Guided virtual science experiments for Grades 6–10. Free experiments need no account.
56 experiments found
Current flows only around a complete, unbroken circuit; more cells push a bigger current
Connect cells, a switch and a bulb, close and open the switch, add a second cell and break a wire to see when current flows.
Like poles repel and unlike poles attract; the force gets weaker as the magnets move apart
Bring the poles of two bar magnets together in different pairs and at different distances, and find the rule for attraction and repulsion.
A lever balances when the clockwise and anticlockwise moments are equal
Hang a load on a metre-rule lever, push down on the other side, and find every way to balance it.
Denser liquids sink below less dense liquids
Pour honey, dish soap, water and oil into a cylinder and watch them stack in layers by density.
Magnets attract iron, steel, nickel and cobalt; most other materials, including most metals, are non-magnetic
Test everyday objects with a magnet, find out what they are made of, and sort them into magnetic and non-magnetic materials.
Mass is the amount of matter and stays the same everywhere; weight is the pull of gravity and changes from place to place
Weigh objects with a beam balance and a spring balance on Earth, the Moon, Mars and Jupiter, and see which reading changes.
Read a ruler from the zero mark to the nearest millimetre, and subtract the starting mark if you cannot start at zero
Measure a pencil, an eraser and a leaf to the nearest millimetre, then learn to measure correctly with a ruler whose end is worn.
Read the bottom of the meniscus with your eye level with it
Read the volume of three liquids in a measuring cylinder at the bottom of the meniscus, and see why your eye must be level with it.
At a mirror, the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence
Shine a ray of light at a plane mirror at different angles, measure the angle of reflection, and compare a mirror with a rough surface.
Light travels in straight lines, so an opaque object blocks it and casts a shadow that grows as the light comes closer
Move a torch closer to and further from an object and watch its shadow on a screen grow and shrink. Try opaque, translucent and transparent objects.
Transparent materials let almost all light through, translucent materials let some through, and opaque materials let none through and cast shadows
Shine a torch through different materials, see how much light passes, and sort them into transparent, translucent and opaque.
An object sunk in water pushes aside (displaces) its own volume of water
Lower a stone, a key, a marble and a toy into water and measure how much the water rises. Use an overflow can for a stone too big for the cylinder.
Simple machines (lever, pulley, wheel and axle, inclined plane, wedge, screw) make work easier by changing the size or direction of a force
Look at how everyday tools and devices work, including a dhiki and a janto, and sort them into the six types of simple machine.
Conductors let electric current flow and insulators do not; metals and graphite conduct, while plastic, rubber, glass and dry wood insulate
Put different materials into the gap in a simple circuit, see whether the bulb lights, and sort them into conductors and insulators.
Heated liquid expands, becomes less dense and rises; cooler, denser liquid sinks to take its place
Drop a purple dye crystal into a beaker of water, heat one corner, and follow the dye as the convection current carries it round.
Acceleration increases with force and decreases with mass (a = F ÷ m)
Pull a trolley with different forces and loads, read its ticker tape, and discover how force and mass change its acceleration.
Rougher surfaces and heavier objects give more friction
Pull a wooden block across glass, wood, sandpaper and oiled wood with a spring balance, and find the force that just starts it moving.
A plane mirror forms an upright, same-size, laterally inverted virtual image as far behind the mirror as the object is in front
Stand a letter card in front of a mirror at different distances and find where its image is, how big it is and which way round it faces.
Average speed = total distance ÷ total time
Time a walker, a runner, a cyclist, a bus and a tortoise over measured distances and calculate their average speeds.
Sound is made by vibrations; frequency sets the pitch and amplitude sets the loudness
Pluck a string on a sonometer, change its length, tightness and how hard you pluck it, and watch the sound wave on an oscilloscope.
Pulleys change the direction of a force, and more supporting strands reduce the effort needed
Lift loads with a fixed pulley, a movable pulley and a block and tackle, and compare the effort, mechanical advantage and efficiency.
Motion can be linear, circular, rotational, oscillatory or random, depending on the path an object follows
Watch the path of moving things, from a falling stone to a spinning prayer wheel and a swinging ping, and sort them by their type of motion.
Metals are good conductors of heat; glass and wood are poor conductors (insulators)
Stand rods of copper, aluminium, iron, glass and wood in hot water with wax beads stuck along them, and watch how fast the heat travels.
The air around us presses on everything; its pressure falls as you go higher
Travel from Biratnagar to the top of Everest with a barometer, a sealed snack bag and a glass of water held up by a card, and see how air pressure changes with height.
A coil carrying a current is a magnet; more turns, more current and an iron core make it stronger
Wind a coil around an iron nail, pass a current through it, and count how many paper clips it can lift as you change the turns, the current and the core.
Devices transform energy from one form to another; the main useful output tells us the transformation
Find out what energy goes into and comes out of everyday devices, from an electric kettle to a micro-hydro generator, and sort them by their main energy transformation.
A liquid pushes up on an object with a force (upthrust) equal to the weight of liquid it displaces; an object floats if it is less dense than the liquid
Lower objects on a spring balance into fresh water, salt water and oil. Measure the upthrust and find out why some float and some sink.
A convex lens forms real, inverted images or virtual, magnified ones depending on where the object is; a concave lens always forms small, upright, virtual images
Move an object along an optical bench in front of convex and concave lenses, trace the rays, find the image, and measure the focal length.
