Free Online Science Labs for Middle and High School

Free online science labs let every student run the experiment, not just watch it: in class, at home or on a phone. This roundup lists 28 virtual labs from the Simulic library, grouped by subject: physics, chemistry, biology, and earth and space science. For each lab you get its name, the grade it was written for and one sentence on what students actually do in it. Where a full lesson plan exists, the entry links to it, so you can go from "this looks useful" to a ready lesson in one click. Three of the labs are embedded below, so you can try them before you decide.

What "free" means here

Playing every simulation in the library is free, for you and for your students.

• Students never need an account. You share a link (simulic.com/p/…), a QR code or an embed in your LMS, and the lab opens in the browser. Student pages set no cookies.
• Teachers get the core share tools for free: several named links per simulation, pinned starting values, and question sets with automatic checking. The free plan collects 100 student answers per month.
• What costs money: Pro ($7 a month or $59 a year) removes the answer limit and adds link options such as expiry dates and locked parameters. Creating your own simulation with AI uses credits. See pricing.

How to read the list. The grade is the one each simulation was written for. Most labs work a year or two either side, and many have a simpler and a harder screen. Labs that go with an existing lesson plan say so.

Searching for a topic that isn't here? The search box on every page finds simulations by name, topic and tags across the whole library of 500+.

Physics labs

These cover the core of most physics courses: motion, forces, energy, waves and light, and electricity. The middle school labs (grades 6–9) focus on one relationship at a time; the high school labs add graphs, data tables and measurement.

Projectile motion – trajectory and air resistance · Grade 10 Students set the launch height, angle and speed to hit a target with a basketball, steel ball or shuttlecock, then compare paths with and without air resistance. Lesson plan: projectile motion.

Simple pendulum – period, energy and measuring g · Grade 11 Students change the length, mass, gravity and friction, time the period with the built-in timer, and find g on a mystery planet on the Lab screen. Lesson plan: simple pendulum.

Forces and motion – the basics · Grade 6 Students run a tug of war to see net force, push objects with and without friction, and watch the numbers behind F = m·a on the Acceleration screen. Lesson plan: forces and motion.

Buoyancy – lab and shapes · Grade 8 Students change the liquid density, gravity and block mass, read the upthrust from the liquid the block displaces, and compare a block, sphere, cone, bottle and boat of equal volume. Lesson plan: density and buoyancy.

Light rays – refraction, total internal reflection and prisms · Grade 9 Students drag a laser across the boundary between two media, measure the angle of refraction with a protractor, work out the refractive index of mystery materials, and split white light with a prism. Lesson plan: refraction and lenses.

Specific heat capacity – heating different materials · Grade 12 Students heat two materials, such as water and aluminium, with the same heater and compare the slopes of their temperature–time graphs.

Collision lab – momentum and kinetic energy in collisions · Grade 10 Students collide up to four balls on a track or two balls in a plane, set the elasticity from 0 to 100%, and check momentum and kinetic energy in the live data table.

Try it in two minutes. On the Intro screen the defaults are a 1 kg ball at 2 m/s and a 1.5 kg ball at −1 m/s. Ask students to predict the velocities after the collision, then read the table: −1.6 m/s and 1.4 m/s. The total momentum stays at 0.5 kg·m/s and the kinetic energy at 2.75 J. On the Inelastic screen the balls stick together at 0.2 m/s, and only 0.05 J of kinetic energy is left. Read the table just after the first collision, before the balls bounce off the ends of the track.

Ohm's law – voltage, current and resistance · Grade 9 Students change the voltage and the resistance, record the current in a table and use the I–U graph to see which quantities are proportional. Lesson plan: Ohm's law.

DC circuit construction kit – build circuits, measure current and voltage · Grade 9 Students build circuits from wires, batteries, bulbs, resistors and switches, take readings with a voltmeter and an ammeter, and compare series and parallel circuits. Lesson plan: series and parallel circuits.

More activity ideas for these labs: interactive physics lesson ideas.

Chemistry labs

These range from the particle model and atoms in middle school to titration curves and reaction rates in high school. Several of them replace experiments that are hard to run safely or quickly in a school lab.

States of matter – particle model on heating and cooling · Grade 6 Students heat and cool water, ethanol, mercury or oxygen, watch the particles melt, boil, condense and freeze, and find the flat parts of the temperature–time graph.

States of matter – solids, liquids, gases and phase changes · Grade 12 Students heat, cool and compress neon, argon, oxygen or water, read the pressure gauge and phase diagram, and compare the forces between particles to explain boiling points. Lesson plan: states of matter.

pH scale – measuring and mixing acids and bases · Grade 11 Students measure the pH of everyday liquids from battery acid to drain cleaner, add water to see how dilution changes pH, and compare H₃O⁺ and OH⁻ concentrations on the Micro screen. Lesson plan: pH scale.

Balancing chemical equations – coefficients, molecule models and practice game · Grade 8 Students set coefficients until the atoms balance on both sides, check with molecule models and a balance scale, then play a game with three levels of five equations. Lesson plan: balancing chemical equations.

Building molecules – atoms, valence, formulas and 3D shapes · Grade 7 Students join atoms by valence to make molecules such as H₂O, CO₂ and NH₃, read each formula and name, and rotate a 3D model of the result. Lesson plan: build a molecule.

