Science experiments
7 resources. Free options are listed first.
- FreeAges 4–14
Questacon hands-on activities
Questacon, Australia's national science and technology centre, publishes step-by-step experiments that use household materials, grouped by topic. Some activities need adult supervision, which is noted on each one.
Visit questacon.edu.au ↗ (opens in a new tab) - FreeAges 10–16
CSIRO Education resource library
Free CSIRO inquiry projects with teacher slides, hands-on activities and student workbooks for Years 5–10, plus real research datasets with guides. Written for classrooms but adaptable to home.
Visit csiro.au ↗ (opens in a new tab) - FreeAges All ages
National Science Week
Australia's annual science festival held each August, with thousands of public events listed by state, online activities, and a schools theme with teacher resources each year.
Visit scienceweek.net.au ↗ (opens in a new tab) - FreeAges 8–12
NASA Space Place
NASA's site for upper primary children, with hands-on space and Earth science activities, printable instructions, short articles, games and videos.
Visit spaceplace.nasa.gov ↗ (opens in a new tab) - FreeAges 8+
PhET Interactive Simulations
Free, open-source interactive simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and maths from the University of Colorado Boulder. They run in a browser and suit topics that are hard to demonstrate at home.
Visit phet.colorado.edu ↗ (opens in a new tab) - FreeAges 6–18
Science Buddies
A searchable library of science projects and experiments that can be filtered by subject, difficulty, time and cost, each with background information and step-by-step instructions.
Visit sciencebuddies.org ↗ (opens in a new tab) - FreeAges 8+
Exploratorium Science Snacks
Hundreds of low-cost science activities from the San Francisco Exploratorium museum, each with a materials list, instructions and an explanation of the science. Written mainly for secondary students, with a collection suited to younger children.
Visit exploratorium.edu ↗ (opens in a new tab)