Experiments
Here you’ll find a summary of our favourite experiments, from across all of the Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, Medicine (STEMM) subjects.
If you are a Parent, Guardian or Child and would like to give some of these a go, check out our declassified Experiment Files, where we share some cool things you can do at home!
If you are a Student Volunteer or Teacher and want to know more about these experiments or what we do, please get in touch via Facebook, Twitter or E-mail (contact@chaosscience.org.uk), and we’d be happy to chat or show you some longer explanations for these experiments. Follow us on social media, and student volunteers can join our mailing list to stay up-to-date on what events we’re running.
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- Biology
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- Materials Science
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- Medicine
- Physics
A Bug's Life
All sorts of creepy crawlies preserved in perspex blocks or jars.
Air Rockets
Launching lemonade bottle air rockets along a rope.
Air Streams
Balancing balls on upward streams of air, and looking at aerodynamics.
Alloys
Explore different alloys, which are metals mixed with different things.
Animal Cognition
A challenge to get people thinking about animal intelligence. Are you smarter than an animal?
Animal Skulls
Looking at different animal skulls to compare them and see how they differ.
Arch Bridge
Can you build and walk on your own arch bridge?
Blood Glucose
Use the handheld glucose meter to test the glucose concentration of different solutions (in place of blood).
Cantilever Bridge
Building a series of cantilever bridges. Can you get across the lake?
Carbon Allotropes and Molecular Models
Explore some elements and different types of bond and explore ways carbon can bond to form different allotropes.
Celery Food Colouring
Combine food colouring with water transport in stem and flowers – you can then see where all the water goes!
You can try this experiment for yourself here.
Cleaning Coppers
Those grubby coppers in your pocket or purse can be shined up in minutes! In this experiment, we remove copper oxides from coins.
You can try this experiment yourself here.
Cornflour
Slimey, gooey and messy: Cornflour is one of our favourite experiments! Come and stick your hands in, and figure out if it behaves like a liquid or a solid.
You can try this experiment yourself here.
Cuddly Microbes
Learn about the fascinating world of microbes with our fun cuddly toy bacteria, viruses and parasites, plus awesome slides and pictures.
Ear Switching Hat
Sound cues can help us figure out where things are located in the environment - try confusing your brain with the magical Ear-Switching Hat!
Electrolysis
Electrolysis in the process of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity, and then recombining them explosively! We'll use talking about energy as an excuse to launch a ping pong ball into the air!
Electromagnetism
Generate electricity and learn all about how it works by spinning motors!
Epidemiology
Show kids how disease dynamics works, with a model of Citrus Canker spreading through a population of orange trees.
Exercise and Heart Rate
Why does your heat beat faster after exercise? Come and find out why in this demonstration where you are the subject.
Fruit Batteries
How do batteries work? Did you know you can make your own with just some fruit and bits of the right metals? Harness power in this experiment!
Graph Theory
Experiment with graphs finding out about what structure we can find in randomness, how to colour maps with few crayons and what shapes you can draw without taking your pen of the paper.
Hand Model
Take control of an enormous hand, playing the part of the muscles that control it! Can you work out how to make a fist? Why are there tendons running down both sides of the fingers? And exactly how are your thumbs different to your fingers?
Hearing High Sounds
See who is better at hearing high pitched sounds: kids or adults!
You can try this experiment yourself here.
Hexaflexagons
Turning a hexaflexagon inside out almost seems like magic. Find out what kind of cool patterns emerge as you do it.
Hot Air Balloons
Make your own hot air balloon with a plastic bag and a toaster!
Kiwi DNA
In this experiment we get DNA out of living cells in kiwi fruit. The DNA can be made fully visible to the human eye - no microscopes or magnifying glass needed! Done in less than 5 minutes in front of your eyes.
Locusts And Glowsticks
What do glowsticks and locusts have in common? Watch what happens as we heat them up and cool them down - how long can you get your glowstick to glow? How fast can you make the locusts move?
Mechanical Advantage
Check out this huge tripod with weights and pulleys, then try using pulleys and levers to explore the idea of "mechanical advantage". Can you lift the heavy objects with ease?
Mini Explosions
Make an impressive explosion with kitchen ingredients and find out more about what makes things go with a bang.
You can try this experiment yourself here.
Monty Hall's Perplexing Goat
A wonderful experiment of probability involving a goat called Bertrand, a couple of coins, three doors, and three boxes.
Near IR Webcam
There's a whole spectra of light beyond the visible, why not see one side of it through a modified webcam?
Oil And Pyrex
Ordinary glass objects seem to disappear as you submerge them in a bath of oil. This experiment is spectacular and very messy!
You can try this experiment yourself here.
Organ Vest
See if you can correctly place body organs using this wearable felt and velcro vest.
Platonic Solids
Make 3D shapes out of 2D ones. Look at how angles combine to tessellate and then form 3D corners. Can you make all 5 platonic solids?
Polarisation
Experiment with the properties of light as certain filters block light, but only in certain directions!
Prism Goggles
See how quickly your brain adapts by wearing our prism goggles whilst playing a target-hitting game. You'll find it difficult to do simple things like hi-five your friends!
Psychedelic Milk
A little milk, a little food dye, a little washing-up liquid... and an amazing display of colour. See the stunning swirling effects from disrupting the surface tension.
Red Cabbage
You can make your own pH indicator with a little red cabbage juice. This lets us find out more about acids and bases in the world around us.
You can try this experiment yourself here.
Resonance
What is the link between earthquakes, slinkies and dogs on park swings? Find out how wobbling things are important everywhere!
Reversible Flow
Turn syrup one way, then the other, and see that it gets back where it started.
Robots
Learn to programme LEGO Mindstorms and learn about IF statements and loops. Try some challenges that can be done with robots in a relatively short time period.
Rocks And Fossils
Find out about explosive volcanoes, shiny crystals, and the exotic animals that lived millions of years ago.
Seeing Sound
Find out what sound is, the difference between low and high sounds, and loud and quiet sounds, and learn about sounds we can't hear. Use an oscilloscope and slinky spring to see how sound travels!
Seismometer
Learn how we measure earthquakes and how we know what the Earth is made of with the amazing LEGO sesimometer!
Skeleton And Bones
Boris is a friendly life-sized plastic skeleton - come say hello and learn all about the bones in your body!
Slug Bubbles
Does the diameter affect how fast water drains from a sealed tube? Watch the bubbles produced and see which is fastest.
Spaghetti Loading
This experiment uses uncooked spaghetti to explore elastic buckling of vertical columns and 3-point bending of horizontal beams.
Spinny Chair
Use a freely spinning chair, some masses and a bicycle wheel to see some unintuitive physics.
Sunset Model
Have you ever wondered what makes the sky blue? Or why it stops being blue at sunset? This experiment uses milk to understand how light behaves in the sky!
You can try this experiment for yourself here.
Surface Tension
Exploring surface tension through floating paperclips and racing boats.
Suspension Bridge
Walk across our bridge, then find out what makes it stay up!
Trebuchets
Fire bean-bag bunnies across the room using our trebuchets! Can you work out how to make them go really far?
Tree
Learn about all the different types of trees and wood. How tall is the tallest tree? How do trees transport their water? And can you build your own model tree?
Vortices
Experiments with smoke rings and tornado formation. Can you move things with only the air around you?
Water Rockets
Try not to get wet as you fire water-powered rockets into the air. Who can shoot it the highest?
X-Rays
Have you ever had an X-ray? Have you ever wondered how they work? Take a look at our collection of exciting X-rays and MRI scans, test your anatomical knowledge and diagnostic skills and find out about the physics behind the images.