Egg Experiments to Try at Home

Spring is the season of eggs – whether chocolate, painted or plastic! Eggs are an eggcellent way to eggsplore science (and puns), so we collected our favorite eggsperiments for you to try at home. Since eggs are in short supply in some places, most of these projects are edible or use shells (real and plastic). But if you are stocked up on eggs, save a few for these science eggsperiments! 

Eggheads (Ages 2+)

These little eggheads are an adorable project! Just plant the grass seeds and watch the hair grow. You can even use these eggheads as seed-starter pots because they are biodegradable and full of calcium for your plants! Just like humans, plants need nutrients to grow. Record your observations daily to see how long it takes for the seeds to sprout and grow. What do you observe? 

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Easter Egg Rocket (Ages 5+)

Create an eggplosive chemical reaction with a plastic Easter egg, fizzy tablet (like Alka-Seltzer) and water! Fizzy tablets contain sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda) mixed with citric acid, plus some other stuff. When the tablets are dropped in water, the baking soda and citric acid get together and fizz. If this reaction happens inside of an Easter egg, the plastic shell traps the gas inside. As the egg is filled with more and more gas, the pressure inside the egg increases. Eventually, the gas inside the egg pushes hard enough to make the egg pop open and launch!

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Square Egg (Ages 5+)

When you hard boil an egg, molecular chemistry is at work. Eggs are made up mostly of two kinds of molecules: protein and water. The proteins in a raw egg are like twisted strings, floating in a watery soup. When you heat up an egg, the proteins break their bonds and unfold. As they unfold, the proteins make new, stronger chemical bonds between each other. That turns the egg into a latticework of protein, with water trapped in between. Once the boiled egg cools down, the proteins settle and the bonds solidify to make the rubbery egg. When they’re still hot, though, the bonds between the proteins are moldable, kind of like clay. Try it out in this project and mold an abstract egg!

Learn more: Make a Square Egg

Floating Egg (Ages 5+)

Does an egg sink or float in water? What if it does both? In this experiment, make an egg sink and float at the same time! The salt water is saturated with the salt, which makes it more dense. The egg is less dense than the salt water, so it floats to the top. When the fresh water is poured into the jar, it also floats above the salt water. However, the water on its own is less dense than the egg, so the egg doesn’t move. The egg floats at the top of the salt water, but sinks below the fresh water! Experiment further with a hard boiled egg! 

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Egg in Vinegar Experiment (Ages 5+)

When you submerge a raw egg in the vinegar, you’ll see bubbles forming on the surface. Those bubbles are full of carbon dioxide – just like the bubbles in a glass of soda. You’re seeing a reaction between a compound in the eggshell (calcium carbonate) and an acid in the vinegar (acetic acid). This reaction creates carbon dioxide (and some other things) and breaks down the eggshell in the process. The membrane underneath the shell doesn’t react, so it’s left behind. Once the shell is completely gone, all that’s left is the flexible membrane, giving you a bouncy “rubber” egg! 

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Glowing Bouncy Egg (Ages 5+)

This experiment is just like the egg in vinegar experiment (above) but the addition of fluorescent ink and a black light makes the egg glow! The vinegar dissolves the egg shell leaving a thin membrane. Since membranes let some stuff pass through (like the water in the vinegar and the highlighter fluid) some of the fluorescent molecules travel into the egg. When you shine a black light on the rubbery egg, the fluorescent molecules glow in the dark. 

Learn more: Glowing Bouncy Egg

Egg Geodes (Ages 9+)

Though geodes may look like ordinary rocks, they are like secret treasure chests! Crack a geode it open, and you may be amazed to find the cavity filled with gorgeously colored crystals. Try this experiment and grow your very own borax crystals in a shell! Experiment with different borax concentrations and see how big your crystals can grow.

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Egg Drop Project (Ages 9+)

When you drop an egg, fall itself doesn’t cause it to crack! When the egg hits the ground and stops, its speed changes very quickly. In physics terms, the egg has a high acceleration. The more acceleration the egg has, the more force it feels from the impact. So a sudden change in speed means a lot of force. But the reverse is also true: the less acceleration the egg has, the less force it feels from hitting the ground. If there’s a way to slow down how quickly the egg’s speed drops to 0 miles per hour, then maybe it could survive the fall AND the stop at the end. Try it out!

Learn more: Egg Drop Project 

Egg-in-a-bottle (Ages 9+)

Impress your friends and family with this simple, quick, and super-cool science trick! You’ll learn how to harness the power of expanding and contracting gasses to suck an egg into a bottle in which it would never normally fit. As the flame burns inside the bottle, it heats up the air around it, causing it to expand. If you saw your egg vibrating slightly, this was because air was escaping from the bottle. When the flame goes out, the air in the bottle cools and shrinks. This is what sucks your egg into the bottle!

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