Ditch The Worksheets: 7 Interactive Resources Your Science Students Will Love
Updated: Jun 2
We've all been there - feeling like we're treading water in a sea of worksheets, desperately searching for a way to make science truly click for our students. Worksheets can be a life raft, but to truly ignite a passion for the subject, we need to offer students engaging experiences that go beyond filling in the blanks.
Here. is a list of 7 types of activities you can use to engage your science students instead.
Curriculum Aligned Escape Rooms
Escape rooms are fun activities that students of all ages can enjoy. They are designed to challenge participants with various puzzles and problems. Science escape rooms can turn science learning into an exciting and collaborative experience, helping students develop valuable skills while solidifying their grasp of scientific concepts.
Some advantages of Using Curriculum Aligned Escape Rooms Are:
Boosts Engagement and Motivation: The escape room format is inherently fun and interactive, making students more invested in learning the curriculum material compared to lectures or textbooks.
Reinforces Content Knowledge: The puzzles and activities are directly tied to the curriculum, making students actively apply what they've learned to solve the escape room challenges.
Immediate Feedback: Unlike traditional tests where students might get results back later, escape rooms provide feedback right away. This allows students to see if their approach to a puzzle using a specific concept is correct and adjust their thinking quickly.
Paper-based escape rooms, or digital escape rooms (using Google Forms) are a great way to reinforce concepts without all the hassle of getting actual lock boxes and sacrificing hours of prep time.
Even better, you don't have to grade them!
Here are a few Suggestions:
Find the Element Paper-Based Escape Room:
students learn the properties of different periodic table elements while (through the process of elimination ) they attempt to find the identity of one unknown element.
A Rivalry of the Ages Digital Escape Room for Chemistry Revision:
Go paperless with this digital escape room for Google Forms. Students revise key chemistry topics while simultaneously working through puzzles and an engaging Storyline.
How it Works:
Students receive a letter from the future stating Nikola Tesla has been poisoned.
They use their chemistry knowledge to solve puzzles and access the lab of Thomas Edison's descendant to retrieve the antidote. ️
With the antidote in hand, they use a time machine to save Tesla! ️
Mystery Picture Mini Escape Room
The Mystery Picture Escape room, like the digital escape room, is an activity made for Google Forms where students progress through levels/questions by answering questions correctly.
The answer to one question provides the lock code for access to the next question and with each correct answer one piece of the mystery picture is revealed.
Check these out for Balancing Chemical Equations.
click on Images to check out these resources
Create excitement with Science Bingo!
Bingo is a social game that promotes interaction among students.
It provides an opportunity for communication collaboration and friendly competition, contributing to a positive classroom atmosphere.
Bingo is an inclusive game that allows all students to participate regardless of their academic abilities. It provides a non-threatening environment where students of varying skill levels can enjoy and succeed.
The bingo squares can be filled with key terms, definitions, scientific phenomena, or even diagrams – all tailored to the specific science topic you're covering.
Here are a few ways Bingo Can Be Used In Your Science Class:
Review Lab Safety
Test students' knowledge of lab safety symbols and equipment. Call cards are editable so these can be customized for any grade level.
Learn Lab Apparatus and their Functions
Learn the function of different laboratory equipment that students will encounter during the course.
Use this as an icebreaker at the beginning of the school year or as a quick refresher throughout the term.
Scientists and Inventors Bingo
An excellent resource for helping students learn the contributions of various scientists and inventors.
The call cards are editable so you can adjust this to meet your classroom needs.
Science Card Games
I am a proud proponent of game-based activities in the science classroom. In my classes, I try to gamify as many activities as possible.
Game-based learning in the classroom refers to the integration of games and interactive elements into the educational environment.
This approach offers several benefits that contribute to a more engaging and effective learning experience.
Some key advantages of game-based activities in science include:
Increases engagement
A sense of challenge and achievement, motivating students to participate in the learning process actively.
Active participation rather than passive consumption of information,
Enhanced retention and recall as a result of repetitions and reinforcement of key concepts
Development of student problem-solving skills and
Instant feedback on performance facilitates a quicker learning process.
Learn about the Different Scientists with Scientists Guess Who
A spin on the classic game, Students play in pairs and try to figure out the famous scientist or inventor chosen by their partner before their partner can figure out theirs.
This is a great activity for the beginning of the school year to get science students acquainted with the scientists and inventors of different scientific disciplines.
Reinforce Ionic and Covalent Bonding with "Make Em Bond" Chemical Bonding Card Games
Chemical Bonding set the foundation for many different concepts in chemistry such as , balancing equations, writing chemical formulas understanding the bulk properties of matter, and organic chemistry.
To reinforce this topic I have my students play card games where they earn points for forming chemical compounds.
There are two versions of the card games, the Make Em' Bond Card Games emphasize the use of Lewis Structures and can be used to demonstrate bith ionic and covalent bonding based on the concept of valency.
The Ionic Bonding card game helps students focus on the formula of ions and balancing charges to form ionic compounds.
These games can be challenging and get students thinking and having fun.
Liven Up Lab Safety Review with Lab Safety Dominoes (without the Dominos)
When teaching lab safety students can review the safety rules and safety symbols using lab safety dominoes.
