one of several common household chemicals to grow the crystals. The glow comes from phosphorescent paint, which you can get from a craft store.
Food and Cooking Chemistry - Science Fair Project Ideas
These are ideas for science fair projects that involve food or cooking chemistry. Links are provided for additional science fair project help and food chemistry information.
Borax Crystal Heart
Grow borax crystals overnight to make a beautiful sparkling crystal heart. Use the borax crystal heart as a decoration or simply grow it as a fun crystal project.
Glow in the Dark Mountain Dew
All it takes is a few easily-obtained materials to turn a bottle of Mountain Dew into a glow in the dark bottle of Mountain Dew.
Boil Water in a Paper Bag
This chemistry demonstration or project shows you how to boil water over an open flame in a paper bag. The bag won't catch on fire, nor will the water leak out. Here's how to do it.
Supercooling Water
You can cool water below its stated freezing point and then crystallize it into ice on command. This is known as supercooling. These are step-by-step instructions for supercooling water at home.
Top Science Fair Project Books
This is a collection of top-rated science fair project resources for students, parents, and educators. There are books that describe experiments, a CD-ROM packed with thousands of pages of ideas, and reference materials for making posters, giving presentations, and understanding the judging process.
Glow-in-the-Dark Crystal Snowflake
Learn how to make a glow-in-the-dark crystal snowflake or other glowing holiday ornament. This is a safe and easy project that's great for kids and kids-at-heart. The crystal decorations are light-weight and inexpensive to make.
Geode of Copper Sulfate Crystals
Geodes are rocks that contain crystals. Normally, millions of years are required for flowing water and minerals to deposit crystals, but you can make your own 'geode' in only a few days. Grow blue copper sulfate crystals inside an egg shell to make your own geode.
Fried Green Egg
Red cabbage juice contains a natural pH indicator that changes color from purple to green under basic (alkaline) conditions. You can use this reaction to make a fried green egg.
Glowing Ice Sphere
There are a few different ways you can make a non-toxic glowing ice sphere. You can even make a glowing crystal ball that you can float in a bowl of punch to drink.
Glow in the Dark Alum Crystals
Alum crystals are among the quickest, easiest, and most reliable crystals you can grow. Did you know you can make them glow in the dark by adding a common household ingredient to the crystal growing solution?
Fruit Ripening and Ethylene Experiment
Measure the ripening of fruit from exposure to the plant hormone ethylene by testing starch levels with an iodine solution. This easy experiment can be performed on several types of fruit, such as apples, pears, and bananas.
Rainbow in a Glass Density Column
Make a rainbow in a glass using colored sugar solutions with different densities. This project is very easy and safe enough to drink.
Hollow Penny Project
This is an easy chemistry project that uses common materials. You take a post-1982 penny, score the copper surface to expose the zinc interior, react the zinc with acid, and are left with a hollow copper penny.
Glowing Bubbles
Bubbles are already awesome, but glowing bubbles are even better. It is easy and safe to make bubbles glow, plus it doesn't require any hard-to-find materials. Here is what you do.
Identify an Unknown - Experiment with Chemical Reactions
Use this chemistry lesson plan to help students use the scientific method to design experiments to identify the components of an unknown mixture.
Growing Crystals - Science Fair Project Ideas
Are you looking for a fun science fair project idea? Here are some ways you can turn crystal growing into a research project. There are links to instructions for growing different types of crystals and for designing a great science fair project, too.
Microwave a CD
Microwaving a CD or compact disc produces lots of sparks. Here's how to microwave a CD safely.
Modeling Clay Recipes
There are several ways you can make homemade clay for modeling, making ornaments, and for other projects and crafts. Here are several clay recipes, including a refrigerator clay, a clay you bake to harden, one you coat for a glossy finish, and one that works up and stays pliable much like store-bought modeling clay.
Liquid Magnets - Synthesize Ferrofluid
Make your own ferrofluid, or liquid magnet, which can be used with a magnet to change the liquid's density and to form spikes and other amazing shapes.
Glowing Jell-O Recipe
It's incredibly easy to make Jell-O or other gelatin glow under a black light. Here's what you do.
Kastle-Meyer Test To Detect Blood
The Kastle-Meyer test is an inexpensive, easy and reliable forensic method to detect the presence of blood. Here is how to perform the test.
