Challenge and Discover – Water Science

Water is pretty amazing. Did you know it is the only natural substance to exist in three physical states at temperature naturally occuring on Earth?

• Water covers about 70% of the surface of the Earth.
• Water expands when it freezes.
• We need water to survive.
• Water expands when it freezes.
• Water can move upwards!!

Water has lots of properties that are great fun to explore.

Water Science Investigations

Find out about freezing and melting. For younger children  simply let them play with an ice cube while it melts, you could even freeze a toy inside the ice to make it more appealing. Just getting the child to recognise that the ice is cold and how that feels on their fingers is a great sensory experience. Remember to let the ice melt a little first as ice can be sticky when first removed from a freezer.

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Make a mini water cycle. This is great for older children and really helps them understand how it all fits together.

Explore density. Density is a really tough concept to grasp, but hopefully this activity is interesting and simple enough to make sense.

Density jars are also great fun, children can try and find different small objects to float on the layers.

You could explore transpiration and make some pretty flowers. I LOVE this activity, if it works well, you can see the path the water takes to get to the edge of the petals.

How about some simple sinking and floating? This is great for young children, who will just enjoy watching objects sink and float. For older children you could get them to make a plasticine boat and see if an item that previously sank can float in the boat.  Or try and predict which objects will sink.

Can you make an egg float? Or a lemon sink?

Find out why oil and water don’t mix. We’ve also done this using coloured water and pipettes which was brilliant fun.

You could even learn about Osmosis using some eggs. The term Osmosis might sound complicated, but this egg demonstration makes it more understandable, and don’t worry if your children don’t understand straight away or are too young. It’s still fun to watch the eggs expand and then shrink.

How about exploring absorption using sugar cubes. The fact that you can watch the water rise up the cube is brilliant and appealing to children of all ages.

How about a walking water investigation to learn about how water is absorbed by different materials.

Learn about air pressure with a bottle rocket.

Discover how to clean water with this easy filtering activity using paper towels or using sand and stones.

Investigate which materials are waterproof by testing them on the roof of a LEGO house and spraying with water.

Find out how to make water balloon sink with this easy investigation.

Can you predict and test which materials will dissolve in water?

Do you have any more water science ideas for us?