Science Lab Scavenger Hunt
Use a supervised science-lab scavenger hunt to teach equipment names, safety symbols, measurement tools, and cleanup locations.
How to use this activity
Review the list before students begin, remove anything unavailable, define the permitted route, and decide whether students will write, point, photograph, or report each answer. Pair students when the activity involves movement beyond one room.
Make it instructionally useful
Ask for a short explanation, example, sketch, calculation, or source citation with selected finds. That keeps the activity focused on understanding rather than speed alone.
Accessibility and supervision
Offer a seated or paper-based version, keep all required locations accessible, provide readable alternatives to visual-only clues, and ensure an adult supervises any movement through shared or public spaces.
Printable Hunt List
Use the checklist below as written or cross out any prompt that does not fit your location.
- Safety goggles
- Eyewash station
- Fire blanket or extinguisher location
- Graduated cylinder
- Balance or scale
- Thermometer
- Waste-disposal instructions
- A hazard symbol
- Tongs
- A labeled storage area
- A measuring tool with units
- The cleanup checklist
Science Hunt Evidence Checklist
- For Science Lab Scavenger Hunt, build the activity around a supervised learning area with safe materials and clearly labeled observation stations.
- Review that the people taking part in Science Lab Scavenger Hunt can understand and complete every required action.
- Before Science Lab Scavenger Hunt begins, gather a data sheet, pencil, and only the measuring or observation tools named in the activity.
- Walk the Science Lab Scavenger Hunt route—stations arranged to prevent spills, cross-contamination, and crowding around equipment—and correct any stop that creates crowding, backtracking, or a missing answer.
- Keep every task in Science Lab Scavenger Hunt centered on observing, classifying, measuring, and explaining scientific evidence.
- Remove unknown substances, allergens, glass, heat, electrical equipment, and unlabeled specimens from the Science Lab Scavenger Hunt plan before players begin.
Treat Every Stop as a Small Science Investigation
The strongest version of Science Lab Scavenger Hunt comes from using the actual space, people, and materials that will be present—not a generic checklist copied from another hunt.
Pay particular attention to a supervised learning area with safe materials and clearly labeled observation stations. The route should support observing, classifying, measuring, and explaining scientific evidence while avoiding unknown substances, allergens, glass, heat, electrical equipment, and unlabeled specimens.
Use the Collected Evidence to Make One Final Claim
Close the activity with a claim-evidence discussion or one final classification using the recorded observations. That ending should make sense because of what players just observed, solved, or created during Science Lab Scavenger Hunt, rather than feeling like an unrelated prize.