20 Autumn and Fall Science Experiments

Over the many years I’ve been writing Science Sparks, Autumn has always been my favourite season for designing themed activities. I love the colourful leaves, dark nights, cooler weather, and, of course, the run-up to Christmas is always exciting, too! This collection of fall science experiments and activities makes me smile every time I read it and hopefully has something to excite kids ( and adults ) of all ages. Kids can discover why leaves change colour, how trees disperse their seeds, why animals hibernate and more!

I also have a fun collection of fall STEM challenges you might like!

Fall Science Experiments for Kids

Seeds and Leaves Science

Create your own exploding seed device or spinning helicopter seeds to learn about seed dispersal. These lovely hands-on activities work especially well after going on a treasure hunt to search for different types of seeds.

Playdough to Plato has a brilliant leaf chromatography experiment.

Find out how to predict the weather with pinecones!

Fall Kitchen Science Experiments

Learn about changes of state in the kitchen by making toffee apples and treacle toffee. Which is your favourite?

Make spiced apple cider and learn about filtering at the same time. Our spiced apple cider is not only a great science activity, but it also tastes amazing!

Try some apple bobbing to discover why apples float on water. Apple bobbing is a great Halloween party idea, too!

Fall Sensory Science Activities

Get creative indoors or out with some lovely autumn themed ice. Try adding a little salt ( be careful as this makes the ice feel much colder ) to melt it faster, or use a pipette to drop warm water over the surface.

Use leaves to make prints in play dough and learn to identify different types of leaves.

Get messy with some Autumn gloop. Cornflour is a lovely sensory material that can be scrunched up into a ball when pressure is added and turns back into a liquid when the pressure is removed. Cornflour gloop or slime is known as oobleck and is a Non-Newtonian liquid.

Have some sensory fun with blackberry playdough, from Rainy Day Mum.

We love this beautiful autumn sensory table from The Imagination Tree.

More activity ideas for autumn

Go on a walk and collect autumn treasures for a scavenger hunt.

Try to model the changing seasons with LEGO. This is a great team activity and can be made into a challenge to find different ways to show how the changing season affects the environment.

Try some autumn themed weighing and measuring with pumpkins.

Estimating the height of trees in the forest is a clever trick that always makes our forest walks a lot more fun!

Science crafts for autumn

Find lovely autumn-coloured leaves for our hedgehog printable.

Make some leaf rubbings and think about different textures, a lovely idea from Red Ted Art.

Try these fun activities with sticks and leaves.

What about trying an autumn version of this floating art experiment from Learn with Play at Home?

Autumn Games

Tic Tac Toe Printable

Try our autumn tic tac toe game. Colour the leaves and trees autumn colours, cut them out and play!

Autumn Science eBook

I also have a FREE Autumn Science eBook you can print for free!!

Activity ideas for Halloween

If you’re having a Halloween party, we’ve got some great ideas to make it memorable and some fun Halloween science experiments, too.

I also have a simple collection of ideas for outdoor science in the forest that you might like.

Do you have any more fall science experiments or craft ideas for us?

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Last Updated on October 8, 2024 by Emma Vanstone