Pumpkin STEM Activities for Kids

Last month I shared some fun apple STEM activities, but of course you can do a lot of the same things with our other favorite fall produce: the pumpkin. Here are some fun pumpkin STEM ideas for use in the classroom or at home. (Also check out my pumpkin printables post; it has some ideas for learning about parts of the pumpkin, measuring pumpkins and more.)

Lots of classic STEM activities can be performed with pumpkins, such as pumpkin catapults, using the pumpkin as the base (this one is from Preschool Powol Packets); pumpkin volcanoes (get this one from Natural Beach Living, food coloring optional but fun!); and sink or float experiments that turn into a full sensory experience, like this pumpkin boat project from Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls.

Check this post from Our Family Code for more projects involving exploding pumpkins (including doing the classic Mentos and Coke explosion in a pumpkin). And of course you can use that pumpkin catapult to launch pumpkin candies if you want. Get details on that idea from Team Cartwright. (Theirs just uses craft sticks but you could use the pumpkin version for this purpose as well.)

Have you ever thought of growing pumpkins in a pumpkin? I have to say I hadn’t but you can learn all about how to do it at home or in the classroom at Life with Moore Babies. This is a different take on the traditional pumpkin decay experiment with Pumpkin Jack (get the details from Little Bins for Little Hands).

Or you can take traditional STEM activities and give them a pumpkin themed twist even if you’re not using actual pumpkins. Like making pumpkin poppers with orange cups and balloons (get all the details from Gift of Curiosity) or pumpkin lava lamps, which you can find on Science Sparks.

There’s something great about every state, and Clive Gifford has collected fun facts, trivia and firsts from every state in Record-Breaking USA: Celebrating America’s Biggest, Brightest and Bravest.

Each state gets a one or two-page spread, with facts scattered around the page and illustrations by Paul Hammond. The page lists a state nickname, the capital, state mammal, a fun fact and some famous residents, as well as firsts and record breaking events that happened in each state.

You’ll learn that Alabama is home to the biggest unclaimed baggage center in the world, that Florida is home to the most toxic tree (the manchineel tree, which has sap that can burn the skin and make people go blind, and its fruit is toxic) and that Iowa is home to the largest model of a strawberry, to name a few facts. Loma, Montana, holds the record for the largest temperature range in a day (from -54 to 49 degrees F, which is a 103 degree difference), while Ohio’s Geauga County once employed the smallest police dog on record, an 11-inch-tall chihuahua/rat terrier mix.

South Dakota has the world’s biggest Bigfoot statue, the cotton candy machine was invented in Tennessee, and a car that was 91 percent cake was driven (and eaten) in Washington state in 2021, now holding the record for the fastest moving mostly edible car.

As you might guess from these sample facts, kids will find this book funny and probably learn some things, too. In addition to the states there’s a page for Washington, D.C., where President Theodore Roosevelt broke the record for the most hands shaken in one day (8,513, a record that’s held since 1907), and the US territories, as well as records that cross state lines and span the globe.

Readers will also learn about records set in space and read what it takes to be a record breaker. There are even a few records listed that you can try to break yourself.

This fun and colorful book is sure to engage kids who love facts, and would be a great one to take along on your next road trip.

About the book: 96 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Have you read?

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