Science Bucket List Ideas

Five things for a science lover to see or do once, each with a first step.

Science Bucket List Ideas

Show all 100
  1. Watch salmon run upstream from a viewing platformSmall cost. Search for a fish ladder or hatchery with a viewing window.
  2. Estimate pi by dropping toothpicks on lined paperFree. Rule lines one toothpick apart and drop a hundred.
  3. Try a Messier marathon: 110 sky objects in one nightFree with a club. Ask an astronomy club whether it holds one, and learn ten objects first.
  4. Find a water bear in a clump of mossSmall cost. They are common in moss. Soak a clump overnight and look with a low-power microscope.
  5. Chase an aurora on a night the forecast says goSave up. Choose a far northern or southern town and sign up for aurora alerts.

Next step Draw a star to find tonightDraw a stone to look for

How it works

These science bucket list ideas are 100 things to see or do once: travel into the Moon's shadow for a solar eclipse, find a water bear in a clump of moss, watch a Foucault pendulum show that the Earth turns.

Read the full guide

From the sky to the kitchen table

In the night sky, Out in the field, Places to visit, At the kitchen table and Science to take part in hold 20 ideas each. Much of the sky group needs only clear weather and a date: catch two planets side by side in the same sky, stay up for every stage of a lunar eclipse.

Some cards wait on the sky

The Perseids peak between 9 and 14 August, a Messier marathon is run in a single night, and Halley's Comet is not due until mid-2061. Nine cards state a fact like these, each checked in the Wikipedia article named under the list.

Questions and answers

What should be on a science bucket list?

Things you watch happen: see four moons of Jupiter through binoculars, crack open a geode you found yourself, watch particle trails appear in a cloud chamber, and feel the rumble of a rocket launch in person.

What are science bucket list ideas before you die?

The ones to plan years ahead: chase an aurora on a night the forecast says go, float weightless on a parabolic flight, stand beneath a giant radio telescope dish, and be ready for Halley's Comet when it comes back.

What science bucket list ideas are free?

47 cards are marked Free, 15 of them in the night sky: watch the space station cross the sky with bare eyes, find the Andromeda Galaxy without a telescope, sketch the Moon on every clear night for a month.

What science bucket list ideas work with kids?

64 cards are tagged With kids, such as touch a rock that fell from space, stand beside a trackway of real dinosaur footprints, light an LED with a battery made of lemons and split black ink into its hidden colors on a coffee filter.

More tools

Browse Entertainment

All 100 ideas

In the night sky 20

  • Be ready for Halley's Comet when it comes back Free. It is due in mid-2061. Write the year somewhere you will find it again.
  • Catch two planets side by side in the same sky Free. Search for the next planetary conjunction and note the date and the hour.
  • Chase an aurora on a night the forecast says go Save up. Choose a far northern or southern town and sign up for aurora alerts.
  • Count meteors on the peak night of the Perseids Free. The peak falls between 9 and 14 August. Take a blanket and lie back.
  • Drive to a sky dark enough to show the Milky Way Small cost. Find the darkest spot within two hours on a light pollution map.
  • Find the Andromeda Galaxy without a telescope Free. It is 2.5 million light-years away. Pick a moonless night far from town lights.
  • Learn ten bright stars by name and find each one Free. Begin with the three brightest above your street tonight.
  • Look at Saturn's rings on a public telescope night Free. Ask the nearest astronomy club when its next open night is.
  • Plot one planet's path against the stars for a year Free. Sketch where it sits on the first clear night of each month.
  • See four moons of Jupiter through binoculars Small cost. Common binoculars show them. Look up when Jupiter is up and brace your elbows.
  • Sketch the Moon on every clear night for a month Free. Draw thirty empty circles on one page and date the first.
  • Spend a night at a certified dark-sky park Save up. Search for one within a day's travel and book around the new moon.
  • Spot a comet's tail on the first clear night it shows Free. Follow an astronomy news page so you hear when one is in view.
  • Stay up for every stage of a lunar eclipse Free. Search for the next one visible from your town and note when it starts.
  • Tick off every planet you can see without a telescope Free. Start with the brightest one in the evening sky and look up when the others rise.
  • Travel into the Moon's shadow for a solar eclipse Save up. Look up the next path of totality you could reach and mark the date.
  • Try a Messier marathon: 110 sky objects in one night Free with a club. Ask an astronomy club whether it holds one, and learn ten objects first.
  • Watch the Moon pass in front of a planet Free. Search for the next lunar occultation visible from where you live.
  • Watch the space station cross the sky with bare eyes Free. It shows as a bright moving dot at twilight. Look up the next pass over your town.
  • Work out your direction from the night sky alone Free. Borrow a star chart and start with the brightest pattern you already know.

