[September 2026] When Science Goes Wrong Ages 8-11
When Science Goes Wrong!
Science Activities & Resources for Kids Ages 8–11
We typically find out about science as a result of its successes; we discuss inventions that succeeded, medicines that saved lives, spacecraft that reached their destinations, and discoveries that altered our understanding of the world.
Yet on certain occasions we gain more from failure than from success...
A scientist can learn that an idea needs to be altered as a result of a failed experiment. An engineering disaster may show that there was a problem which no one had completely understood earlier. And even an accidental discovery can result in something useful provided that someone is paying attention.
For kids these stories also offer some excellent opportunities for learning about science. You can construct things, break things, make predictions, test your ideas, and discover why sometimes small mistakes can have surprisingly big consequences.
Here are a few places to start.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened in Washington state in July 1940; it was a suspension bridge spanning the Tacoma Narrows, and people soon noticed that the road surface exhibited noticeable movement in windy conditions.
This behaviour had already been observed by the workers while the bridge was being constructed, and because it was so apparent, the bridge came to be known as “Galloping Gertie”.
On November 7, 1940, winds blowing at about 68 kilometres per hour caused the bridge deck to twist back and forth, and the twisting grew more and more severe until a large part of the bridge collapsed into the water.
The bridge is frequently used as an example when teaching about resonance, but the real explanation is more complicated. Upon investigating the collapse, the engineers discovered that the shape and flexibility of the bridge caused the wind to interact with it in such a way as to produce a twisting movement known as aeroelastic flutter.
As engineers gained a better understanding of the way wind acts around large structures, bridge design was altered, and nowadays suspension bridges are carefully tested for these effects, usually by using scale models in wind tunnels and computer simulations.
Build a Paper Bridge
This is a simple engineering problem, since you'll likely have everything you need.
You’ll need:
- Paper
- Two stacks of books
- Coins or washers
- Tape
- A ruler
Place the two stacks of books about 20 centimetres apart and put a single sheet of paper across them.
Begin putting coins into the middle.
Count the number of coins that the piece of paper can hold before it bends to the point where the coins fall.
Then start experimenting with the paper. Fold it like an accordion. Fold up the sides and roll some of it into tubes, then put in some supports underneath.
Keep the distance between the books the same so that you’re comparing the designs fairly.
See which design supports the greatest weight.
You could also attempt increasing the length of the bridge; in fact, you'll find that a design which works very well over a gap of one foot might not work quite as well over a gap of two feet.
A Mouldy Dish and Penicillin
In 1928, Alexander Fleming was studying Staphylococcus bacteria at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. One of his culture dishes became contaminated with a mould.
In a laboratory situation contamination is usually not a good thing, but in this instance Fleming observed that the bacteria were not growing in the usual way around the mould.
The mold was giving off a substance which prevented the bacteria from growing.
Fleming determined that the mold belonged to the Penicillium group and named the antibacterial substance penicillin; it was many years of further work by other scientists, especially Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, and their team at Oxford, that turned that observation into a practical medicine.
There is a valuable lesson to be learned from this that extends beyond the discovery of antibiotics.
Fleming had no intention of allowing mould to grow in his bacterial culture; what mattered was that he observed an unexpected outcome and then investigated it.
Scientists frequently come across surprising results. These may be due to errors, or they might arise when an experiment reveals something that no one had originally intended to look for. Although an accident is usually nothing more than an accident, careful observation enables scientists to realize that, in some cases, it warrants further examination.
Practice Scientific Observation
Pick something ordinary from your house or backyard.
A rock works, and so do a leaf, a pinecone, a spoon, an orange, a feather, or a LEGO brick.
Take two minutes to look at it and list ten things that you notice.
Don't attempt to explain anything at this stage.
For example:
One side of the rock is darker.
That’s an observation.
One side of the rock is darker because it was underground.
That is an explanation, though you haven’t yet found out if it’s correct.
When you have ten observations, select three and turn them into questions that you might investigate.
It’s an easy exercise, but the ability to tell the difference between what we observe and what we think is important as a scientific skill.
Chemistry Can Smell Terrible
Certain chemicals can be picked up by the human nose at extremely low concentrations.
Thiols are a class of compounds containing sulphur and are well known for their strong odours; some of the chemicals which cause the smell of skunk spray are thiols.
The natural gas used in homes is mainly methane, a gas that has no colour and no smell; it would thus be hard for a person to detect a leak without using special equipment.
Gas suppliers mix in substances with a strong smell so that leaks can be detected. A frequently used odorant is tert-butyl mercaptan, a compound containing sulphur which humans are able to smell at very low concentrations.
Our sense of smell is in fact a device for detecting chemistry. The molecules pass through the air and act on the receptors in the nose, after which our brain interprets the signals produced as different odours.
You can carry out this experiment without getting close to any unpleasant laboratory chemicals.
How Good Is Your Nose?
Gather several foods with recognizable smells. You could try:
- Cinnamon
- Coffee
- Lemon
- Vanilla
- Garlic
- Mint
- Orange peel
- Vinegar
Put them in separate cups and have someone else number them.
Close your eyes and see how many you can identify by smell alone.
Then experiment.
Can you tell whether two odours have been combined? Does it change when the foods are warmed up? How far can you smell cinnamon as compared with vanilla?
You might just draw up a chart and compare the results obtained from a number of people.
Use only foods and other household items that an adult has approved. Please don't directly smell any unknown chemical.
Your Experiment Didn’t Work. Good.
Failure is a normal part of experimenting.
Imagine that you are attempting to construct a paper airplane which should fly ten metres; your first attempt covers three metres before crashing.
