100 ideas

Science Drawing Ideas for Notebook Covers, Posters and Projects

Deal one cell, flask, circuit or volcano in a named view, with the part to get right printed under it.

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Drawn: A candle flame with its zones labelledA candle flame with its zones labelledBlue round the base, a dark zone just above the wick, and a bright yellow zone that is not the hottest part.

Next step Set up glass and bottles as a still life

All 100 ideas

Biology 28

A bacteriophage landing on a bacterium A virus that infects bacteria. A blocky head, a straight tail and thin leg-like fibres, like a moon lander.
A bean seed sprouting in five jars Same jar, five days. The root comes out of the seed first and turns down, then the shoot hooks upward.
A butterfly's life cycle in four stages Egg, caterpillar (larva), chrysalis (pupa), adult. Set the four round a circle with arrows between.
A chloroplast with its stacks of green discs Each stack of flat discs is a granum, and it looks like a pile of coins. Link the stacks with thin bridges.
A compound microscope in side view Eyepiece on top, objective lenses on a turret, a flat stage, a light below and focus knobs on the arm.
A DNA double helix climbing a notebook cover Two ribbons joined by rungs. A pairs with T and C pairs with G, so colour the rungs in matched pairs.
A flower cut in half to show its parts Petals outside, then a ring of stamens that make the pollen, then one pistil in the centre holding the ovary.
A frog's life cycle round a pond Spawn, tadpole, tadpole with legs, froglet, frog. The back legs grow first, then the front legs.
A human skeleton waving hello Skull, rib cage and pelvis are the three big shapes. A baby has around 270 bones; an adult has about 206.
A leaf with a zoom bubble on one stoma A stoma is a pore bordered by a pair of guard cells. Leaves usually carry more of them on the underside.
A mitochondrion sliced lengthways A bean shape with a smooth outer membrane and an inner one folded into shelves called cristae.
A neuron stretching across the whole page A cell body with branching dendrites, one long axon, and a beaded myelin sheath wrapped along it.
A paramecium edged with tiny hairs Once nicknamed the slipper animalcule. An oval body with rows of short hairs, called cilia, all round the outside.
A plant cell cut open, labelled A boxy cell wall outside, one large central vacuole, and green chloroplasts dotted round the edge.
A pond food chain with arrows Start with a green plant, the producer, then a plant-eater, then a hunter. Arrows run from the meal to the eater.
A tooth cut in half Enamel cap on top, dentine under it, soft pulp in the middle. Enamel is the hardest substance in the body.
A tree stump slice with growth rings One ring generally marks one year. Make some years wide and some narrow, and add a crack to the bark.
A Venus flytrap snapping shut Each lobe has three trigger hairs. Two touches within about 20 seconds shut it, and the edge spines mesh.
An amoeba reaching out a false foot It changes shape by pushing out bulges called pseudopods. Draw a blob with one arm reaching, and a nucleus inside.
An animal cell as a labelled poster No wall, so keep the outline soft and rounded. Give the nucleus and each organelle its own colour and a key.
An ant in three labelled parts Head, thorax, abdomen. All six legs join the thorax, the middle part, and none grow from the abdomen.
Bacteria in three shapes in a round dish Balls are cocci, rods are bacilli and corkscrews are spirilla. Dot them in clusters and chains.
The human heart with four chambers, colour-coded Two atria on top, two ventricles below. The left ventricle wall is much thicker, so draw it that way.
Loop, whorl and arch fingerprints The three basic patterns. Build each in a box from curved lines that run side by side and never cross.
Lungs drawn as an upside-down tree The windpipe splits into two bronchi that keep branching. Right lung: three lobes; left lung: two.
Mitosis as a comic strip: one cell becomes two Prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase. In metaphase the chromosomes line up across the middle.
Onion skin cells seen down a microscope A circle for the view, filled with brick-shaped cells in rows. One dot in each for the nucleus.
Photosynthesis as an arrow poster One plant, five arrows. Sunlight, water and carbon dioxide go in; sugar and oxygen come out.

