📋 Activity Library
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The Water Cycle: Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation
A hands-on experiment with a water bottle to visualize how water moves through the cycle.
Backyard Food Chains in East Tennessee
Kids build a simple food chain from real East Tennessee plants and animals, then explain how energy moves through the chain.
Cloud Watching and Weather Notes in Maryville
A simple weather study lesson where kids step outside, observe real clouds, and keep short weather notes using Maryville as their home base.
Insect Observation: Bugs in Your Backyard
Turn your backyard into a science lab! Kids use observation skills to discover and identify common backyard insects.
Light and Shadow Explorations: A Complete Investigation
A comprehensive investigation of how light creates shadows. Kids discover light travels in straight lines through hands-on experiments, observation, and data collection. Perfect for spring when afternoons are sunny.
Simple Machines Around the House
Explore the six simple machines (lever, pulley, wheel and axle, inclined plane, wedge, screw) by finding them in your home.
Tennessee Ecosystems: Mountains, Plateaus, and Plains
Compare the three main regions of Tennessee - the mountains, plateaus, and plains - and explore what makes each ecosystem unique.
Tennessee Stream Ecology: Testing Water Quality
Hands-on investigation of local Tennessee waterways. Kids learn to test water quality and identify what living things thrive in different water conditions.
Patterns in Nature Around Maryville
A simple outdoor science lesson that helps kids spot repeating patterns in leaves, petals, pinecones, and shells, then sketch what they notice.
Kitchen Chemistry: Testing Acids and Bases with Red Cabbage
Kids create pH indicator from red cabbage and test household substances to see acids and bases in action.
Newton's Laws in Action: A Hands-On Physics Investigation
Three separate investigations that let kids discover Newton's three laws of motion through hands-on experiments.
Kitchen Chemistry: What Happens When We Cook
Watch what happens to an egg when it cooks. Kids discover that cooking IS chemistry - heat changes matter in real, visible ways.
Testing Water Quality in Our Local Streams
Test your local stream water for clarity, flow rate, and what happens when different substances are added. Learn how pollution affects our Tennessee waterways.
Exploring Local Leaves
A hands-on nature walk to collect and compare different leaf shapes and colors found right in Maryville.
Kitchen Chemistry: Baking Soda and Vinegar
A classic, fizzy experiment that introduces kids to the concept of chemical reactions using simple kitchen staples.
Kitchen Chemistry: The Magic of Baking Soda and Vinegar
A classic hands-on experiment to introduce kids to the concept of a chemical reaction through a fizzy, bubbling volcano.
The Great Penny Clean-Up
A hands-on chemistry lesson where kids test different kitchen liquids to see which one cleans a dirty penny the best.
The Magic Pepper Trick
A visually stunning lesson on surface tension where pepper "flees" from a drop of soap like magic.
The Magic of Magnetism
A hands-on discovery lesson where kids predict and test which household items are magnetic.
The Magic of Magnets
An introduction to magnetism. Kids test common household items to discover what is magnetic and learn about attraction and repulsion.
The Magic of Seeds
Watch a seed wake up! A simple, hands-on way for kids to see the very first stage of a plant s life without needing a garden.
Animal Habitats of East Tennessee
Explore the amazing animals that live right here in East Tennessee! From black bears in the Smokies to salamanders in mountain streams, kids learn what a habitat is and why different animals need different homes.
Growing Things: Plants and Life Cycles
Kids observe a plant up close, draw what they see, and learn the basic parts of a plant.
Life Cycles: From Seed to Plant
Plant a seed and watch it grow! This hands-on lesson teaches young learners about plant life cycles, what plants need to survive, and the parts of a plant - all with a bean seed and a cup of soil.