Idea Sheets

Children will develop finger dexterity and eye-hand co-ordination as they create brightly colored butterflies to hang from a string or mobile. Reinforce the concept of the diagonal while accordion folding a square from corner to diagonal corner.
Subjects: Life Science, Art

Folded strips of aluminum foil can be easily formed into wires, switches, bulb contacts, and tabs for batteries. The foil wires make it possible to form right angle turns that will lay flat, making it easier to follow the path of the electrical current.
Subjects: Physical Science

Don't throw away those used folders or greeting cards! They can be used to teach math. And the end result is a really great box that students absolutely love!
Subjects: Math, Art

Colored cubes can be used for a variety of building and patterning activities. In this activity, one person makes a simple, 3-dimensional shape using colored cubes, then gives others the opportunity to recreate the shape.
Subjects: Math

Develop a deeper understanding of forces, mass, weight, gravitation, vectors, and more with an easy to make force meter.
Subjects: Physical Science

A visit to a country's "bank" gives travelers on vacation a chance to exchange homeland money for a foreign currency. Travelers visit the country's "store" and select items to purchase from a "shopkeeper" with the foreign money they have available to spend.
Subjects: Math, Social Studies, Language Arts

Measuring the diameter of a tree without cutting it down can be a bit tough. Rangers apply Pi to make these useful measuring devices.
Subjects: Math

Games are wonderful tools for teaching and motivating students! Frack Jack helps students of all ages master equivalent fractions and become skilled at estimating what portion of a circle is filled by any collection of fractional wedges.
Subjects: Math

Explore rational numbers by making fractions from positive and negative integers!
Subjects: Math

Find a pair of fractions that will add up to the target number!
Subjects: Math

Roll dice, match equivalent fractions, and race bead "cars" across chenille stem "roads"! The first to race all cars to the finish line is the winner!
Subjects: Math

A fractal is an amazing geometric pattern which, when viewed closely, shows itself to be constructed of ever-smaller parts similar to the original. Fractal patterns are everywhere: trees, shells, leaves, ferns, flowers, vegetables, rivers, coastlines, mountains, geologic faults, planetary orbits, circulatory systems, music, clouds, weather, and even lightning bolts!
Subjects: Math, Art

Water is the foundation of life on Earth, partly due to an unusual collection of properties that are not duplicated by any other substance. One of those properties is the fact that solid water, or ice, is less dense than cold liquid water. This property is what enables fish and other creatures to continue living in a lake or river that has frozen over. The ice floats on the surface of the liquid water, rather than choking the bottom of the lake or river.
Subjects: Physical Science

Model fruits in a variety of styles and colors make excellent math manipulatives! They can be used for endless activities that teach number sense, estimation, basic addition, and much more... excellent for centers or as a group activity.
Subjects: Math

Here is a fun activity that integrates math and art. The hexaflexagon is a two dimensional (flat) object that has three faces. How is that possible?
Subjects: Math

Microbes are everywhere! And good, bad, or otherwise, people should not ignore them. Where are microbes hiding in your environment?
Subjects: Life Science

Slimes and putties, like Gackety-Gak, are great student hooks to teach polymers, physical and chemical properties, and organic chemistry. Kids just love it!
Subjects: Physical Science

Kids have great imaginations... and they love games! Extend student learning with this fun activity that can be applied to multiple grade levels and any topic.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth/Space Science, Math, Social Studies, Language Arts, Art

Games are wonderful ways to motivate students; they enjoy themselves and do not always realize that they are getting practice with basic skills, like addition and probability. Playing Native American Stick Dice also connects mathematics to culture and the social sciences.
Subjects: Math, Social Studies

Building with garden stakes brings geometry into the real world and allows students to explore structural engineering. In particular, students can discover the importance of triangular components in building sturdy structures.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

Use straws to demonstrate how an asthma attack can affect a person's breathing.
Subjects: Life Science

This is a problem solving activity using yarn or string with loops to go around each wrist and an intertwined partner from which to become disengaged.
Subjects: Math

Discover the hidden, and surprising, magnetic field pattern in a flexible magnet sheet while modeling a nanoscale investigation done with a scanning probe microscope.
Subjects: Physical Science