Chemistry 24

A beaker with a pouring lip A straight-sided cylinder with a small spout. The top and the liquid's surface are matching ellipses.
A Bunsen burner with a blue flame Air hole open, the flame burns hotter and blue. Closed, it is a cooler, brighter yellow called the safety flame.
A burette dripping into a flask A long marked tube with a tap at the bottom, held upright in a clamp. One drop caught mid-fall.
A candle flame with its zones labelled Blue round the base, a dark zone just above the wick, and a bright yellow zone that is not the hottest part.
A carbon atom with electron rings Six protons in the nucleus, two electrons on the inner ring and four on the outer ring.
A carbon dioxide molecule in a straight line Carbon in the middle and an oxygen either side, each joined by a double stick.
A cube of table salt as a ball lattice Sodium and chloride alternate in a cubic grid, each ion with six of the other kind round it. Two colours of ball.
A distillation set-up from flask to drip Heated flask on the left, a sloping condenser jacketed with cooling water, a flask catching drops on the right.
A dropper pipette with one hanging drop A glass tube, a rubber bulb and a drop stretching at the tip. Reflect a tiny window in the drop.
A felt-tip dot separating on wet paper Paper chromatography. A strip dipped in water, and the ink dot climbing and splitting into bands of colour.
A flame test: four flames, four colours Lithium burns carmine red, sodium bright yellow, potassium lilac and copper blue-green. One flame shape, recoloured.
A measuring cylinder with a curved meniscus Water climbs the glass at the edges, so the surface dips. Draw the curve and an eye level with its lowest point.
A methane molecule as a tetrahedron One carbon and four equal bonds to hydrogen. Draw one bond as a wedge coming at you and one dashed going away.
A mortar and pestle with blue crystals A heavy bowl and a club-shaped grinder. Show some crystals whole and some crushed to powder.
A round-bottom flask clamped over a burner A ball with a neck, held by a clamp on a stand. Reflect a curved window on the glass.
A separating funnel with oil floating on water A pear-shaped funnel with a tap below. Two layers and one crisp line between them.
A vinegar and baking soda volcano mid-fizz The foam is carbon dioxide gas made as the two react. Draw it spilling down a model cone on a tray.
A water molecule, ball and stick One big oxygen ball and two small hydrogen balls in a bent V of about 104.5 degrees, never a straight line.
An Erlenmeyer flask of bubbling blue liquid Flat bottom, cone body, straight neck. Named after Emil Erlenmeyer, the chemist who invented it in 1860.
The gold square from the periodic table, poster size Atomic number 79 and the symbol Au, from the Latin aurum. Make the symbol the biggest thing in the box.
The pH scale as a colour strip Universal indicator runs red for strong acid, through orange and yellow to green at 7, then blue and violet.
Safety goggles reflecting a lab bench A wraparound lens with a strap. The reflection bends with the lens, so curve the shelves and bottles.
Six test tubes in a wooden rack Round bottoms, open tops. Fill each to a different height with a different colour and add one bubble trail.
Solid, liquid and gas as dots in three jars Solid: dots packed in neat rows. Liquid: touching but jumbled. Gas: a few dots far apart with speed lines.

