Significant Figures Stations Activities

I created these significant figures stations activities for my physical science students to work through as they practice significant figures.

This was my first time ever using stations where different students were doing different activities at the same time. It was great and entirely chaotic!

I set up 5 stations for my students to work through.  I expected my students to be able to work through all 5 stations in one fifty-minute period, but it ended up taking two fifty-minute periods for my students to finish all five stations.

Station 1: Significant Figures Looping Cards

The first station was a set of looping cards.  I found these cards online on TES (link no longer active).  I changed the font, edited the table so each card would be the exact same size, and modified the wording of a few of the questions.  I shared my updated version here. 

Even with the written instructions, my students had trouble getting started with this station.  With most groups, once I showed them how to figure out the first couple of cards they seemed to catch on quickly.

Station 2: Significant Figures Ordering Cards

The next station featured fifteen cards.  Each card has a number that has anywhere from one to five significant figures.  Students didn’t know this, but there were three cards with one significant figure, three cards with two significant figures, etc.

Here are the cards in action:

Students needed to sort the cards by smallest number of significant figures to largest number of significant figures. You can download this set of ordering cards here.

Station 3: Significant Figures Rectangle Puzzle

The next station features a puzzle that can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Students had to assemble these 12 pieces into a 3 x 4 so that the edge of each piece is touching the edge of another piece that has the exact same number of significant figures.

Some of my students had a really hard time wrapping their mind around how this puzzle worked.  Others raced through it.

Station 4: Two Truths and a Lie

This next station was one of my favorites!

Students had to write two truths and a lie involving significant figures using construction paper and markers.  Before the quiz on the next day, students looked at each set of two truths and a lie and tried to determine which was the lie.

I wrote a blog post earlier that has pictures of the various truths and lies they came up with.  You can find that here.

My new document camera from Ipevo came in super handy to display each student’s work for the rest of the class to see.

Station 5: Arithmetic with Significant Figures Task Cards

The last station gave students practice performing arithmetic with significant figures.

Somehow I managed to not take a single picture of my students working at this station.

Here are the 10 questions students were asked to work through:

This station is the one my students struggled with the most.  I had to keep directing them back to their notes over and over and over.  Learn more about this activity and get the file here.