Kids & Chemistry

The Kids & Chemistry program offers hands-on activity guides, lessons, and advice for ACS chemists, local sections, and industry groups who present chemistry lessons to elementary or middle school students as part of the school day.

Hands-on activities between 20 and 30 minutes long
Supplies for up to 25 students
Materials are easy to manage
Gives students a challenge to solve
Covers a chemistry concept from the science curriculum
Uses models to explain what is happening at the molecular level
Concludes with one take-home souvenir per student

Kids & Chemistry Design Slime

Celebrate chemistry with slime! Begin with a blue polyvinyl alcohol solution that no amount of shaking will transform. Slime-making novices, experts, and everyone in between know that they need to add something. Use strands of party beads to model PVA molecules and show what happens when a chemical connector is added to the mix. Makers will implement their new knowledge of chemistry to create slime with the properties they desire.

Download Design Slime Presenter's Guide (PDF)

A pair of gloved hands stretching out blue slime, mardi gras beads in the foreground

Kids & Chemistry React with Self-Inflating Balloons

Investigate the secret science in self-inflating balloons with students to introduce foundational concepts about chemical reactions. Using specially designed cards and bingo chips, a.k.a. atomic tokens, fourth through eighth graders discover which of four household powders produces a gas when it reacts with an acid. Confirm their predictions with a demo and celebrate their success with a self-inflating balloon for each student.

This lesson works best in an in-person classroom or enrichment setting with up to 25 students.

Download React with Self-Inflating Balloons Presenter's Guide (PDF)