Physics 24

A balloon lifting someone's hair with static Strands fan out towards the balloon and away from each other. Keep the face surprised and simple.
A bar magnet with its field lines Lines run from the north pole round to the south and never cross. Pack them closer where the field is strong.
A convex lens bringing sunbeams to a point Parallel rays in from the left, a fat lens in the middle, and the rays crossing at one focal point.
A filament light bulb, close up A coiled tungsten filament held between fine wires on a glass stem, inside a glass bulb with a screw base.
A hammer and a feather falling together on the Moon An Apollo 15 astronaut dropped both in 1971. With no air to slow the feather, they landed at the same time.
A horseshoe magnet lifting a chain of paperclips Each clip hangs from the one above. Tilt them slightly so the chain looks as if it might drop.
A lever lifting a boulder A plank over a pivot, called the fulcrum. Put the fulcrum near the boulder so the pushing arm is long.
A pencil that looks broken in a glass of water Refraction. Light bends as it leaves the water, so break the pencil at the surface line and shift the lower half.
A pendulum shown in five positions at once One bold bob at the bottom and four ghost bobs along the arc, fading towards the ends.
A periscope cut open to show its mirrors Two mirrors, one at each end, set parallel at 45 degrees. Dash the light ray down the tube as a Z.
A prism fanning white light into colours One thin white beam in, a widening fan out. Red bends least, so it sits at one edge of the fan, not the middle.
A pulley hoisting a bucket A grooved wheel, a rope over it, a bucket on one end and two hands on the other. Arrows show the pull.
A rainbow with a fainter second bow Red on the outer edge, violet inside. The second bow sits outside the first with its colours reversed.
A roller coaster with its energy labelled Height gained on the lift hill is stored energy. It turns into movement energy on the way down. Label both.
A series circuit beside a parallel circuit Series puts both bulbs on one loop. Parallel gives each bulb a branch of its own. Same parts, two layouts.
A simple circuit: battery, switch, bulb Draw it twice, once as objects and once in symbols. The loop must close or the bulb stays dark.
A thermometer with both scales marked Water freezes at 0 °C, which is 32 °F, and boils at 100 °C, which is 212 °F. Mark all four.
A transverse wave with crest and trough labelled The crest is the highest point and the trough the lowest. Mark one wavelength from crest to crest.
A Van de Graaff generator and a hair-raising hand A hollow metal dome on a column with a moving belt inside carrying charge up. Invented in 1929.
A wind turbine with its nacelle cut open The box behind the blades is the nacelle. Inside it sit the gearbox and the generator, in line with the hub.
An electromagnet made from a nail Copper wire coiled round an iron nail, ends to a battery. More turns of wire make a stronger magnet.
Newton's cradle with one ball mid-swing Five steel balls, each on two strings in a V. Reflect the frame as a curved line across every ball.
The six simple machines on one poster Lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge and screw. One everyday example of each.
Sound drawn as a stretched spring toy A longitudinal wave. Bunched coils are compressions and spread coils are rarefactions. Label one of each.

