DIY Science Fun
Science is everywhere, and learning can happen anywhere
For the family that loves to experiment, this Do It Yourself series is sure to inspire your inner scientist.
We’ve got hands-on games and activities that range from getting your hands slimy to crafting gravity-defying chutes to exploring the nature in your backyard.
These easy-to-follow guides are simple, fun, and appropriate for most ages (with adult supervision).
Pick an activity below to get started.
Test your flexibility, jump, speed, agility and strength in five different outdoor events. Fun for the whole family, this pentathlon blends friendly-competition, exercise and science. Go for the gold!
Outdoor Winter Pentathlon
Look for notable women scientists in this word search and learn more about their contributions to modern science history.
Women in STEM Word Search
Create a winter wonderland indoors by making your own snow using common household supplies. Easy to make, this packable, rollable and buildable snow keeps for up to a week.
Homemade Snow
Make an origami finger game that reveals snowy science facts--from the coldest temperature to the biggest snowfall.
Fold The Facts Ice And Snow
Play with chemistry as you measure, mix and knead ingredients to create play dough you can pull, squeeze, twist and poke!
Homemade Play Dough
Lots of wildlife lies low during the colder months, but many creatures stay busy as ever. They leave behind traces of their activity everywhere, especially after a fresh snowfall! Create your own animal tracks from the warmth of your kitchen—and prepare a tasty treat while you’re at it. Once you’re done munching on cookies and studying the toes, claws, size and gait of common creatures, why not head outside and look for the real thing?
Animal Track Cookies
Collect as many different types of leaves as you can find for this leaf rubbing activity. How many trees can you identify based on their leaves?
Create Colourful Leaf Art
From monarch butterflies to raccoons, animals have different strategies for surviving the winter. Find out about the most common strategies and then test your knowledge.
Wildlife in WInter
Simulate the crashing and smashing of a meteor impact at home using flour, cocoa and marbles to learn how craters are made—from rim to rays.
Make an Impact
Use your design and engineering skills to create a headpiece for this year’s virtual Toronto Caribbean Carnival.
Carnival Headpiece
Make vegetarian (gelatin-free) marshmallows in time for camping season.
Soft Sweet and Spongy Science
Play with primary colours to create a rainbow using the forces of cohesion, adhesion and gravity.
Walking Water
Enjoy a serving of fruits and vegetables in puzzle format.
Fruit and Vegetable Crossword
Do other senses affect your ability to taste? Find out by conducting an experiment- blindfolded!
Taste Test Your Taste Buds
Make a percussion instrument out of ordinary glass containers. It’s as simple as Do, Re, Mi!
Crystallophone
Chart the passage of time using a homemade sundial, and observe how the shadows change their length.
Make a Sundial
Make two simple paper objects and explore their aerodynamics--how they move through the air.
Make a Flying Fish and Helicopter
Have a whale of a time as you unscramble the letter jumbles to reveal words related to ocean life.
Word Jumble
Explore the densities of different liquids through an easy layering experiment. Try creating a five-layer rainbow in honour of Pride Month.
Rainbow in a Jar
From top to tail, how much do you know about snakes? Try your hand at this puzzle.
Snake Crossword Puzzle
Upcycle a plastic bag to create your own pet jellyfish and learn about the dangers ocean plastic poses to sea turtles.
Make a Pet Jellyfish
Turn up the bass! Use music vibrations to make your flame groove to the beat.
Make a Flame Dance
Change a material’s performance by rearranging its atoms, creating a magnet.
Move Atoms to Make Magnets
Solve general science clues to complete this playful puzzle.
Science is Everywhere Crossword
Use ketchup to conduct an electrical current in this easy, overnight experiment. It’s not just for fries!
Electrify Your Ketchup
Explore gravity and air resistance by making and testing different shaped parachutes.
Parachute Shapes
How can you put ice-cream in the oven without having it melt? Conduct this edible experiment to find out!
Bake Ice Cream
Repurpose a plastic pop bottle to create your very own indoor or outdoor bottle garden. It’s a perfect springtime activity for both big and little hands!
Createyourownbottlegarden
Ready to get goopy? Make your own slime using our tried, tested and true recipe.
Make Your Own SlimeFamily game night fun
We’ve taken the classic game HedBanz and added a science twist! Introducing Cranium Qs. This game is a great way to review-and pick up!-science vocabulary.
Cranium Qs
What do you get when you combine Pictionary with science? Science Doodle! This fun, family game gives players a chance to sharpen their drawing skills while reviewing—and picking up!—science vocabulary.
Science Doodle
Learn about the variety of plant and animal life in your area with a game of Backyard Biodiversity Bingo! Using your curiosity and powers of observation, look for a variety of living and non-living things that contribute to a healthy habitat, crossing them off your bingo card as you find them.
Backyard BiodiversityEnjoy these videos
Use the fundamentals of physics to create a dinosaur that can "walk" down ramps.
Download instructions here.
Find out how to harvest honey—from capping to extracting—from our friends at the Toronto Beekeepers Collective.
Plus, learn why geometry is essential to the strength and space-efficiency of honeycombs here.
Surprise your eyes with a structure that seems to defy gravity and learn how to use tension to create structural integrity in your own tensegrity build.
Find out how to create—and stick to!—a routine, and learn to make a squishy, sensory stress ball.
Experiment with immiscible liquids to create a colourful, slow-mo show in a jar.
Explore how heat affects chemicals in the sweetest of ways.
Harness the power of fermentation to make a simple sourdough starter from scratch.
Find the instructions here.
Make an easy, unlikely-looking paper plane that really soars.
Explore the densities of different liquids through an easy layering experiment. Try creating a six-layer rainbow in honour of Pride Month.
Explore the best way to remove stains through a series of controlled experiments.
Try this tongue-based experiment to determine where you’re most sensitive to the five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami.
Make delicious, creamy vanilla ice-cream using five ingredients--and science, of course!
Weave Popsicle sticks together and release them to unleash a burst of kinetic energy, sending the sticks flying.
Extract pigment from fruits and vegetables to create a palette of beautiful, natural watercolours.
Combine milk, food coloring and dish soap create a colourful chemical reaction that results in rainbow explosions.
Learn how to start seeding indoors using recycled materials like egg cartons, take-out containers and pop bottles.
Test your memory and math skills all in one game! Easy to create at home, this game can be adapted to any math level. The goal is to match equivalent math expressions.
Simon shows you how to bring your favourite constellation to life at home in this fun and easy activity.
Learn to marble paper with Fotini and Zoe and create beautiful art using shaving cream and food colouring.
Slime might be popular, but Oobleck is even better. Catherine and Morgan demonstrate how easy it is to make this non-Newtonian fluid at home, using three ingredients.
Rachel explains how we can all be citizen scientists—even from balconies and backyards—by gathering much-needed cloud data for scientists around the world.