Out in the field 20

  • Count every living thing in one square yard Free. Mark the square with string and give yourself a full hour.
  • Crack open a geode you found yourself Small cost. Search for a dig-your-own geode site and ask what tools to bring.
  • Dig up a fossil with your own hands at a public site Small cost. Search for a fossil park or a pay-to-dig quarry that lets you keep finds.
  • Find a water bear in a clump of moss Small cost. They are common in moss. Soak a clump overnight and look with a low-power microscope.
  • Find the oldest tree near you and learn its age Free. Ask a parks office or a local tree register which one it is.
  • Look at a drop of pond water under a microscope Small cost. Scoop a jar from the weedy edge and borrow a microscope.
  • Name ten animals living in one tide pool Free. Look up the lowest tide of the month and bring a field guide.
  • Read the rock layers in one road cut or cliff Free. Borrow a geology guide to your region and find the nearest exposure.
  • See the sea glow at night with living light Save up. Search for a bay known for bioluminescence and ask which months are best.
  • Stand beside a trackway of real dinosaur footprints Save up. Search for a public track site and check when it is open.
  • Stand in a show cave when the guide turns the lights off Small cost. Book a guided tour and ask whether it includes the dark moment.
  • Stand on a fault line you can see in the ground Small cost. Search for a marked fault trail or an interpretive stop.
  • Time a geyser against its predicted eruption Save up. Find a geyser basin that posts predictions and get there early.
  • Time the gaps between one firefly's flashes Free. Ask a local nature group where and when they gather near you.
  • Track a storm front on a map and watch it arrive Free. Open a live radar map and work out the hour it will reach you.
  • Walk a trail that ends in sight of a glacier Save up. Choose a park with a short marked path to a viewpoint over the ice.
  • Walk across a cooled lava field Save up. Search for a volcanic park with a marked trail over old flows.
  • Watch a bird migration pass overhead on its peak day Free. Ask a local bird group where the big flights go by, and when.
  • Watch a tide go all the way out and come back in Free. Look up the tide table and bring a chair and a stick to mark the water.
  • Watch salmon run upstream from a viewing platform Small cost. Search for a fish ladder or hatchery with a viewing window.

Places to visit 20

  • Ask a working scientist a question at a public lecture Free. Check a nearby university's events page for an evening talk.
  • Feel the rumble of a rocket launch in person Save up. Read a launch site's public schedule and allow spare days for delays.
  • Float weightless on a parabolic flight Save up. Search for an operator that sells seats and read what the day involves.
  • Go behind the scenes at a seed bank or a herbarium Small cost. Ask a botanic garden when it runs a collections tour.
  • Go to a science festival and try every hands-on table Small cost. Search for the nearest one and mark the three sessions you want.
  • Jump beside a seismograph and see your own wiggle Small cost. Ask a science museum whether it has a working one.
  • Lie back under a planetarium dome for a live star talk Small cost. Check the schedule for a show with a live presenter.
  • See a rock brought back from the Moon Small cost. Search for a museum near you with a lunar sample on display.
  • See indoor lightning at a live electricity show Small cost. Check a science museum's daily show times.
  • Stand beneath a giant radio telescope dish Save up. Search for a radio observatory with a visitor center.
  • Stand next to a spacecraft that has been to space Small cost. Search for the air and space museum nearest you.
  • Stand under the full skeleton of a giant dinosaur Small cost. Find the nearest museum with a mounted skeleton.
  • Touch a rock that fell from space Small cost. Ask a natural history museum whether it has a meteorite you may touch.
  • Tour a particle accelerator on a public open day Small cost. Search for a physics lab that runs visitor tours and join its list.
  • Visit a mountain observatory when its dome is open to guests Small cost. Find the visitor page of an observatory you could drive to.
  • Visit the home or lab of a scientist you admire Save up. Find out whether it is a museum now and when it opens.
  • Walk through a university lab on its open day Free. Look for the science faculty's open house date.
  • Watch a fossil being cleaned in a museum's open lab Small cost. Ask which days the preparators work behind the glass.
  • Watch a Foucault pendulum show that the Earth turns Small cost. Search for a science museum or university hall that has one.
  • Watch particle trails appear in a cloud chamber Small cost. Ask a science museum whether it keeps one on show.

