Process Activities Tips
Engaging Science Activities and Fun Experiments for Kids
Getting Started
- Grades K-2 Materials List
- Grades 3-4 Materials List
- Grades 5-6 Materials List
Science A-Z Process Activities provide opportunities to apply important unit concepts and develop scientific practices through hands-on science activities and fun experiments for kids. Students learn to read, think, write, speak, and behave as real scientists in a structured format, which helps prepare them to design and pursue their own investigations in the future.
Each Process Activity includes a purpose, background information, a materials list, procedures, a data sheet, and several questions to help students analyze their data and draw conclusions. Teaching Tips help guide science projects for kids.
Why Use Process Activities
In Science A-Z Process Activities, students apply important practices in order to construct scientific understanding. Students identify problems, ask and answer questions, hypothesize, manipulate variables, apply math skills, gather evidence, solve problems, and communicate their findings through speaking, listening, and writing.
Students practice observing, proposing new ideas, designing experiments, and testing new ideas as they collaborate with peers on a Process Activity. These skills and habits of mind apply to everyday life long after students complete classroom investigations.
How to Use Process Activities
Gather Materials
Use the Process Activity Materials Lists for each grade range as a guide for obtaining the science supplies that students will use when completing activities throughout the year.Guide the Activity
Use the Teaching Tips provided with each Process Activity to help your science activities, experiments, or projects run smoothly.- For grades 3-6, Teaching Tips are provided after the student pages and suggest how to run a smooth activity, how to keep students safe, and how to obtain materials. The Teaching Tips also provide answer keys that include possible results for the data sheet and sample student responses to questions.
- For grades K-2, the entire Process Activity is written to the teacher, and Teaching Tips are incorporated throughout, with sample student results and responses provided.
Determine the Inquiry Process
Process Activities provide everything required for structured inquiry, but the resources can also be used for guided inquiry or self-directed/open inquiry investigations.- Structured inquiry: Students follow the provided procedures, fill in the premade data sheet, and answer the provided questions.
- Guided inquiry: Teachers might use the Purpose and Materials provided, but encourage students to design their own investigation, set up their own data sheets, and analyze the data in their own ways.
- Self-directed/open inquiry: Teachers can provide the focus of the investigation and serve as the facilitator as students do the rest.
Life
Animals

Animal Trading Cards
- Printable Resources

Animals Around You
- Printable Resources

Pet or Not
- Printable Resources

Pill Bugs
- Printable Resources
Living/Non-Living

Testing for Life
- Printable Resources
Plants

Fruit Seeds
- Printable Resources

Plants, Water, and Sunlight
- Printable Resources

Sorting Leaves
- Printable Resources
Senses

Identifying Substances by Smell
- Printable Resources

Senses Poster
- Printable Resources

Sensory Deprivation
- Printable Resources
Earth & Space
Earth, Moon, and Sun

Modeling the Earth, Moon, and Sun
- Printable Resources
Weather

Cotton Ball Clouds
- Printable Resources

Measuring Wind with a Cup Anemometer
- Printable Resources

Weather Journal
- Printable Resources
Earth's Surface

Erosion Control
- Printable Resources
Physical
Doing Work

Tasks and Tools
- Printable Resources
Energy

Rolling Down a Ramp
- Printable Resources

Tuning Forks and Sound
- Printable Resources
Light

Mixing Colors
- Printable Resources
Properties

Classifying Objects
- Printable Resources
Magnets

Magnetic Nails
- Printable Resources
Things Move

Launch Weights with Rubber Bands
- Printable Resources
Process
Hypotheses (Skills)

Hypotheses
- Printable Resources
Data Sheets (Skills)

Using Data Sheets for a Survey
- Printable Resources
Using Diagrams (Skills)

Making Diagrams
- Printable Resources
Draw Conclusions (Skills)

Drawing Conclusions
- Printable Resources
Observation vs. Inference (Skills)

Making Observations and Inferences
- Printable Resources
Identify and Control Variables (Skills)

Working with Variables
- Printable Resources
Using Graphs (Skills)

Using Graphs
- Printable Resources
Thermometers (Tools)

Water Temperature
- Printable Resources
Balance Scales (Tools)

Using a Balance Scale
- Printable Resources
Length Measurement (Tools)

Measuring Length
- Printable Resources
Hand Lenses (Tools)

