Middle School Science Experiments

By
Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.
Chemistry Expert
  • Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
  • B.A., Physics and Mathematics, Hastings College
Dr. Helmenstine holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and is a science writer, educator, and consultant. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels.
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Updated on September 12, 2019

Get ideas for science experiments targeted at the middle school educational level. Find out how to perform an experiment and get a hypothesis to test.

Fruit Battery Experiment

Lemons

 Natthakan Jommanee / EyeEm / Getty Images

Make a battery using household materials and a piece of fruit. Does one type of fruit or vegetable work better than another? Remember, it's easiest to test the null hypothesis.
Hypothesis: Current produced by a fruit battery does not depend on the type of fruit that is used.

Battery Experiment Resources

How to Make a Fruit Battery
Electrochemical Cells
Potato-Powered LCD Clock
Human Battery Demonstration

Bubbles and Temperature

irregular bubbles

 Sascha Jung / EyeEm

Blowing bubbles is fun. There is a lot of science to bubbles, too. You can perform an experiment to see how factors affect bubbles. What is the perfect bubble solution? What makes the best bubble wand? Can you color bubbles with food coloring? Does temperature affect how long bubbles last?
Hypothesis: Bubble life is not affected by temperature.
Bubble Experiment Resources
More about Bubble Life and Temperature
Glowing Bubbles
Bubble Fingerprints

Breakfast and Learning

Healthy Breakfast
DebbiSmirnoff/Getty Images

You've heard about how important breakfast is to performance in school. Put it to the test! There are several experiments you can design around this topic. Does eating breakfast help you stay on task? Does it matter what you eat for breakfast? Would breakfast help you equally well for math as for English?

Hypothesis: Students who eat breakfast will not score differently on a vocabulary test than students who skipped breakfast.

Rocket Balloon Experiment

A bunch of helium filled balloons

 Radu Dan / Getty Images

Rocket balloons are a fun way to study the laws of motion, plus they use a safe propellant.

You can design a middle school experiment exploring the effect of balloon size on the distance a rocket travels, whether the temperature of the air makes a difference, whether a helium balloon rocket and an air balloon rocket travel the same distance, and more.

Hypothesis: The size of the balloon doesn't affect the distance a balloon rocket travels.
Rocket Experiment Resources
Make a Match Rocket
Newton's Laws of Motion

Crystal Experiments

sugar crystals on a blue background

 mark watson (kalimistuk) / Getty Images

Crystals are good middle school experimental subjects. You can examine the factors that affect the rate of crystal growth or the form of the crystals that are produced.

Sample Hypothesis:

  1. The rate of evaporation does not affect final crystal size.
  2. Crystals grown using food coloring will be the same size and shape as those grown without it.

Crystal Experiment Resources
Crystal Science Fair Projects
What Is a Crystal?
How to Grow Crystals
How to Make a Saturated Solution
Crystal Projects to Try

Experiments by Grade Level

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Your Citation
Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "Middle School Science Experiments." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/middle-school-science-experiments-604274. Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. (2023, April 5). Middle School Science Experiments. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/middle-school-science-experiments-604274 Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "Middle School Science Experiments." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/middle-school-science-experiments-604274 (accessed June 2, 2023).
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