Challenge students to "Giant Building" for a big twist on an old favorite.
Subjects: Physical Science

Practice regrouping/ trading "tens" and "ones" while playing this game.
Subjects: Math

This design is quite simply the best, easiest game spinner around. It is quick to make, easy to assemble, changes to meet educators' needs, and spins like the dickens!
Subjects: Math

Decorate glass globes for a variety of holidays, themes, and subjects.
Subjects: Art

Create unique, eye-catching frames and greeting cards.
Subjects: Language Arts, Art

How can a plastic glove, a straw, and a tube be combined to make a "musical" instrument? Build a Glove-a-Phone to discover one way to accomplish this feat. Once you learn the proper technique, your Glove-a-Phone can be heard a surprisingly long way off! How is the sound produced? Careful observation is needed to answer that question.
Subjects: Physical Science, Art

In this game children practice their ability to group cards by a common property and make sets. They also develop their memorization skills.
Subjects: Math

Testing the viscosity of different fluids is easy for students to do and is a good activity to use when studying properties of matter.
Subjects: Physical Science

Have a ball creating a "sphere" to review concepts, display photos or drawings, share information, or to enhance vocabulary building. No need to measure!
Subjects: Math, Art

Word problems involving rate, distance, and time are ideal for practicing how to solve for unknowns, understanding the mathematical meaning of key words in written problems, and seeing the relative movement of objects involved in the problems. The two wooden sliders model a system of two moving objects, providing students with a hands-on tool to use in solving for rate, time, or distance.
Subjects: Math

This puzzle is frequently given to applicants for software developer positions. With some guidance many students will successfully find a solution to the puzzle. The concepts behind the puzzle have interesting connections to place value, binary numbers and "making change".
Subjects: Math

This game is a variation of the classic 3-in-a-row game (Tic-Tac-Toe). However, in order to win, students need to know their multiplication tables (and also have quite a bit of luck.)
Subjects: Math

Young students love transfer tasks using these RAFTy tongs!
Subjects: Physical Science

Precise measurement is a crucial skill for many scientific and engineering fields, such as biochemistry, environmental science, medicine and pharmacology, and materials engineering. In this activity, students use a 5 ml pipette to create a graduated preform that they can then use for further experiments.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth/Space Science, Math

Locate the most values satisfying two mathematical conditions in a Venn Diagram scenario to gain a reward "grape". The player with the most grapes wins!
Subjects: Math

Rev up graphing skills & be the first to race all your game pieces to the target zone!
Subjects: Math

Move the center of gravity of a paper frog to create a gravity defying illusion! How can the frog spin around with most of its body suspended in mid-air? Use moveable weights to discover what forces are needed to keep the frog balanced on its head. Conceal the weights to heighten the mystery!
Subjects: Physical Science

Explore what happens when a coiled spring is dropped. Expectations are sometimes different from reality. These discrepant events can create memorable impressions and heighten student interest.
Subjects: Physical Science

Children are fascinated by fossils. This activity allows them to create their own fossil and to make a casting of it - just like a paleontologist.
Subjects: Life Science, Earth/Space Science

The goal of the game is to buy any toy you can afford at every chance you get, providing a lot of opportunity to practice counting and adding money.
Subjects: Math

From simple to complex, students love to try and figure out which bead comes next!
Subjects: Math

Celebrate Earth Day or spring by sprouting and wearing a seedling!
Subjects: Life Science

A fun way for kids to practice description and communication while learning about physical properties.
Subjects: Physical Science, Language Arts

Students can easily measure the length of objects with their very own Half-a-Meter Sticks... always handy for multitudes of measurement and data collection opportunities.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science, Earth/Space Science, Math

Young learners will love to create patterns by tap, tap, tapping golf tees into blocks of packing material.
Subjects: Math

Investigate sound, music, and instruments or just enjoy the pleasing sounds of these simple hand chimes.
Subjects: Physical Science, Art

Similar to the idea of a Labyrinth, players must navigate this board by rolling the marble from cup to cup...but don't fall off!
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science, Math