Build an atom – protons, neutrons, electrons, ions and isotopes · Grade 7 Students add protons, neutrons and electrons to build atoms up to Z = 20, ions and isotopes, and read the mass number, charge and whether the nucleus is stable.

Acid–Base Titration and the Titration Curve · Grade 12 Students add NaOH drop by drop to a strong or weak acid, watch the pH jump at the equivalence point, and test whether phenolphthalein or methyl orange is the right indicator.

Try it in two minutes. With the defaults (20 mL of 0.1 M acid, 0.1 M NaOH), the equivalence point is at 20.00 mL. Switch to CH₃COOH and methyl orange: the simulation reports that the color changes at about 6.22 mL, a titration error of about −69%. Switch to phenolphthalein and the error falls below 0.1%. The equivalence pH for the weak acid is 8.72, which is exactly why the indicator choice matters.

Reaction rate – collision model (concentration, temperature, catalyst, surface area) · Grade 10 Students change one factor at a time and compare the new product curve with the previous run, which stays on the graph.

Metal reactivity series – dropping metal into solution · Grade 9 Students drop metals from potassium to gold into dilute acids, salt solutions or water and look for hydrogen bubbles, a new metal coating or no reaction at all.

More activity ideas: interactive chemistry lesson ideas.

Biology labs

These make invisible processes visible: molecules crossing membranes, enzymes at work, genes being expressed and populations changing over generations.

Gene expression – transcription, translation and regulation · Grade 12 Students place transcription factors, RNA polymerase and ribosomes on DNA to make mRNA and protein, then see how regulation and chance change protein levels from cell to cell. Lesson plan: gene expression.

Diffusion and Osmosis – Membrane Model and Potato Strip Experiment · Grade 7 Students compare diffusion rates across a membrane, watch water move by osmosis, and soak six potato strips in sugar solutions to find where the mass doesn't change.

Photosynthesis – counting oxygen bubbles in pondweed · Grade 7 Students move the lamp and change the CO₂ and temperature, count the oxygen bubbles, and plot the rate against each factor.

Enzyme activity vs. temperature, pH, substrate concentration and inhibitors · Grade 10 Students choose amylase, pepsin or trypsin, change the temperature, pH and substrate concentration, add an inhibitor, and watch the rate of product formation.

Punnett Square – Mendelian Genetics (One and Two Trait Pairs) · Grade 9 Students choose the parents' genotypes for one or two pea plant traits, build the Punnett square, then simulate offspring and compare the result with 3:1 or 9:3:3:1.

Natural selection – rabbit population, mutations, wolves and food · Grade 12 Students introduce mutations, wolves and tough or limited food into a rabbit population and track phenotypes and allele frequencies over the generations.

More activity ideas: interactive biology lesson ideas.

Earth and space labs

These compress millions of years, or a whole year of Earth's orbit, into a few minutes on screen.

Tectonic plates – divergent, convergent and transform boundaries; earthquakes and volcanoes · Grade 6 Students choose a plate boundary, move the plates by hand or at their real speed of a few centimeters a year, and watch ridges, volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes form.

Try it in two minutes. At the default 5 cm a year, the plates move 50 km every million years, and the simulation shows the years and the distance as they pass. Ask students how long the plates take to move 1,000 km at that speed (20 million years), then press Run and check.

The Rock Cycle – Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks · Grade 10 Students apply one process at a time, such as weathering, deposition, heat and pressure or melting, and follow a rock sample as it becomes granite, sandstone, marble and more.

Greenhouse effect – greenhouse gases and Earth's temperature · Grade 6 Students set the greenhouse gas concentration to the Ice Age, 1750 or today, add clouds or atmospheric layers, and watch the surface temperature respond.

Axial Tilt and the Seasons 3D – Orbit, Day Length and Sun Angle · Grade 10 Students move Earth through the year, read the day length and noon Sun altitude at any latitude, and set the tilt to 0° to make the seasons disappear.

Turn a lab into a lesson

A lab link on its own is a toy. Three things turn it into a lesson:

1. A question students must answer with data, such as "find the angle that gives the longest range", not "explore projectiles".
2. A link per class with pinned starting values, so everyone starts from the same setup.
3. A question set on the link, so you see every answer without collecting paper.

The virtual lab activity guide walks through designing one from scratch, and virtual labs vs physical labs helps you decide which experiments belong on the bench instead. For homework use, see simulations for homework, and for the full range of classroom uses, start with how to use interactive simulations in the classroom.

FAQ

Are these online science labs really free?

Yes. Playing every library simulation is free for teachers and students, and students don't need an account. Paid options are Pro, for unlimited answers and extra link options, and credits for creating your own simulations with AI.

Do the labs work on Chromebooks, tablets and phones?

Yes. They run in the browser, and a plain play link opens full screen on any device. The 3D labs need a device that can show 3D graphics, so test them on school devices first.

Can I use these labs in my LMS?

Yes. Copy the embed code from the simulation's Share page, or post the play link. The LMS embed guide has steps for Canvas, Moodle, Google Classroom and others.

Which grades are these labs for?

Grades 6 to 12. Each entry shows the grade the simulation was written for, and most work a year or two either side.