With this game students match lab safety symbols with their associated hazards or precautions in an activity that strongly resembles the classic game.
Get Students Moving with a Scavenger Hunt
A classroom scavenger hunt is an interactive learning activity where students search for specific items, information, or clues within the classroom environment.
The scavenger hunt typically involves students working individually or in small teams to find and document the required items or information on a provided list or set of clues..
When reinforcing lab safety I typically use the Lab Safety Scavenger Hunt .
This activity helps students learn where all the important safety equipment is located in our lab, and what each piece is used for.
Students solve riddles that lead them to different pieces of safety equipment around the lab. Each piece they find will have the next clue hidden nearby, guiding them on their safety gear discovery adventure!
Get Creative with Social Media Profiles
Instead of a traditional biography report, have students create social media profiles for famous scientists and inventors.
This activity encourages students to:
Research a scientist/inventor and their contributions.
Be creative and think visually about how to represent scientific achievements on social media.
Displaying the finished profiles as a collage on a bulletin board creates a visually engaging presentation that can be shared with the class.
This activity is beneficial as :
Students are able to express their creativity by designing content and writing engaging captions which can make learning more enjoyable.
Students are encouraged to view historical or influential figures from different perspectives.
It encourages students to think critically about the personality, beliefs, and achievements of each figure. They must then make informed decisions about the content they include and how to represent the individual accurately.
Bloom’s Taxonomy Task Cards (technically not worksheets)
Task cards are small, individual cards that typically contain a specific learning task, question, or activity for students.
These cards are often used as a versatile instructional tool in the classroom to reinforce skills, promote engagement, and provide opportunities for differentiated learning.
The Advantages of Task Cards Over Traditional Worksheets:
Task cards are often more visually appealing and interactive than traditional worksheets. The variety of activities on task cards can also help maintain students’ interest and motivation, as opposed to monotonous worksheets.
They can be used in a variety of ways such as independent work, group activities, learning centers, games, or as part of scavenger hunt. This flexibility allows teachers to adapt the cards to different learning styles and preferences.
Although task cards are typically used with elementary and middle school students, they can also be used with older high school students.
Bloom's Taxonomy Task Cards for Science
I create my task cards for my High school chemistry students using Bloom’s taxonomy and have them gradually progress from the low-order questions that simply test for understanding and knowledge to higher more challenging questions (when they're ready).
I have two different sets of Task Cards as part of my Chemistry in Bloom Series (more to come) covering the topics of States of Matter and Atoms Ions and Isotopes
You can check out the Chemistry in Bloom Series if you're interested in using Bloom’s Taxonomy Task Cards.
Go Paperless with Digital Manipulatives
Manipulatives provide a hands-on, concrete way for students to interact with scientific concepts. This tangible experience helps students form a deeper understanding of the abstract ideas that often are the root of student difficulty in certain topics.
Moreover, students have different learning styles and some may better grasp concepts through hands-on experiences rather than traditional lectures.
Manipulatives provide an alternative learning approach, catering to various learning styles specifically, visual and tactile learners.
Some Excellent Digital Manipulatives for Your Science Class are:
Balancing Chemical Equations Interactive Digital Workbook
Students learn to balance chemical equations visually with this interactive drag-and-drop resource. Activities gradually progress which will have students working independently in no time.
Elements Compounds and Mixtures Interactive Digital Workbook
This digital activity can be used to support students' learning of matter by having them understand the differences between pure substances and impure substances specifically, elements, compounds, and mixtures.
Learning Outcomes of this Digital Activity:
Students will recognize the difference between elements and compounds (visually)
Students will understand what a mixture is and how it is different from a compound
Students will be able to classify substances as elements, compounds, and mixtures RELATED: How to Teach Elements Compounds and Mixtures Visually
Separating Mixtures Interactive Digital Workbook
This digital learning resource deals with separating mixtures and the different separation techniques. Students can use this resource for independent practice as well as whole-group learning and discussion which makes this ideal for blended and distance learning.
Intended Learning Outcomes of this Digital Resource
identify suitable techniques to separate the components of a given mixture
describe the processes involved in separating mixtures by filtration, evaporation, crystallization, simple distillation, fractional distillation, a separating funnel and chromatography.
States of Matter & Changing State Interactive Digital Workbook
This resource is excellent for visual learners and the drag-and-drop components make these accessible to kinesthetic learners.
The goal of these activities is to help students move up to higher levels of cognitive processing specifically, applying and analyzing.
Intended Learning Outcomes of this Digital Resource
Students should be able to distinguish among the three states of matter in terms of
Arrangement of particles
Energy of particles
Strength of the forces of attraction
Physical characteristics of the states (volume, compressibility etc.)
Students should be able to explain the changes between the three states of matter in terms of energy and the arrangement of particles
These digital activities engage multiple senses, particularly visual and tactile senses. This multi-sensory approach to learning can enhance memory retention and understanding, catering to diverse learning styles.
These are a list of 7 EXCELLENT resources to keep your science students engaged while covering key scientific concepts. Be sure to follow my teachers Pay Teachers Store if you’re interested in receiving updates on new resources like these.
