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The Ultimate STEAM Supply Checklist
You can find many STEAM supplies at home by using common recyclables like cardboard and plastic bottles, or by gathering items from a craft or kitchen drawer, such as pipe cleaners, tape, glue, rubber bands, and craft sticks. Other useful household items include craft foam, paper, scissors, rulers, and various other materials from around the house and yard.
From your recycling bin and trash
Cardboard tubes and boxes
Plastic bottles and containers
Plastic lids
Aluminum foil
Egg cartons
Old CDs
Plastic packaging inserts
From the craft or office supplies
Pipe cleaners
Masking tape, electrical tape, or other tape
Glue (hot glue, liquid glue, or stick glue)
Paper (construction, computer, or index cards)
Craft sticks
Rubber bands
Binder clips or paper clips
Straws
Push pins
Yarn or string
Markers, colored pencils, and paint
Scissors
From the kitchen or utility closet
Paper plates and cups
Wooden skewers or toothpicks
Coffee filters
Plastic pipettes or turkey basters
Clothespins
Aluminum cans (no sharp edges)
Sponges
From the playroom or hardware store (if available)
LEGO bricks or other building blocks
Marbles
Magnets or magnetic wands
Pool noodles
Copper wire or tape (from hardware stores for some projects)
PVC pipes and connectors (for larger projects)
Additional Supplies to Gather
Building Materials: Include versatile construction materials like blocks, Legos, magnetic tiles, or cardboard for hands-on exploration and creativity.
Electronics: Add electronic components such as breadboards, resistors, LEDs, and jumper wires to introduce basic circuitry and electronics concepts.
Tools: Provide appropriate tools like scissors, rulers, and markers for younger learners, while older students can benefit from soldering irons, screwdrivers, and pliers for more advanced projects.
Consumables: Include items like batteries, adhesive tapes, craft supplies, and conductive playdough that are used up during experiments and projects.
Robotics and Automation: Consider adding robotics kits, sensors, motors, and programmable boards to foster learning in coding, automation, and robotics engineering.
Measurement and Data: Include measurement tools like rulers, thermometers, and data collection devices such as sensors or data loggers to encourage hands-on data gathering and analysis.
Safety Equipment: Ensure the list includes safety essentials like goggles, gloves, aprons, and fire extinguishers to prioritize safety during STEM activities.
By organizing your STEAM supplies into these categories, you can create a well-rounded collection of resources that cater to different age groups and developmental needs.
Budget-Friendly Tips and Tricks
Acquiring STEM lab supplies on a budget requires resourcefulness and creativity. Here are a few strategies that can help you score good deals.
Explore thrift shops and garage sales
Thrift shops and garage sales can be treasure troves for finding affordable STEM learning materials. Explore these places regularly to discover unique items like craft supplies, recycled electronics, and building blocks.
Save everyday items
Don’t underestimate the power of “low-tech” materials in teaching core STEM concepts. Everyday items like straws, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, and paperclips can serve as versatile tools for engineering challenges and scientific investigations. By leveraging inexpensive materials, you can stretch your budget while still providing enriching STEM experiences for your students.
STEAM Play
You can do a wide variety of STEAM activities at home, including classic experiments like a baking soda and vinegar balloon, sink or float challenges, or building a catapult. Other fun options include making slime or bouncy balls, creating marble runs with cardboard tubes, or exploring art through science with ice cube painting or making a solar oven. Science and engineering
Baking soda and vinegar balloon: Use a chemical reaction to inflate a balloon without any breath.
Cloud in a jar: Create a mini-cloud to demonstrate atmospheric pressure changes.
DIY catapult: Build a simple catapult to learn about physics and motion.
Sink or float: Predict and test which household objects will sink or float in water to explore buoyancy.
Egg drop project: Engineer a protective container for an egg to prevent it from breaking when dropped.
Slime making: Create different types of slime using polymers to learn about chemical reactions.
Marble run: Use cardboard tubes, tape, and a wall or door to create a track for marbles to travel through, as described by The Butterfly Teacher.
Vortex cannon: Design and build a cannon that shoots a ring of air out of household materials.
Art and creativity
Ice cube painting: Use ice cubes with food coloring to paint as the ice melts.
Salt and watercolor painting: Explore how salt absorbs paint to create unique textures.
Oil and water marbled paper: Create swirling patterns by combining oil and water with paint.
LEGO shadow drawings: Use LEGOs to create shadows and trace them to make art.
Thaumatropes: Make a simple animation toy that demonstrates the persistence of vision.
Math and coding
Binary bracelets: Create bracelets that represent initials using binary code.
Tangram puzzles: Use tangrams to explore geometry and spatial reasoning.
Fibonacci sequence art: Create art inspired by the Fibonacci sequence.
STEAM in the Kitchen
Getting Started
Experimenting with your child in the kitchen is one of the most effective (and tasty) ways to promote the relevance of science.
STEAM science cooking at home involves using cooking to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math through hands-on projects like making an ice cream in a bag, building a food-based volcano, or experimenting with density jars
.These activities foster curiosity and creativity by using everyday kitchen items to teach principles such as heat transfer, chemical reactions, and the properties of different substances.
Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math in the kitchen
You can watch this video to learn how to use STEAM concepts in the kitchen:
Volcano: Use baking soda and vinegar to create a fizzy eruption in a "volcano" made from a bottle and playdough or foil.
Technology: Learn about the technology used in cooking, such as different methods of heating food.