You haven't yet learned how to build an airplane that can fly 10 meters, but you have obtained your first piece of data.
Measure the flight.
Look at what happened.
Did the airplane turn? Dive? Stall? Flip over? Did one wing bend?
Then change one thing and test it again.
It is here that variables become important; if the shape of the wing, the thickness of the paper, the weight of the nose, and the throwing technique are all altered at the same time, it becomes hard to determine which of the changes had an effect on the flight.
The most useful information is obtained by altering one variable at a time.
Run a Paper Airplane Investigation
Build a paper airplane and fly it five times from the same starting line.
Measure each flight and record the results.
Then choose one variable to change:
- Wing size
- Wing angle
- Nose shape
- Paper thickness
- Added weight
Build your second airplane and test it five times under the same conditions.
Compare your results.
If the new airplane performs worse, don’t discard the results. Record them.
Try another change.
That’s how an engineering challenge becomes an experiment instead of simply a competition to see who can throw a paper airplane the farthest.
More Scientific Mistakes to Investigate
You can find a number of other examples to carry on your investigation of the topic.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
What caused the tower to start leaning when it was still under construction? How have modern engineers managed to stabilise it?
Cane Toads in Australia
Cane toads were intentionally introduced into Australia in 1935 with the aim of getting rid of agricultural pests.
The Great Molasses Flood
In 1919 a huge storage tank in Boston exploded and poured millions of litres of molasses into the neighbourhood around it. We should look into the engineering problems which led to the disaster.
Fukushima Daiichi
In 2011 Japan was hit by a great earthquake and a tsunami. Those students who are older might wish to find out how these natural disasters affected the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and what lessons the engineers drew from the accident.
The Hubble Space Telescope’s Mirror
At the time when Hubble started sending images back to Earth in 1990, scientists found that the huge primary mirror had been manufactured in the incorrect shape by a small amount. Discover how the astronauts were able to repair a telescope orbiting hundreds of kilometres above the Earth.
The Vasa
The huge warship Vasa sank in 1628 after having travelled only a short distance during its first journey. Construct a small boat and carry out experiments to see how adding weight high up or low down affects its stability.
Make Your Own Failure Lab
For the month if you're studying science at home it would be a good idea to keep a Failure Lab notebook.
Whenever an experiment, construction project, recipe, garden project, or other investigation doesn’t work as expected, write down what happened.
Use four questions:
What was I trying to do?
What actually happened?
What might have caused it?
What could I change next time?
Add sketches, measurements, photographs, and completely wrong predictions.
Don’t erase the predictions that didn’t work out. Those are part of the experiment too.
A science notebook filled entirely with correct predictions wouldn’t be very realistic. Scientists spend a lot of time finding out that their first idea wasn’t quite right.
Free Learning Resources
Here are some fun and free resources to keep experimenting, building, breaking things, and figuring out why they broke!
General
NASA Space Place — NASA’s science site for kids, with experiments, activities, games, spacecraft, and plenty of opportunities to explore how science and engineering work.
Explore NASA Space Place
Science Buddies — Hundreds of free elementary science and engineering projects. Try an experiment as written, then change one variable and see what happens.
Explore Science Buddies
Exploratorium Science Snacks — Hands-on science activities developed and reviewed by educators at the Exploratorium. You’ll find experiments covering mechanics, chemistry, light, fluids, life science, and more.
Explore Science Snacks
Free Videos & Documentaries
These videos are a good way to explore real examples of science and engineering that didn’t quite go according to plan!
Why the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapsed — Practical Engineering — Watch the famous footage of “Galloping Gertie” and learn how wind contributed to the bridge’s collapse.
Watch Why the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapsed
NASA Space Place: Science & Technology — Explore spacecraft, telescopes, inventions, satellites, and the technology NASA uses to study space.
Explore NASA Science & Technology
The Amazing Hubble Telescope — NASA Space Place — Hubble belongs in any study of scientific mistakes: its primary mirror was made slightly wrong, leaving its first images blurry. Astronauts eventually installed corrective optics in space.
Explore Hubble with NASA Space Place
Hands-On Activities
Paper Bridge Challenge: Build a bridge between two stacks of books using paper and tape. Add coins until it collapses, redesign it, and see how much more weight your second bridge can hold.
Paper Airplane Failure Lab: Fly the same paper airplane five times and record the distance. Change just one part of the design and test it again. Keep experimenting to find out which changes actually help.
Build an Unsinkable Boat: Make a small boat from aluminum foil and load it with coins. Experiment with wide, narrow, deep, and shallow designs. How many coins can you carry before your boat sinks?
Science Buddies STEM Activities: If you want another experiment, Science Buddies has more than 200 elementary STEM activities to choose from.
Find an Elementary STEM Activity
Books to Explore
Check your library for these reads!
Mistakes That Worked: 40 Familiar Inventions & How They Came to Be — Charlotte Foltz Jones — A collection of inventions and discoveries that came about through mistakes, accidents, and unexpected results. https://amzn.to/3U9b4Qa
The Book of Mistakes — Corinna Luyken — A creative look at how something that initially seems like a mistake can become part of something much better. https://amzn.to/4xu7ZJr
How to Code a Sandcastle — Josh Funk — A fun introduction to instructions, problem-solving, coding, and figuring out what went wrong when your plan doesn’t work. https://amzn.to/4ihArcr
Rosie Revere, Engineer — Andrea Beaty — Rosie loves inventing, but her inventions don’t always work. A good story for exploring engineering, experimenting, and trying another design after the first one fails. https://amzn.to/4guT5vc
Ready to Experiment?
Make a prediction, test your ideas, and don’t worry if everything doesn’t go according to plan. Sometimes the mistakes are the most interesting part!