At the kitchen table 20

  • Bake a pie for Pi Day, March 14 Small cost. Mark the date and choose the filling.
  • Bake the same cake five times, changing one thing Small cost. Write down the recipe and the one thing you will change each time.
  • Build a crystal radio that needs no battery Small cost. Buy a kit or a germanium diode and wind the coil on a tube.
  • Build a motor from a battery, a magnet and wire Small cost. Find the three parts and look up a homopolar motor.
  • Build a simple telescope from two lenses Small cost. Buy two magnifying lenses of different strength and a cardboard tube.
  • Extract DNA from a strawberry in your kitchen Small cost. Look up the kitchen method: it uses dish soap, salt and a coffee filter.
  • Grow a crystal big enough to hold Small cost. Dissolve alum in hot water and hang a seed crystal on a thread.
  • Grow one plant from seed to its own seeds Small cost. Choose a fast one, such as a bean, and date the pot.
  • Light an LED with a battery made of lemons Small cost. You need a few lemons, zinc nails, copper coins and clip leads.
  • Make a spore print from a mushroom cap Small cost. Buy an open-capped mushroom and rest it gills down on paper overnight.
  • Make a sundial that keeps time in your yard Free. Push a stick into the ground and mark its shadow on each hour.
  • Measure gravity with a string, a weight and a stopwatch Free. Hang the weight from a door frame and time twenty swings.
  • Measure the speed of light with a microwave and chocolate Small cost. Take out the turntable and read the frequency on the oven's label.
  • Put ten things from your kitchen under a microscope Small cost. Begin with salt, sugar and an onion skin.
  • Raise a Venus flytrap and watch it catch a fly Small cost. Buy one from a garden center and ask what water it wants.
  • Split black ink into its hidden colors on a coffee filter Free. Draw a line with a washable black marker and dip the edge in water.
  • Split sunlight with a prism and name the order of colors Small cost. Buy a glass prism and find a sunny windowsill.
  • Take a flower apart and label every piece Free. Pick a large simple one, such as a tulip or a lily, and lay it on white paper.
  • Turn a dark room into a camera obscura Free. Black out one window and leave a single coin-sized hole.
  • Watch a caterpillar become a chrysalis on your windowsill Small cost. Order a rearing kit in spring, or learn which plant your local species eats.

Science to take part in 20

  • Add a species to your county's public record Free. Photograph a plant or an insect and submit it to a nature recording site.
  • Classify a thousand galaxies for an online project Free. Search for a citizen science site that needs volunteers to sort telescope images.
  • Draw the same tree in bud, in leaf, in color and bare Free. Choose the tree and the place you will stand each time.
  • Estimate pi by dropping toothpicks on lined paper Free. Rule lines one toothpick apart and drop a hundred.
  • Explain one idea so well that a child explains it back Free. Choose the idea and find the thing in your kitchen that shows it.
  • Finish a full online course in a science you never studied Free. Choose the subject and block out two evenings a week.
  • Follow one space mission live, from launch day to arrival Free. Choose a mission that has not launched yet and note its launch window.
  • Help a child through a science fair, question to poster Free. Ask what they wonder about and write it down as a question.
  • Help scientists count, tag or band wild animals for a day Free. Ask a wildlife agency or a bird observatory when it needs volunteers.
  • Join an astronomy, geology or bird club for a year Small cost. Go to one meeting as a guest before you pay.
  • Keep a notebook on one question you test for a month Free. Write the question on page one and what would count as an answer.
  • Learn the first twenty elements in order Free. Print a periodic table and tape it beside the bathroom mirror.
  • Log the first leaf, bloom and frost of one whole year Free. Choose three plants you pass every day and start a dated list.
  • Measure the size of the Earth with a stick's shadow Free. Find a friend a few hundred miles north or south to measure at the same noon.
  • Read one research paper from title to references Free. Pick a discovery from the news and search for the open-access paper behind it.
  • Record the sky, wind and temperature daily for a year Free. Rule a page with a column for each and fill in today's row.
  • Report the daily rain from your yard to a volunteer network Small cost. Search for a rain observer network and buy the gauge it asks for.
  • Send a scientist one good question about their paper Free. Read the paper's summary twice and find the address of the corresponding author.
  • Send a winter of bird counts to a citizen science project Free. Search for a bird count that takes records from home.
  • Spend a week as a volunteer on a fossil or archaeology dig Save up. Search for digs that take untrained volunteers and ask what the week costs.