National Science Week is a celebration of science and technology, encouraging children of all ages to dive into this fascinating and perplexing field. Celebrated across many domains, National Science Week highlights a different area of science and technology each year.
In 2025, we are exploring space with the theme Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature’s hidden language. A call to explore the fundamental languages of nature including mathematics and quantum science.
Learn more about National Science Week here.
Thanks to the NASA Science team, here are three experiments to try at home to celebrate National Science Week:
Build your own spacecraft
Resources needed:
- Container
- Power source replica
- Scientific instruments replica
- Communication device replica
Method:
- Assemble your power source, scientific instruments and communication device onto your container
- Secure with glue and tape
- Decorate to personalise your spacecraft
Access the original experiment instructions from NASA Science here.
Stretchy universe slime
Resources needed:
- Clear school glue
- 1 teaspoon of borax
- Water
- Food colourings of your choice
- Two bowls
- Measuring cups: 1/2 cup and 1 cup
- Glitter
- Wax paper
Method
- In one bowl, mix 1/2 cup of glue with 1/2 cup of water. Stir it together; it will mix nicely.
- Add food colouring to the glue and water mixture to create the colour of your universe
- In the other bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of borax with 1 cup of lukewarm water
- Stir until the borax is dissolved. This takes a while. If you skip this step, your slime will not come together very well
- Stir, stir, stir, until you don’t feel the crunch of the solid bits of borax on the bottom. The water will start to look a little cloudy
- Add the glue mixture to your borax water, stirring slowly as you pour it
- You’ll see the slime start to form. Stir as much as you can. Use your hands to get in there and work it around
- Take your glob of slime out of the bowl and put it on your wax paper. It’s okay if there is some water left behind
- It’s time to add some glitter galaxies! Flatten out your slime and spread glitter over the top
- Fold until the glitter has been incorporated into the slime mixture
Access the original experiment instructions from NASA Science here.
Pastel aurora
Resources:
- Black construction paper
- Oil pastels
- Scissors
- Paper towels
- A4 piece of paper cut into thirds using curved lines
Method:
- Cut out your Aurora in a wavy shape using the white A4 paper
- Trace along the shape of the curve with your pastels. Go back and forth a few times so lots of color gets on the guideline. It’s okay to get a little bit on the black construction paper too
- Hold your guideline down with one hand, and with the other, use your paper towel to push the pastel upward so it smudges onto the construction paper.
- You can go over the area again with more pastels and smudge again with the paper towel until you have as much color as you want
- Lift up the guideline to see the colorful band
- Place the guideline in a different spot and repeat steps 2 and 3 as many times as you like. Try flipping the guideline over or placing it at different angles to add to the overall effect of the painting
Now you’ve created your very own Aurora.
Access the original experiment instructions from NASA Science here.
