Simple Summer Science Sunscreen Experiment

Protecting your skin from the sun’s UV rays may be a hard, abstract concept for kids to understand… at least until they get a sunburn. This simple sunscreen experiment allows kids to learn about the importance of using sunscreen this summer. This summer science is perfect for all ages from kindergartner, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th graders. All you need are a few simple materials to try this sunscreen construction paper experiment.

Sunscreen Experiment

Summer is the perfect time to get outside and enjoy the warm, bright sun. But how careful are we about protecting our skin from the sun’s UV rays? Too much exposure to the UV Radiation can lead to skin cancer, wrinkles and age spots. When the sun hits your skin it tells your body to protect itself by producing melanin, a brown pigment that darkens the cells of our epidermis (the technical term for skin). Sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, and layers of light clothing are important to protect us from the effects of too much time in the sun. In this fun sunscreen experiment we are going to look at the effects the sun can have and if sunscreen can help slow or stop those affects. THis simple summer science experiment is fun for all ages from preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5, and grde 6 student too.

Summer Science

All you need are a few simple materials to try this sunscreen paper project.

• colored construction paper (we used orange)
• dark colored construction paper
• plastic wrap
• sunscreen
• hat
• sunglasses
• sunny spot

Sunscreen construction paper experiment

Start by cutting 4 squares or people shapes out of your colored construction paper. Any color of dark colored construction paper should work great.  Write on the back of each person: control, sunscreen, hat, or sunglasses. Cut out hat and sunglasses of black construction paper and place on the appropraite person.

Now wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Put sunscreen over the figure marked sunscreen only.

Sunscreen science experiment

Put your construction paper person out in the sun following the conditions on the reverse side for 1 week. Make predictions or hypothesis of what you will see.

• no protection on the first, just wrapped in plastic wrap
• apply sunscreen – use the type you would typically use
• set a hat over top of the hat paper
• set sunglasses over the final paper

Sunscreen paper experiment

Check on your papers. Did any of them fade?  Which one worked best? Adding an extra layer like a hat or sunglasses protects delicate areas such as your eyes and face from sunburns that may result in skin cancer and sun damage.

The thicker the layer of sunscreen or the highter the SPF the better protection it should have provided to your paper skin.

Sun Safety for Kids

Sunscreen comes in different strengths called the SPF (Sun Protection Factor) to tell us how much it protects our skin; the highter the more protection. Try your experiment again and this time use a different SPF factor for each of your construction paper test subjects.