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Scientific Notation Activities and Games

Looking for a fun and free scientific notation activity for your middle school classroom? These activities will provide your 7th and 8th grade students with plenty of engaging scientific notation practice.

I have also successfully used these scientific notation activities with physical science students at the high school level.

scientific notation activities

Scientific Notation Ordering Cards Activity

I want to share a set of scientific notation ordering cards I created to use as a sort of formative assessment to see what previous knowledge my students had about scientific notation and how they were progressing as we moved through our different notes and activities.

Scientifico – A Bingo Style Game for Practicing Scientific Notation

Scientifico was probably my favorite activity we did for practicing scientific notation. To play this game, you’ll need game boards for each pair of students, three dice for each pair of students, and a recording sheet for each student. I recommend laminating these game boards for durability.

Scientific Notation Dominoes Activity

rainbow dominoes tipping over with text "scientific notation dominoes"

Students must line the dominoes up so the numbers in standard form are matched with the appropriate number in scientific notation.

Scientific Notation Square Puzzle Activity

This scientific notation square puzzle was a great way to see how well my students could transition between the different representations.  It also helped me see if they understood how to tell if a number was smaller or bigger than another number.

Giantburgers Scientific Notation Task

hamburger with title: "giantburgers scientific notation task"

One of the final tasks my physical science students did over scientific notation was this Giantburgers task from MARS. My physical science students found this task to be tricky because they really struggled to wrap their mind around what percent means.  I guess it’s a good thing their teacher has a math degree!

Scientific Notation Graphic Organizer

I created this scientific notation graphic organizer for my physical science students to glue in their interactive notebooks. I wanted to start class with a discussion of why scientific notation is useful and what it looks like.

Scientific Notation Foldable

I created this scientific notation foldable for my physical science students to glue in their interactive notebooks. The focus of this foldable is on converting to and from scientific notation.

Scientific Notation Ranking Task

To practice our scientific notation skills, we completed this scientific notation ranking task in our interactive notebooks. This problem is from the MARS Size It Up lesson.

8 fun scientific notation activities

Amanda Mack

Wednesday 14th of October 2020

Since the links above for the bingo game aren't working, I recreated it in Google Slides. Here's the link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/104ITT0uFr7-GCW0EQtzA7AgMqlr4z0y_i4uPRCLU7hc/copy?usp=sharing.

Unknown

Tuesday 20th of August 2019

How can I get a copy of the game board. If it can be emailed please send to williams.jessica@taylorboe.org

Jess Gabrielson

Sunday 14th of April 2019

I retyped the game based on the pictures in her post. If anyone wants a copy, you can email me at jgabrielson_AT_go-efsd_DOT_net.

Unknown

Monday 26th of August 2019

saracarder@bellsouth.net

Unknown

Monday 26th of August 2019

I would love the boards too!

aposada@wsfcs.k12.nc.us

Tuesday 25th of June 2019

I have tried to email you, but link does not work! I would love to have these game boards.

Joe Gorton

Friday 1st of February 2019

Hi Sarah,

Do you have these resources in google docs? The links to the games do not work anymore...

Unknown

Thursday 20th of April 2017

Thank you for your ideas - have been looking for some great game ideas for standard form and these are brilliant :-)

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