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Playlist: Bookmarks

What’s In My Brain: H vs Arrow

Two columns. One is an example, one isn’t. Can you figure out the hidden rule before the big reveal?

Drawing A 3D Staircase

This optical illusion looks like a 3D staircase, but it’s all drawn on a plain piece of paper.

A Land Octopus

The only type of octopus that routinely wanders onto land!

Words Within Words: Chocolate

How many words can you find within Chocolate?

What’s In My Brain: Guinea Pig vs Potbelly

What do guinea pigs, shooting stars, and seahorses have in common? They’re all misnomers!

What’s In My Brain: Spain vs Germany

One column is an example. The other isn’t. Can your students figure out the hidden rule before the reveal?

St. Patrick and Other Legends

How would real people feel about the legends that have been created about them?

Words Within Words: PATRICK

How many words can you find within Patrick?

Getting Specific With St. Patrick’s Day Writing

Let’s take a starting phrase about St. Patrick’s Day and get specific. No, even more specific!

What’s In My Brain: Pentagon vs Pentagon

We’re looking at regular vs irregular polygons.

What’s In My Brain: Austin vs Los Angeles

We’re looking at capital cities.

What’s In My Brain: Coral vs Water Lilies

Let’s look at saltwater vs freshwater organisms.

What’s In My Brain: Ball vs Book

Let’s look at Kinetic vs Potential Energy!

What’s In My Brain: Crocodile vs Tree Frog

Is it a reptile or an amphibian?

What’s In My Brain: Narwhal vs Penguin

We’re looking at the arctic vs the antarctic.

Greekymon Studies – Round 3

What might a creature named “Aquacornus Rex” be like?

Greekymon Studies – Round 2

What might a creature named “Hypermnemonicus” be like?

Van Gogh on Water

Oil paint floats on water and becomes a familiar scene.

Grouping Shapes by Parallel and Perpendicular Sides

Which shapes go together based on parallel and perpendicular lines?

Letters With Symmetry

Let’s group letters by their symmetry, then create symmetrical words, and then symmetrical sentences!

How to Reset Your Brain When You’re Flooded

Allison Edwards explains how changing your senses can reset your brain.

What Happens In Your Brain When You’re Worried or Afraid

Allison Edwards explains how blood flow in your brain affects your decision-making

Slow Motion Popcorn

What surprises can you spot when a kernel pops in super slow-mo?

Changing Baby Names

You won’t believe how fascinating it is to watch a map of the most popular baby names by US state.

Words Within Words: SCARECROW

How many words can you find within “scarecrow”?

Words Within Words: CRANBERRY

How many words can you find within “cranberry”?

Words Within Words: STUFFING

How many words are hiding inside STUFFING? More than you think.

Squiggles Introduction

What do you see in this squiggle?

Squiggles Collection 1

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

Squiggles Collection 2

Everyone starts with the same squiggle. No two drawings end up the same. What do you see?

What If… No Sleep?

What would the consequences be if no one had to sleep anymore?

New Uses For A Chair

So, what can a chair be used for other than, you know, sitting in?

New Uses For A Pencil

So, what can a pencil be used for other than writing and drawing?

Words Within Words: TEACHER

How many words can you find within TEACHER?

Geometry Image: Esplanade Theaters

What odd and interesting shapes can your students find in this geometric image?

How Many Will There Be? Courtyard

Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.

How Many Will There Be? Squares in Squares

Give kids a taste of a sequence, let them build an understanding, and then see how far their predictions can take them.

What’s In My Brain!? Japan vs Jamaica

Is it an island or an archipelago?

Discussing An Important Decision from History

How would people with two different perspectives discuss a decision from history?

What’s In My Brain!? Gold vs Wood

Some of these examples are conductors and some are insulators!

What’s In My Brain!? Walnut vs Clouds

Let’s look at living vs non-living things.

Concept Attainment: Hornet vs Tiger

Can your class spot the vertebrates vs invertebrates?

Words Within Words: AIRPLANE

How many words can you find within airplane?

Drawing An Impossible Triangle

Here’s how you can draw The Penrose Triangle, an example of an impossible shape.