A spring stretches in proportion to the force on it, so its stretch can measure force
Hang standard masses on a spring to see how it stretches, then use it as a spring balance to weigh an apple, a stone and a book.
Pressure applied to an enclosed liquid is passed on equally in all directions, so a big piston gets a big force
Push the small piston of a hydraulic lift and see how the pressure is passed through the oil to lift a car on the big piston.
Pressure = force ÷ area: a smaller area or a bigger force gives a bigger pressure
Stand bricks on a foam block on their flat side, their long side and their end, and see how the contact area and the force change the pressure.
Wait until the liquid column stops moving, then read the top of the column at eye level
Measure the temperature of ice water, tap water, warm water and boiling water, waiting for the thermometer to settle before you read it.
Light bends towards the normal when it slows down entering a denser medium, and away from it when it leaves
Shine a ray into a glass block and a tank of water at different angles, measure how much it bends, and find the refractive index.
In series one current flows through everything and resistances add; in parallel each branch gets the full voltage and the total resistance falls
Wire two or three bulbs in series and in parallel, compare their brightness and the current, take one bulb out, and calculate the total resistance.
Shaping a material into a hollow boat lets it push aside more water, giving enough upthrust to float
Drop a ball of plasticine into water, then shape the same plasticine into boats and load them with marbles until they sink.
Sound needs a medium; it travels fastest in solids, slower in liquids and slowest in gases, and not at all in a vacuum
Send a sound along 1 km of air, water, wood and steel, time how long it takes, and see what happens in a vacuum.
A force can change an object's speed, direction or shape
Give a rolling ball a push forwards, backwards or sideways, and see how a force can speed it up, slow it down, change its direction or change its shape.
When one object pushes on another, the second pushes back with an equal and opposite force
Launch a balloon rocket along a string. Change the amount of air, the nozzle and the load, and compare the action and reaction forces.
The right instrument depends on the quantity, its size and the accuracy needed: a tape for metres, a vernier caliper for tenths of a millimetre, a screw gauge for hundredths
Decide which instrument to use for each measurement of length, mass, time and volume, thinking about the size of the quantity and the accuracy needed.
Concave mirrors can form real or magnified virtual images; convex mirrors always form small, upright, virtual images with a wide view
Move an object in front of concave, convex and plane mirrors, trace the reflected rays, and describe each image.
Density = mass ÷ volume, a property that helps identify a material
Weigh blocks and a stone on a balance, find their volume by measuring their sides or by displacement, and calculate their density.
Objects keep moving at the same velocity unless a force acts on them (Newton's first law)
Run a trolley carrying a block into a stopper and watch the block keep going. Change the speed, the block's mass and whether it is strapped down.
Pressure in a liquid increases with depth and with the liquid's density (p = ρgh)
Open holes at different depths in a tall container of water and oil, and compare how hard the liquid squirts out.
A magnetic field runs from N to S around a magnet; a current in a wire makes circular field lines whose direction follows the right-hand grip rule
Map the field around a bar magnet with a plotting compass, then pass a current through a straight wire and see the circular field it makes.
The slope of a distance-time graph is velocity; the slope of a velocity-time graph is acceleration
Follow a car moving steadily, speeding up, slowing down or parked, record its position and speed each second, and plot motion graphs.
For a resistor at constant temperature, current is proportional to voltage: V = I × R
Measure the current through resistors and a bulb as you add cells, plot current against voltage, and find the resistance.
Gravitational potential energy (mgh) turns into kinetic energy (½mv²); some becomes heat when there is friction
Release a trolley from different heights on smooth and rough ramps and watch its potential energy turn into kinetic energy.
Heat can travel as infrared radiation; dull black surfaces absorb and emit it well, shiny surfaces poorly
Warm a matt black can and a shiny silver can of water in the sun, then let hot water cool in each, and compare how well they absorb and give off heat.
Work done = force × distance moved in the direction of the force; power = work ÷ time
Lift boxes of different masses onto shelves at different heights, calculate the work done, and compare the power of quick and slow lifts.
Refraction at the surface makes objects under water look nearer the top than they really are; n = real depth ÷ apparent depth
Look down at a coin at the bottom of a tank of water or oil, measure how deep it seems to be, and use it to find the refractive index.
Energy used (kWh) = power (kW) × time (h); the bill depends on both how powerful an appliance is and how long it runs
Run household appliances for different hours each day, read the meter, and work out the monthly units and the cost.
A changing magnetic field through a coil induces a voltage; faster change and more turns give a bigger voltage
Push a magnet into a coil, hold it still and pull it out, and watch a galvanometer. Find what makes the induced voltage bigger and what reverses it.
A motor turns electrical energy into movement; a generator turns movement into electrical energy, using the same coil and magnets
Pass a current through a coil between two magnets to make a motor, then spin the coil by hand to make a generator that lights a bulb.
Specific heat capacity is the energy needed to raise 1 kg of a substance by 1 °C; water's is very high
Heat water, cooking oil, an aluminium block and dry sand with the same immersion heater and compare how much their temperatures rise.
Wave speed = frequency × wavelength (v = f λ); the speed depends on the medium
Change the frequency of the dipper in a ripple tank, measure the wavelength, and discover that frequency × wavelength stays the same.
Light inside a denser medium is totally reflected at the surface when it meets it beyond the critical angle
Send a ray through a semicircular glass block, increase the angle until it can no longer escape, find the critical angle, and see how optical fibres trap light.