Idea Sheets

Adding 3-digit numbers gets easier with this easy-to-learn and fun-to-play card game.
Subjects: Math

Make an instrument with an adjustable pitch to explore the science of sound waves and the art of music!
Subjects: Physical Science

This card game helps students learn to add numbers in their heads. The objective of the game is to get as close to 31 with any number of cards, without going over 31.
Subjects: Math

This modeling activity can be used to teach topographic map-reading skills. Students draw a fictitious topographic map, and then transfer the map to stacking lids, producing a great 3-dimensional effect.
Subjects: Earth/Space Science

A bit of cutting and stapling will produce wonderful, little trees that stand up on their own. Decorate the tree for a great winter holiday project, or create several trees of various sizes to make a tabletop scene.
Subjects: Life Science, Art

Students explore addition problems with two 3 digit numbers and discover patterns that help find solutions and double check arithmetic answers.
Subjects: Math

The abacus is an ancient tool for doing calculations. This activity uses a simplified abacus to teach place value. Each bead represents 1 in the given place, and students can use it to get a visual understanding that 10 beads in a given place (1s, 10s, 100s) can be represented by a single bead in the place to its left (10s, 100s, 1000s).
Subjects: Math, Social Studies

This easily created version of an abacus can teach place value and show how different cultures calculate. Abaci can even be based on math systems other than base 10!
Subjects: Math

Add positive and negative numbers on a vertical number line.
Subjects: Math

In this fast-paced game of addition, students discover that the "absolute value" of a number is simply its distance from zero on a number line.
Subjects: Math

Using UV beads as detectors, the ability of sunglasses to protect the eyes from UV radiation from the Sun is tested.
Subjects: Physical Science, Earth/Space Science

Red cabbage juice is amazing! Acids and bases make it change color!
Subjects: Physical Science

This simple hands-on activity helps students master important addition facts and become strategic problem-solvers!
Subjects: Math

Native American Indian culture and mathematical concepts combine to make dream catchers. This activity leads to higher mathematical investigations, including properties of circles and modular star polygons.
Subjects: Math, Social Studies, Art

Experiment with independent events and find how often certain results occur!
Subjects: Math

Students are in for a surprise when they attempt to lift a mat that is held in place by only the air that is pressing down from above
Subjects: Physical Science, Earth/Space Science

Let your students experience air pressure in a new way with this easily made device that will add a pressure equal to one atmosphere to a square centimeter of skin.
Subjects: Physical Science, Earth/Space Science

Explore a compressed gas and a partial vacuum with this air pressure demonstrator.
Subjects: Physical Science, Earth/Space Science

Knowledge of simple algebraic terminology allows players to form a "like terms flush" or "coefficient three of a kind" combinations and be first to dispose of all cards in hand.
Subjects: Math

Reinforce the correct order of mathematical operations by playing this fast-paced game of algebraic H-O-R-S-E. Figure out the leader's chosen mathematical expression of operations and numbers.
Subjects: Math

Charge up this plastic tube with a quick rub and watch the little balls dance!
Subjects: Physical Science

Challenge your students with these wonderful, complex, historical knots! Not only do knots have their place in history, learning to tie knots using visual directions appeals to the visual as well as the kinesthetic learner, and helps develop spatial skills.
Subjects: Math, Social Studies

Children work together to create a giant dot to dot design by rolling a ball of string to one another following an alphabet letter sequence.
Subjects: Language Arts

Students connect letters with their related sounds and will enjoy creating and learning new words with this engaging activity.
Subjects: Language Arts

In the polymer Olympics, this substance would win a gold medal! It can soak up and hold up to 3000 times its weight in water! Observe the polymer "grow" as water is absorbed. Explore the effect of salt on the polymer's efficiency.
Subjects: Physical Science

Geometry, design, architecture, creativity, science... This activity has it all! In this activity, students get the opportunity to design and build a home for magnetic "pet worms", and then enjoy bringing their worms to life.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

Get a statistical snapshot of a population using simplified versions of the random, systematic, and stratified sampling techniques commonly used by researchers around the world!
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

In this unique interdisciplinary activity, students use science, math, and art skills to create a drawing on a curved grid. The coordinates used for the drawing on the curved grid are the same as they would be for a square grid. This anamorphic drawing appears distorted from the original and can be difficult to recognize... until it is viewed with a cylindrical mirror! A recognizable image "magically" appears when science, math, and art are mixed together.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science, Math, Art

Gain a deeper understanding of the structures and functions found in animal cells by creating a model from repurposed materials.
Subjects: Life Science

Match the animals in this great identification game for young students.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

This fun activity will give students the opportunity to create basic animations that can help them understand how motion pictures and the human eye work.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science, Art

Apples make a wonderful, fall theme for pre-school or kindergarten classrooms. This game plays like Concentration: students turn over apples showing number equivalents to find and collect matching pairs.
Subjects: Math

Graph a curve and derive a quadratic model from experimental data in this wet and wonderful activity that demonstrates how math and science flow together!
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

This popular activity plays like the card game "War", but with a new twist. Players estimate, and then measure, the area of shapes by covering them with centimeter blocks. With practice, they internalize the concept of area and learn to estimate it. This activity can also be used to learn about perimeter. Adding more layers of blocks introduces the concept of volume.
Subjects: Math

The human body is complicated, with amazing ranges of motion. Explore the difficulties in recreating a life-like body by examining action figure toys.
Subjects: Life Science

Make a cloud "mirror" and use to do small scale observations of the clouds and sky.
Subjects: Earth/Space Science

Atomic structure becomes clear when using these magnetic pieces to represent protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Subjects: Physical Science

Students who enjoy puzzles will find this activity very intriguing. This provides opportunities for both "logical" and "visual" thinkers to shine!
Subjects: Physical Science, Math, Language Arts

Explore heating with sunlight using a solar collector that is easy to make and store.
Subjects: Physical Science, Earth/Space Science

Create an autograph book to share with friends
Subjects: Language Arts, Art

This diorama helps students visualize life and ecology in an arctic environment.
Subjects: Life Science, Earth/Space Science

This is a great activity for investigating sound. It might just be a history lesson about records for your students; and you can tell them, "No, this will not work with CDs."
Subjects: Physical Science

Balancing an object takes more than just coordination. The distribution of mass in an object determines its center of gravity and its rotational inertia.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science

Objects are more stable when they have a low center of mass. This game allows students to investigate balance and discover that raising an object's center of mass increases its tendency to tip over... and they have fun in the process!
Subjects: Physical Science

Give pre-school and primary-aged children an opportunity to develop their eye-hand coordination with this fun and easily modified toy.
Subjects: Life Science

Students use balloons to approximate the relative sizes of the Earth and the Moon and estimate the relative distance between them using the scale of the inflated balloons.
Subjects: Earth/Space Science, Math

Combine two common household ingredients to cause an exciting, safe, chemical reaction.
Subjects: Physical Science

This neat trick is easy to do and serves as a great introduction to a discussion about air pressure.
Subjects: Physical Science, Earth/Space Science

Take these balloons for a spin to create fun sounds and great science investigations!
Subjects: Physical Science