Steaming Experiment: Compare how different foods cook using steam versus other methods, such as boiling or microwaving. Observe how steam cooking efficiently transfers heat and locks in moisture.
Microwave Science: Investigate how microwaves heat food by studying the process of electromagnetic radiation and how it causes water molecules to vibrate.
Engineering: Apply engineering principles by designing and building food-related projects.
Edible Structures: Use ingredients like gingerbread or pretzels and frosting to build edible structures, exploring concepts like stability and load-bearing.
Kitchen Gadget Design: Design and build your own kitchen tools or gadgets using everyday materials like cardboard, tape, and rubber bands to solve a specific cooking challenge.
Art: Create visually appealing and artistic food projects.
Fruit Rainbow: Wash and cut fruits and vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Arrange them on a plate in the order of the rainbow colors.
Edible Art: Use food coloring, sprinkles, and other edible decorations to create edible art on cookies or cupcakes.
Math: Incorporate math skills into cooking projects.
Recipe Math: Double, triple, or halve a recipe to practice multiplication and division.
Measurement Challenge: Challenge your child to measure out ingredients accurately for a recipe, practicing skills like estimation and measurement with different units.
Kitchen Ratios: Explore the ratio of ingredients in a recipe. For example, in baking, the ratio of flour, sugar, and butter can significantly impact the outcome of the final product.
Tips for success
Always prioritize safety in the kitchen. Supervise children closely, especially when using the stove or sharp objects.
Encourage children to ask questions and explore, even if it means making a mess.
Don't be afraid to get creative! You can adapt these activities or come up with new ones using whatever ingredients and materials you have at home.
Mixtures and Solutions
Explore the difference between chemical mixtures and solutions by creating the ultimate sandwich and making homemade pickles.
Fall in Love With STEM Through Cooking
Try different cookie modifications as a delicious way to practice with fractions, witness chemical reactions and mix solutions.
Kid-Friendly Kitchen Science
Uncover the science behind breads and cakes with these two kid-friendly baking recipes.
Celebrate Spooky Season With 3 Not-So-Scary STEAM Sweets
Craft delicious, sweet treats with Jell-O®, popcorn and bananas while discovering interesting science facts.Baking With STEAM
Create edible designs with this fun cookie decorating activity and explore fractions, chemical reactions and artistic expression along the way.
Magic Milk-y Way
Demonstrate chemistry and reactions using just milk, food coloring and dish soap in this fun variation on the classic Magic Milk experiment
.DIY Pet Treats
Make homemade treats for your furry friends and discover the importance of nutritional science.
Wild STEAM
STEAM PLAY WITH NATURE
How to look like an expert outside
Sometimes it just takes a little bit of reading…
Start Small. Never Stop.
STEAM activities with nature include building a solar oven, making a rain gauge, or creating a pulley system from sticks to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math. Other options involve designing bug catchers or bird feeders, conducting a sink or float experiment, or exploring forces by building kites or catapults. Nature-based art projects like making nature stamps, painting with natural materials, or building mobiles also combine science with artistic expression. Science and Engineering
Solar Oven: Build a solar oven from a cardboard box, aluminum foil, and plastic wrap to demonstrate the power of the sun.
Pulley System: Create a simple pulley system using sticks and other natural materials to learn about simple machines and forces.
Rain Gauge: Construct a DIY rain gauge to measure rainfall and collect data on weather patterns.
Catapult: Build a simple catapult from sticks and other found items to explore physics and forces.
Bug Catcher: Design and build a bug catcher to safely observe insects and learn about their habitats.
Egg Drop: Engineer a container using natural materials that can protect an egg when dropped from a height.
Technology and Art
Nature Stamps: Use natural objects like leaves and sticks to press prints into clay to create unique stamps.
Nature Paint: Mix natural materials with different colors and textures to create homemade paints.
Fall Mobile: Construct a mobile using natural items like leaves, sticks, and seeds to explore balance and symmetry.
Photography or Sketching: Take a walk and use a camera or sketchbook to document the natural world, focusing on specific subjects like leaves or insects.
Math and Literacy
Nature Color Wheel: Collect natural items of different colors and sort them to create a nature-based color wheel.
Nature Scavenger Hunt: Create a list of items for a scavenger hunt to practice observation and counting skills.
Storytelling: Use found natural objects as inspiration to create stories, encouraging both imagination and literacy skills.
Data Collection: Track data like shadow movement over a day, weather patterns, or the growth of a plant in a jar.
I have spent my entire life trying to get rid of the universal notion that any type of family walks, climbs and hikes are about getting to a certain destination.
When in reality those activities are really all about the adventure and the the things that fascinate us along the way. Just ask any of your children. You can count on them to find the fun stuff along the way. They are outside to discover new places and find joy in the process of exploring the plants and animals that are right in front of them. So add in some spontaneous "Natural STEAM" activities and enrichment that are featured below.
By letting your child's interest levels set the pace for a walk, climb or hike, and by us being open to their natural curiosity, we can definitely help any child to develop a healthy love of not just the beach but of the great outdoors.
Pause when they pause because those are the moments they remember and learn from. It's all about the sensory exploration of any environment or activity. So let them see up close, touch or rub, listen, explore and smell their way to a fascination vibe for the activity... and always strive to give them a "story to tell" moment with every natural experience.
Building & Displaying A Nature Collection
Discovering Forest Collectables
Incredibly Easy Nature Program
Nature Activities for Todays Youth
Spying on Animals in the Great Outdoors
Exploring the Beach and Shorelines
Wild Water and Wetland Explorations
Nature Exploration in the City