Red Cabbage pH Paper
Learn how to make your own pH indicator test strips using red cabbage. This is a fun, safe, and easy chemistry project that you can do at home.
Green Fire Instructions
It's easy to make brilliant green fire. This cool chemistry project only takes two household chemicals.
Rubber Egg & Chicken Bones
You can make a hard boiled egg bounce like a rubber ball and cause chicken bones to become soft and rubbery. All you need is a common kitchen ingredient.
Grow Sugar Crystals - Make Your Own Rock Candy
Sugar crystals are also known as rock candy since the crystallized sucrose resembles rock crystals and because you can eat your finished product. You can grow clear sugar crystals with sugar and water or you can add food coloring to get colored crystals. It's simple, safe, and fun.
Kid-Friendly Elephant Toothpaste Demo
The elephant toothpaste demo produces a growing column of foam that looks like what you would get if an elephant squashed a giant tube of toothpaste. Here's a kid-friendly version of this classic chemistry demonstration.
Sharpie Pen Tie Dye
You can create a pattern resembling tie-dye using colored Sharpie pens and rubbing alcohol. It's a fun and educational project that is great for kids.
Household Product Testing - Science Fair Project Ideas
Science doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't require specialized lab equipment! These are ideas for science fair projects that involve testing or comparing common household products.
What Materials Glow Under a Black or Ultraviolet Light?
Black lights emit ultraviolet radiation, giving certain materials an eerie glow. Which materials? You can do a little experimental research or you can check out this list!
Mentos & Diet Soda Chemical Volcano
Candies and diet soda together can make a chemical 'volcano' with an eruption several feet high. If the normal baking soda volcano is too tame for you, give this project a try.
Ultimate Colored Smoke Bomb
Make a smoke bomb that billows clouds of brightly colored smoke. This project is easy and safe enough to at home. Adult supervision is required.
Plant and Soil Chemistry - Science Fair Project Ideas
Here are some science fair project ideas that involve plants and soil chemistry. Are you looking for an environmental science project? Check here!
Make Frozen Bubbles
Use dry ice to freeze bubbles solid so that you can pick them up and examine them closely. You can use this project to demonstrate several scientific principles, such as density, interference, semipermeability, and diffusion.
Rainbow Fire
It's easy to turn an ordinary flame into a rainbow-colored flame.
Potassium Nitrate Recipe
Make potassium nitrate (saltpeter) from common household ingredients. Potassium chloride from lite salt and ammonium nitrate from a cold pack are reacted to yield potassium nitrate and ammonium chloride. This is an easy way to make your own potassium chloride if you can't find it in a store or just want to try a fun chemistry experiment.
Magic Rocks - Review
Magic Rocks are a classic instant crystal growing kit. You pour a magic solution over magic rocks and a fanciful crystal garden starts growing as you watch. Here's my review of the Magic Rocks kit.
Invisible Inks
Make your own invisible ink so you can write and reveal secret messages. Get information about inks that are activated by heat, chemical reactions, and ultraviolet light.
Spooky Halloween Jack-o-Lantern
You can make spooky fog come out of your Halloween jack-o-lantern using a little dry ice. Here's how you do it plus a trick for getting the best effect.
Violet Fire
It's very simple to make violet or purple fire. All you need are two easy-to-find ingredients.
Red Fire Instructions
Red fire is easy to produce. This is a classic color for sparklers and fireworks as well as holiday parties. It would also be a cheery coloration for a campfire or fireplace.
Poinsettia pH Paper
You can make pH indicator from poinsettia flowers, then use the indicator to make your own pH paper test strips.
Yellow Fire
Most flames from candles or wood burning fire are yellow, but you can color a blue flame so that it will become yellow. Here's what you do.
Water into Wine Demonstration
Turn a clear liquid into a red liquid, then back to clear again. This demonstration is commonly called turning water into wine or blood, and can be used to demonstrate acid-base indicators.
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Make liquid nitrogen ice cream as a cool cryogenics or phase change demonstration or for a quick and tasty treat.
Silver Crystal Tree
In this simple chemistry demonstration or crystal growing project you'll grow a silver crystal tree.
Smoke Bomb Instructions
You can easily make a smoke bomb using inexpensive materials to produce safe smoke.