by Nathan Li

Have you ever wanted to perform experiments with your kids in virtual meetings? As technology continues to improve, virtual meetings are becoming more common in your child’s education. Virtual science experiments are fun ways to learn about science from the comfort of your own home. Here are three fun virtual experiments for K-2 students.
1. Magnets Experiment
Performing a simple experiment with magnets is a great way to introduce your kids to virtual experiments. This experiment will teach your kids about magnetic fields as well as educate them on the properties of magnets. Magnets are surrounded by fields that move electric charges, which affect magnets and metals. Your kids can see how magnets attract or repel each other, attract certain metals, and how they fail to work with nonmetals. The only materials you need for this experiment are a set of magnets, pieces of iron, and a piece of wood. An inexpensive magnet set can be found here in this link for $14.59. This experiment is quite quick to complete and will take no longer than 20 minutes.
2. Density Experiment
Another fun experiment that can be performed virtually is a density experiment.With this experiment, kids can learn about the concepts of density in a fun and engaging manner. Density is the number of mass an object has per unit volume. Kids will place different objects within different liquids inside of a container. A dense object will sink towards the bottom of a container, while a non-dense object will float towards the top of the container. This concept also applies to liquids since less dense liquids will float above dense liquids. What makes this experiment really fun is how you can customize this experiment. You can decide what type of materials you want to use for this experiment as long as you have a proper container. For the liquids, you can use water, corn syrup, vegetable oil, etc. Some objects that your kids can use are waterproof toys, stones, or balls. This experiment is inexpensive since most of the materials can be found inside your own kitchen. It also will not take very long to finish this experiment.
For more information about this experiment, you can check out this NSTEM resource about Density.
3. Sink or Float Experiment
Last but not least, here is an experiment that centers around buoyancy. This easy experiment allows for kids to explore why certain objects sink or float when submerged in water. Buoyancy is an upward force that causes an object to float when touching the water. Different types of objects such as buoys and ships use buoyancy to float on the water’s surface. For this experiment, kids will place objects with varying densities inside of a container of water. Once the children have placed their objects, they will then record their observations of the buoyancy of the objects. As the kids keep experimenting, they will begin to notice how dense objects sink while the non-dense objects float. Kids will have fun seeing how different objects have different levels of buoyancy. All you need for this experiment is a container of water and a variety of objects. This experiment can be performed quickly and your kids will be sure to have lots of fun.
Check out this NSTEM resource for more information about this experiment.
Do you want more resources on the topic of virtual experiments? NSTEM’s vast resources database provides thousands of STEM resources that are searchable by category, school level and state. This comprehensive library includes info on enrichment activities, curricula, internships, scholarships and more. Check out a free sampling here. Or get an NSTEM membership today to unlock the complete list.
K-2 is where it all starts with STEM education. The National STEM Honor Society focuses on “From K to Career, NSTEM from the Start!” To start your K-2 Chapter of the National STEM Honor Society, click here.