Idea Sheets

Without concrete examples, the difference between 100,000 and 1,000,000 can look like just another zero.
Subjects: Math

In this game which is played with a die or spinner children practice number recognition and simple addition.
Subjects: Math

Challenge students to become medieval engineers by designing a device that will effectively launch a safe projectile. The number of possible designs is infinite!
Subjects: Physical Science, Social Studies

The art of storytelling is a tradition that has spanned cultures and time periods the world over. Being able to craft a story that has a beginning, middle and end is an important step for students to developing literacy and critical thinking skills.
Subjects: Social Studies, Language Arts

These materials will greatly aid students in designing basic electrical circuits. Open (off) and closed (on) circuits can be modeled with the lit and unlit symbols.
Subjects: Physical Science

Build student curiosity about motion, center of mass, and inertia with this fun activity! Use this activity as a tool to discuss the characteristics of living organisms. The reason for the capsule's tumbling motion is concealed by the foil which adds to its "mysterious" nature and provides an opportunity to practice observation and science process skills.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science

Impress your classmates, family, and friends with this elegant and personalized, 6-sided puzzle.
Subjects: Math, Art

A clear cylinder filled with water will create a convex surface for a variety of optical investigations.
Subjects: Physical Science

This easily made sighting device can measure the angles of lines of sight.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

Every decade has its characters that contribute to society in a variety of ways. By doing this activity at the end of the school year, students have a chance to review the influential figures of the time and provide their own opinions on and justification for the relative importance of each person.
Subjects: Social Studies

Combine two unrelated ideas to inspire a creative new design! Engineers often use everyday objects to stimulate creative ideas. For example, an early ballpoint pen designer might have had a flash of inspiration while looking at a pencil!
Subjects: Physical Science, Math, Art

Design and build a house using different materials. Explore what is possible. Relate what exists to dreams of what can be.
Subjects: Math, Art

Working together, students design and build a town using different types of materials. In this process, students will explore the elements of town development.
Subjects: Physical Science, Math, Language Arts, Art

A design challenge involves teams of students working on a task with limited time and materials. In the process, students learn to brainstorm, to work toward a shared goal, to persist by learning and redesigning based on earlier attempts, and to take on the various team roles involved in accomplishing a task as a group.
Subjects: Physical Science

Students investigate the physical properties of various types of soda in this eye-opening activity.
Subjects: Physical Science

Combine measuring with learning about digestion in this activity as each student creates a paper model equal to the total length of his or her own digestive system.
Subjects: Physical Science, Life Science, Math

Coordinate mapping and a pivoting magnet are utilized in a search for buried "iron treasure chests," modeling a real world use of magnetism and coordinate math!
Subjects: Physical Science, Math

Animal names sometimes seem long and daunting; but if you know the roots, they are actually quite descriptive of the animal itself (i.e. tyranno=tyrant; saurus=lizard; rex=king: Tyrannosaurus Rex = "Tyrant Lizard King"). In this fun and creative activity, students build models of fictitious animals using classic root words.
Subjects: Life Science, Language Arts

Plastic dinosaur shapes 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

"Build" increasingly larger square pools with a single tile border to look for patterns in the number of tiles needed. Develop a general tile formula for any size square pool.
Subjects: Math