Using a Hand Lens
- Printable Resources
Life
Vertebrates

Pipe Cleaner Skeletons
- Printable Resources
Invertebrates

Observe Invertebrates
- Printable Resources
Plant Life

Gas Exchange in Leaves
- Printable Resources

Phototropism
- Printable Resources
The Human Body

Meter Stick Drop
- Printable Resources
Life Cycles

Human Life Cycle Sequence
- Printable Resources

Inherited Traits
- Printable Resources

Life Cycles of Edible Plants
- Printable Resources

Mealworm Life Cycles
- Printable Resources
Habitats/Environment

Habitat in a Bottle
- Printable Resources
Earth & Space
The Solar System

Orbital Paths
- Printable Resources
Clouds, Wind, and Storms

Comparing Evaporation Rates
- Printable Resources

Making a Cloud
- Printable Resources

Soda Bottle Waterspout Model
- Printable Resources
Minerals, Rocks, and Soil

Weathering Rocks
- Printable Resources
Physical
Machines

Design Machines
- Printable Resources

Pendulums
- Printable Resources

Strength of Electromagnets
- Printable Resources
Heat Energy

Build a Thermometer
- Printable Resources

Insulate an Ice Cube
- Printable Resources

Observe Convection Currents
- Printable Resources
Sound

Identify Objects by Sound
- Printable Resources

String Telephones
- Printable Resources

Water Music with Soda Bottles
- Printable Resources
Solids, Liquids, and Gases

Changing States of Water
- Printable Resources
Process
Hypotheses (Skills)

Hypotheses
- Printable Resources
Data Sheets (Skills)

Using Data Sheets for a Survey
- Printable Resources
Using Diagrams (Skills)

Making Diagrams
- Printable Resources
Draw Conclusions (Skills)

Drawing Conclusions
- Printable Resources
Observation vs. Inference (Skills)

Making Observations and Inferences
- Printable Resources
Identify and Control Variables (Skills)

Working with Variables
- Printable Resources
Using Graphs (Skills)

Using Graphs
- Printable Resources
Thermometers (Tools)

Measuring Water Temperature
- Printable Resources
Balance Scales (Tools)

Using a Balance Scale
- Printable Resources
Length Measurement (Tools)

Measuring Length
- Printable Resources
Time Measurement (Tools)

Time Measurement
- Printable Resources
Life
Food Chains

Paper Food Chains and Food Web
- Printable Resources
Adaptations

Bird Beak Adaptations
- Printable Resources

Controlling Water Loss from Leaves
- Printable Resources

Design Animal Adaptations
- Printable Resources
Food and Nutrition

Comparing the Fat Content of Foods
- Printable Resources
Inside Living Things

Cell Models
- Printable Resources

Changing Pulse Rates
- Printable Resources

Lung Capacity
- Printable Resources
Earth & Space
Outside the Solar System

Deep-Space Model
- Printable Resources
Atmosphere and Climate

Air: Weight and Pressure
- Printable Resources
Changing Landforms

Erosion
- Printable Resources
Water

Settling and Sedimentation
- Printable Resources

Water Collage
- Printable Resources

Water Cycle Model
- Printable Resources
Physical
Force and Motion

Rubber Band Forces: Energy and Mass
- Printable Resources
Energy Resources

Solar Cooker
- Printable Resources
Light Energy

Explore Shadows
- Printable Resources

Refraction
- Printable Resources

Shadows and Earth's Surface
- Printable Resources

Spinning Color Disks
- Printable Resources
Mixing Matter

Mixtures, Solutions, and Suspensions
- Printable Resources
Electricity and Magnetism

Electromagnets
- Printable Resources
Process
Hypotheses (Skills)

Hypotheses
- Printable Resources
Data Sheets (Skills)

Using Data Sheets for a Survey
- Printable Resources
Using Diagrams (Skills)

Making Diagrams
- Printable Resources
Draw Conclusions (Skills)

Drawing Conclusions
- Printable Resources
Observation vs. Inference (Skills)

Making Observations and Inferences
- Printable Resources
Identify and Control Variables (Skills)

Working with Variables
- Printable Resources
Using Graphs (Skills)

Using Graphs
- Printable Resources
Thermometers (Tools)

Measuring Water and Air Temperature
- Printable Resources
Balance Scales (Tools)

Using a Balance Scale
- Printable Resources
Length Measurement (Tools)

Measuring Length
- Printable Resources
Liquid Measurement (Tools)

Estimating and Measuring Volume
- Printable Resources