Earth science 24

A cluster of quartz crystals The ideal quartz crystal is a six-sided column ending in a six-sided point. Lean them at different angles.
A cumulonimbus with an anvil top The thunderstorm cloud. A towering body and a top that spreads flat like an anvil. Add one fork of lightning.
A fossil ammonite A flat spiral shell split into chambers. Ammonites are extinct, and closer kin to squid than to the living nautilus.
A geode cracked in half Dull rough rock outside and a hollow inside where crystals have grown. Leave specks of white paper for the sparkle.
A glacier filling a U-shaped valley Rivers cut V-shaped valleys. A glacier scours one into a U with straight steep sides and a flat or rounded floor.
A hurricane seen from above, with its eye Spiral rainbands round a clear, calm eye. Winds turn anticlockwise north of the equator, clockwise south of it.
A river from mountain spring to sea Source, tributaries, meanders, then the mouth. Make the river wider and its bends lazier as it goes down.
A snowflake built from one arm drawn six times Ice crystals are hexagonal, so snowflakes have six arms. Draw one arm, then repeat it every 60 degrees.
A tornado touching down on a plain A funnel narrowing from the cloud base to the ground, with a skirt of dust where it lands.
A trilobite fossil in a slab of rock Named for three lobes running head to tail: a raised one down the middle and a flatter one each side.
A volcano cut in half A magma chamber at the bottom, a main vent up the middle, and layers of old lava and ash sloping either side.
A weather map with fronts A cold front is a blue line with triangles and a warm front a red line with semicircles, pointing the way they move.
An oxbow lake forming in three steps A meander tightens, the river cuts through the neck of the loop, and a U-shaped lake is left behind.
Dinosaur footprints crossing a mudflat Three-toed prints in a line, left and right alternating. Shade one side of each so it looks pressed in.
Earth's tilt and the four seasons Earth's axis leans about 23.4 degrees. Draw the globe at four points on its orbit, always leaning the same way.
Four cloud types stacked by height Wispy cirrus highest, heaped cumulus, flat grey stratus low down, and one cumulonimbus towering past them all.
The layers of the Earth as a cut peach Crust, mantle, liquid outer core, solid inner core. The mantle is the thickest layer; the crust is a pencil line.
The rock cycle as a triangle of arrows Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic at the corners. Draw a real rock at each: granite, sandstone and marble.
Rock layers in a cliff with one fossil Unless they have been disturbed, the oldest layers lie at the bottom. Nicolas Steno set the rule out in 1669.
Soil layers in a dug pit Leaf litter on top, dark topsoil, paler subsoil, broken parent rock, then bedrock. Add roots and one worm.
Stalactites and stalagmites in a cave Stalactites hang from the ceiling and stalagmites rise from the floor. Where a pair meets, draw a column.
Tectonic plates pulling apart and pushing together Two cut-away blocks. In one the plates slide apart at a rift. In the other, one plate dives under its neighbour.
Ten minerals lined up from talc to diamond The Mohs hardness scale: talc 1, gypsum 2, calcite 3, fluorite 4, apatite 5, up to quartz 7 and diamond 10.
The water cycle on one hillside Evaporation off the sea, condensation into cloud, rain on the hills, rivers running back. Four arrows, one loop.

How it works

These science drawing ideas are for the notebook cover, the classroom poster and the project title page. Each of the 100 names a subject and a view, such as a cut-away, a close-up or a labelled poster, and the hint under it gives one term or fact checked on Wikipedia. Subject and level combine, so Chemistry plus Easy holds 14.

Read the full guide

Pick a view: cut-away, close-up or poster

A textbook diagram is flat and front-on. Every idea here names a view instead. A plant cell cut open, labelled wants a boxy wall and one large vacuole. A volcano cut in half shows the chamber, the vent and the sloping layers of old lava. Science things to draw get easier once the view is fixed, because the view decides which parts show and which hide.

Four subjects, three levels

Biology holds 28 ideas, and Chemistry, Physics and Earth science hold 24 each. The 44 easy ones are a few plain shapes, such as A tooth cut in half: a cap, a layer under it and a soft middle. The 15 hard ones ask for a curved reflection or a machine with its insides showing. Tick each idea you finish and the page keeps the list on this device.

Draw the labels last. Rule each leader line with a straight edge, keep the lines from crossing, and print the words in capitals.
For a notebook cover, take three from one subject and overlap them. A flask, a molecule and a flame fill a page better than one beaker.
Glass is mostly paper left white. Draw the liquid's surface as an ellipse, then run one tall highlight down the side.

Questions and answers

Which ideas work best for a science poster?

Pick one with parts to label or steps to follow. The water cycle on one hillside is a loop of four arrows. The six simple machines on one poster gives you six boxes to fill. Sketch it small first, so you know the labels will fit.

How does a plant cell differ from an animal cell on paper?

A plant cell has a boxy wall outside, one large central vacuole and green chloroplasts dotted round the edge. An animal cell has no wall, so keep its outline soft and rounded. Both are Medium ideas in Biology. Give each organelle its own colour and add a key.

Can I use these for homework or a science fair board?

Yes, for class and home. Treat each hint as a starting point and check your labels against your own textbook, because courses name some parts differently. Press Show all 100, then Print, for the full list on paper, or start the timer for one careful diagram.