Outdoor STEM/STEAM Activities

Need to get the kids outside? Get their wiggles out and activate their minds with these STEM/STEAM outdoor activities!

There's plenty of ideas here for parents to get kids outside during spring break or summer break. Or for teachers to get kids learning outside of the classroom.

Keep reading for easy, no-prep or low-prep outdoor kid fun with STEM & STEAM! 

Moon Crater Gross Motor Activity

From Pre-K Pages

Have your kids throw a ball at a toothpaste moon to make “craters”. This is a pretty memorable way to reinforce how asteroids made craters on the real Moon, with bonus points for physical activity outside! Perfect for younger kids, but I bet older siblings will join the fun as well.

And if you want to more Moon science, check out this post! 

Make a Paper Airplane

From SciShow Kids 

Here's a basic airplane fold for younger kids to get hands on with the science of flight! You could experiment with adding a paperclip for weight, or using lighter or heavier paper. 

Want to get more advanced? This ScienceMax video explains how to change your paper airplane to keep it from rolling, pitching up too fast, or turning.  (Teachers, get your kids testing out these paper airplane changes on several different airplanes, then compare how the airplanes fly to align with NGSS K-2-ETS1-1.)

And if you’ve mastered a basic paper airplane already, here are folding instructions for the Sky King design that set a world record in 2009!

Want to learn more about the science of flight? Check out this post! 

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Jump, spin, move to practice counting or skip counting

Combine counting with movement! For preschool and kindergarten kids, hopscotch is the perfect movement activity to practice counting to 10 or 20. How many times can you bounce a basketball? How many times can you go up and down on the swings? Learning to count does take repetition, but there’s no reason for repetition to be boring. (Teachers, this aligns with Common Core standards K.CC.A.1, K.CC.B.4.A, K.CC.B.4.B)

You can also practice counting backwards. Try counting down from 10 before sliding down a slide, or jumping down from a park bench. 

And when you’re ready to go back inside, here’s more ways to make counting fun! !

Older kids can practice counting by 2’s, 5’s, or 10’s. This is called skip counting, and is a foundational skill to learn multiplication and division. How many bubbles can you pop? How many twirls can you do before you get dizzy? The counting goes faster when you skip count! (Teachers, skip counting aligns with Common Core standards 2.NBT.A.2.)

Photo by Paris Lopez on Unsplash

Use simple machines at the playground!

Your regular neighborhood playground is probably full of simple machines! Slides are just ramps, anything that spins is basically a wheel-and-axle, and see-saws are really levers. 

Some questions to spark curiosity in your kids - Why do you go faster on a steeper slide? On a spinning merry-go-round, do you move faster if you sit on the edge or in the middle? How do you balance a see-saw? (For teachers, getting your kids to compare pushing and pulling in different directions on the playground aligns with K-PS2-1.)

And if you want to learn more about simple machines, check out this post! 

Paint with water to learn evaporation! 

From Plum Landing on PBS Kids

What a super easy art activity that also demonstrates water evaporation! All you need is water, a paint brush, and a spot of sidewalk in the sun. Plus more evaporation activities with construction paper and plastic baggies.  (For teachers, this aligns with NGSS standard K-PS3-1.)

For water cycle science picture books and videos that pair well with this activity check out this post!

Paint with sunscreen on a hot sunny day! from Kids Activities Blog

This art project shows kids the power of both sunlight and sunscreen! Let them paint on bright construction paper with a brush or fingers or even stamps, then put your paper outside. After a few hours, the paper color will have faded except where the sunscreen is. (You might keep one sheet of paper out of the sun to compare against the faded color that’s been in the Sun.) For older kids, you could experiment to see if different sunscreen brands or types last longer or react differently!  

Melt crayons in the sun on a hot sunny day!

from No Time for Flashcards

Just imagine telling your kids that the Sun is so hot today, it could melt a crayon. If you happen to be in the middle of a heatwave, you could at least use the weather for a cool artsy science project, right? What a tangible way for kids to experience how the Sun’s energy is both light and heat!  

Want to get your kids learning more about solar energy and Sun science? I’ve got you.

Keep our water clean by clearing storm drains

From SciShow Kids

Explore your neighborhood and help the environment at the same time! This video has real practical tips to help keep storm drains in your neighborhood clear of litter, so they don’t end up in rivers, lakes, or the ocean. (Teachers, this one aligns with K-ESS3-3.)

Want to get your kids learning more about clean water? This post has you covered.

Use your water table for a Sink or Float experiment from PBS Kids

This video shows the experiment indoors, but if you’ve already got a kids’ water table outside, that’s even more fun! Give your kids metal spoons and plastic spoons and see if they can make a conclusion that explains why one sinks and one floats. 

To go the extra mile, you can practice the scientific method of defining the question, making a hypothesis, gather data, analyze the data, and make conclusions.  (PBS Kids has a colorful Cat-in-the-Hat themed chart that you can use to record your data.)  (Teachers, this experiment aligns with NGSS 2-PS1-1.)

Make Your Own Boat!

from SciShow Kids

Here’s another science activity about flotation that is even more fun when you use your outdoor water table. All it takes is aluminum foil to fold a foil boat! Now here’s the science - what boat design can carry the most marbles? (Or pennies, or beans…) You could try a canoe design like these kids Sophie and Zane, or try your own design. Definitely try a flat sheet of foil or a crumpled up ball of foil too to compare with your boats! (Teachers, this engineering design activity aligns with NGSS K-2-ETS1-1.)

Here’s a lot more fun ideas to learn about the science of sinking and floating!

Identify birds with the Merlin Bird ID app  from Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Learn more about the birds you meet on your nature walk. This free app from Cornell University will tell you what bird you’re looking at based on a photo, the sound of its birdsong, or from answering 5 simple questions (location, date, bird size, bird color, what was the bird doing). It’s supposed to be over 90% accurate! 

For bird science picture books and videos that pair well with these activities, check out this post!

Summon the earthworms! 

There is so much to learn about earthworms, but first you’ll need to find some! Since worms prefer dark, moist places, try looking under rocks or digging in the dirt. 

But if you’d rather not dig, the UK Natural History Museum has a pretty magical way to “summon” worms out of the ground by pouring a mustard water solution (1 large tablespoon of ground mustard seed with 1.5 litres of water) into the ground. 

If you want to go a step further, get your kids nature journaling about their worm encounters. Kids can draw what they see, hear, and feel. They can write down any questions they have or funny things they observe. (Teachers, have your students look for patterns in their observations like “there are more worms in dark places than sunny places” to align with NGSS K-LS1-1.)

This Is a Book to Read with a Worm

By Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

Calling all kids who want to play with worms all day! This book is an instruction manual specially for kids to find a worm and gently interact and experiment with it.

There are instructions to shine a flashlight through a worm’s body, observe how it reacts to the smell of rubbing alcohol, and listen to the sound of a worm’s bristles scratching on paper. This one book is an entire classroom or homeschool science lesson on its own! (Teachers, the activities in this book align with NGSS K-LS1-1.)

Want more ways to play with worms and learn at the same time? Check out this post!

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Whew, that’s a lot of reasons to bring your learning outside! 

Have fun lighting sparks of curiosity in the great outdoors!

Amy Wung Tsao

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