Here are some science and educational toys you can make for very low cost... or even for free from stuff you can find around the house.

Buying toys can represent a considerable expense. ZooBloo has scoured the Internet for science and educational toys that you can build yourself... or with the help of your kids... out of inexpensive materials and objects you can find around the house.

ScienceToyMaker.org This is a really great website... with all sorts of really classic science toys you can make.

Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids Instructions on how to make a wide variety of science toys... everything from a crystal radio to a bernoulli levitating ball.

The Backyard Volcano ... and Backyard Weather Station

Animated Toys

How to Make a Thaumatrope "... The thaumatrope is somewhat magical because it creates illusions dependent on persistence of vision. When you spin a thaumatrope, the two images on either side seem to blend together and become one picture...."

Kosmic Kanga Flipbook

Drawings That Move - Flipbooks

Pop Pop Boats

"Pop-pop boats are powered by a simple boiler consisting of a thin coiled tube of copper. The tube's ends extend out the back of the boat into the water. The coils in the middle of the tube extend over a small flame, which heats the water in the coils. When the water boils, the steam jets out the back, propelling the boat forward. It's that simple."

How to Build a Pop-Pop Boat

Make a Putt Putt (Pop-Pop) Boat "... it wasn't until I was an adult that I saw my first putt putt steam boat, chugging away in an outdoor market in Bangladesh-- in Southern Asia-- one of the poorest countries in the world. Made mostly from a recycled milk tin, it sounded like a tugboat and it really moved--all efficiently powered by a little vegetable oil lamp. How could such a cool thing have existed without my knowing about it?..."

Putt putt boat

Do It Yourself Holography

Shoebox Holography "... is a step-by-step, hands-on manual on how to create your own holograms easily and very inexpensively. Shoebox Holography is also a revolutionary holography method . . . now ANYONE can make their own holograms without expensive, cumbersome equipment . . . even without electricity . . . at home or in the classroom, in the area the size of a tabletop."  Not free... sells an inexpensive how-to book, with and without a laser pointer.

Paper Airplanes

Alex's Paper Airplanes Learn to Fly Free Paper Airplanes, Helicopters and Gliders

Build The Best Paper Airplane in the World

Ken Blackburn's Paper Airplanes

McShane's Planes

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 "... This flying paper airplane model is a real find.  The aerodynamic design will produce exciting barrel rolls and loops.  Full instructions show you how to make your own rubber band launcher for long distance flights.  Simple construction techniques get you flying with a sturdy plane that can take a beating...."

National Paper Airplane Contest

Paper Aircraft Association

Building Balancing Toys

The Physics of Balancing Toys This is the basic information you need to build your own balancing toys.

The KEY to building balancing toys is to that more than 50% of the weight needs to be BELOW the pivotal point.

Tight Rope Cyclists shows how to make a highwire balancing toy ... kind of like Ernest the Bear ... "has a great link to a video at a science museum with a unicycle that ordinary people actually strap into and pedal on a wire, high above the floor. It doesn't require skill because it has a weight/balance arrangement similar to the acrobat toy.... Click here."

Real Puzzles Balancing Toys Simple using wire coat hanger and clothespins.

Kites

20 Kids... 20 Kites.... 20 Minutes "... For over 15 years the Big Wind Kite Factory has been giving kite making classes for the children on the island of Moloka'i in Hawai'i. These are the complete time tested instructions to get 20 kids making their own kites and flying them in 20 minutes...."

25 Kites that Fly

Chinese Traditional Kite Making "...For the frame, the right kind of bamboo must be selected. It should be thick and strong for a kite of large dimensions in order to stand the wind pressure. For miniature kites, on the other hand , thin bamboo strips are to be used. The second step in the making of a kite is the covering of the frame. This is normally done with paper, sometimes with silk. Silk kites are more durable and generally of higher artistic value...."

How to Fly a Kite

How to Make Kites out of Recycled Fabric and Paper

Japanese Kites: Huge Kite Museum and Kite Museum

The Virtual Kite Zoo

Aeolian Harps and Other Wind-Powered Musical Instruments

Aeolian Harp "... the wonderful thing about Aeolian Harp's is they're like a bridge between man and nature. Basically, it's like a long shoebox with strings stretched across the top...."And when the wind blows over these strings, and the wind is powerful enough, we actually hear this vibration." The vibration is enhanced by the Venturi Effect where wind speed increases as it passes through a small opening and this causes the strings to vibrate even more, up and down with the breeze...."

Building an Aeolian Harp "... As a last-minute Burning Man project, I decided to build an Aeolian Harp - a string instrument played by the wind. I'm following the short design description from "Amy Queen of Toyes" found here on Dennis Havlena's site, which has a plans for a many DIY instruments...."

Exploratorium on Aeolian Harps

Nantong Flute Kite ... and Kite Musical Instruments "...traditional sound producing devices i.e. "aeolian" musical instruments for kites or other purposes and their manufacturing. All instruments are sounded & powered by the natural wind itself.... The building materials mostly used for traditional instruments are bamboo, rattan, gourds and bone; the new ones use "modern" materials like styrofoam, paper-mâché, tins, steel strings, etc...." 

The Tin Resonator Aeolian Harp "... While experimenting with the tin-resonators used as amplifying devices on my "Longstring Aeolian Harp", I noticed, that under certain circumstances the tin-resonators began emitting separate tones by themselves like aeolian harps.
These tones were amplified wonderfully by the resonators, were pleasant for the ears, not too loud and thus seemed useful for a simple aeolian harp...
Here's a sample of the tones..."

Zoetropes

According to Wikipedia "A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures." LIterally, the word means "life" (zoe) "changing" (trope).

Build Your Own Zoetrope Movie Viewer

How to Make a Zoetrope

Make a Zoetrope

Science Projects

Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab... for parents, teachers, and children of all ages.

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