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