Drawing Knots, Level 3

How to draw the final version of the twisty Henri Matisse knot!

Drawing Knots, Level 2

How to draw a more complex version of this twisty Henri Matisse knot!

Drawing Knots, Level 1

How to draw a simple version of this twisty Henri Matisse knot!

Notice, Wonder: Krzywy Las

A mysterious image. Reveal it slowly. Let your students wonder!

Parabolic Curve Art

Create mathematical art with curves that, well, aren’t curvy.

Tournament of Ancient Inventions

Which of these inventions of the ancient world is most influential? Least useful today? Most taken-for-granted?

Brain Needs or Heart Needs

For Teachers

We think of gifted kids as only having academic needs, but – in their own words – they also have many needs of the heart.

New Uses for a Paperclip

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

Looping Grid Art

Pick a few numbers, draw some corresponding lines on grid paper, and you’ll end up with some interesting, looping math-y art!

What’s In My Brain: Owl vs Eagle

Some of these animals are nocturnal and some are diurnal.

Concept Attainment: Art

Can your students tell the difference between cubism and abstract art?

Word Ladder: East to West (4 Steps)

COLD to COOL. BAND to SING. Change one letter at a time — can you find the path?

Game: Wild Tic Tac Toe

Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe, but both players can both play as both X and O throughout the whole game!

Game: Number Scrabble

What if we played Tic-Tac-Toe with numbers and instead of three-in-a-row, we add up to 15? Well… then we’d have Number Scrabble!

Art Lesson: One-Point Perspective

Let’s give our students an art history lesson while teaching them how to enhance their drawings using one-point perspective.

Art Lesson: Two-Point Perspective

Let’s get students’ art really popping with two-point perspective!

An Escher-Style Tessellation Project

Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!

Not Like The Others: States of Matter

How is each of the states of matter not like the others?

Word Ladders Introduction

You won’t believe how this spelling and vocabulary puzzle will get kids’ brains sweating over the smallest of words.

Virtue or Vice?

Aristotle noted that positive traits and negative traits are often the same thing, but just in different amounts. The right amount is a virtue, but too much or too little and it’s a vice.

What’s In My Brain: May vs May

The word “may” can be used for possibility or permission. It’s a modal auxiliary verb!

What’s In My Brain: Trapezoids or Not?

Which are trapezoids and which are not?

What’s In My Brain: Cute Baby vs Fast Cheetah

Can students spot similes vs metaphors?

Bulls and Cows

How quickly can you break the numeric code?

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames

Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

The Thinking Hats

So… do your students moan when forced to work in a group? Part of the problem is that lack the structure to work well with peers. Edward de Bono’s Thinking Hats are a perfect tool to help with this problem.

A Donut Investigation

In this cross-curricular investigation, students will look into an intriguing question: do donuts or salads have more sugar? They’ll grapple with misleading information, bias, and use their math skills to create a visual representation of sugar in popular foods.

Historic Social Media

How would people from history have interacted online? Students will develop a conversation online between people involved in the same event from history.

Educational Valentines

Let’s make valentines with an educational twist!

“Its Big Day” – A Children’s Story About Its and It’s

Let’s spice up a typically dull lesson about the difference between “its” and “it’s” by asking students to write a children’s story about the adventures of a critter named It.

Analyze and Create Misleading Graphs

Let’s make some intentionally bad graphs to learn how to spot poorly made graphs.

Create A Creature

Create a new creature based on the adaptations of existing creatures from the same biome.

Greekymon

Rather than just memorizing word parts, students will use those word parts to create four possible products.

Reduce Anxiety: Square Breathing (Tool 1)

Reduce anxiety by breathing in a square pattern.

Asynchrony: Developing At Different Rates (For Students)

For students! In some areas, a student may be shockingly advanced, while in others… surprisingly average. This is asynchrony in action.

Motivation and Moral Development

Can someone do the right thing, but for the wrong reason?

Intellectual Intensity

Do you know someone who becomes a bit overexcited by ideas?

Impostor Syndrome

For Teachers

The student who breezes through school may hit a wall in college. Here’s why — and what to do about it now.