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Top 10 Chemistry Experiments You Don't Want to Miss

May 03, 2021 3 min read

A few years back we shared a series about how to teach the different areas of science at home, which you can find here:

The posts in the series have remained some of our most popular posts and so we thought we would help you all out by sharing our favorite experiments for each discipline!

So far we have shared our favorite biology, earth science, and astronomy experiments. Today, we are going to share ten of our favorites for chemistry.

And without further ado, here are our top 10 chemistry experiments!

Top 10 Chemistry Experiments

Don't miss these top ten favorite chemistry experiments from Elemental Science.

1. Explore marker chromatography.

This is my all time favorite chemistry experiment to do with my students! 

This STEAM activity versatile enough to do with what you have on hand and definitely delivers the "WOW" factor.

It's a great project for decorating a tree, making beautiful butterflies, or for making a scientific version of a tie-dye t-shirt. Whatever you decide to do with your marker chromatography artwork, the process is the same.

2. Test which one freezes first. 

Winter is a great time to explore the principles of chemistry through experimentation! Although, with a freezer you can enjoy this experiment year-round.

This simple experiment will help your students to see how salt changes the freezing point of water.

3. Make a bioplastic in your kitchen.

This chemistry experiment shares how to make a simple bioplastic in your microwave!! What is a bioplastic you ask? It's a plasticky material made from biological chemicals.

Now, we can't exactly make a completely hard bioplastic in our microwave. However, we will make a super cool gel-like bioplastic using cornstarch and a few other items.

4. Polishing silver with chemistry.

I know you are thinking - silver polish can't possibly be a super fun chemistry experiment. But, the directions in this post contain the best possible homemade silver polish.

Uncle Cecil and President Lincoln of Sassafras Science fame tried hundreds of experiments just to make sure. This silver-polishing, scientific magic trick will make an afternoon chore into a super fun chemistry experiment.

5. Experiment with Borax.

Borax is an old-school laundry booster that many of the slime recipes use. But what do you do with the rest of the box when you are done? 

You could get all retro and add it to your next load of laundry, but what fun is that? Today, we are going to share with you three chemistry experiments that use Borax - ones that you will want to do over and over again until the whole box is gone!

6. Do a kitchen acid test.

A kitchen acid test is always fun because of the color changes.  But more than that, this hands-on science activity is a great way to show your kids a bit about the chemistry of acids and bases!

7. Send a secret message.

You use chemistry to be like a spy and send a secret message! This kitchen science activity is one you can use over and over again.

8. Explode fireworks in your kitchen.

There is a lot of chemistry behind fireworks - the colors alone are due to different chemicals!

And although, you can't explode actual fireworks in your kitchen, but you can learn about them and then do a simple chemistry experiment to see fireworks in your kitchen!

9. Play with dry ice.

Dry ice is a fun way to explore the states of matter. It's one of those materials that appear to boil in room temperature water, sending out billows of white, wispy smoke.

This post shares three chemistry activities with dry ice from our lab to yours that you can use to explore this amazing material.

10. Mix up a batch of crazy colors.

This chemistry experiment is part color-change, part stink-up-the-kitchen and it requires a bit of preparation, but it is totally worth it! It's one of the best ways to show the difference between acids and bases.

Wrapping it Up

There are loads more options for chemistry experiments out there that we love - in fact, we probably could have done a post with 100 experiments! But these are the ten we don't want you to miss. If you want more chemistry experiments, check out our Chemistry Pinterest board.

If you want it all pulled together for you, check out the following our homeschool science programs with easy-to-use plans for teaching chemistry:


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