Playlist: Bookmarks
Pig Pen Cipher (Codes Part 2)
Let’s encode some secret messages with a cipher that was actually used during the American Civil War!
Shift Cipher (Codes Part 1)
Let’s encode and decode secret messages like Julius Caesar!
Introducing Universal Theme of Change
Everything changes. But how does it change? Students brainstorm dozens of examples and boil them down to one big idea.
Making Depth and Complexity Posters
Why buy premade posters when you can show off your students’ thinking about Depth and Complexity?
Charge of the Light Brigade – Chess Variant
What if one side played with THREE QUEENS and the other had SEVEN KNIGHTS!? What if?
What’s In My Brain: Owl vs Eagle
Some of these animals are nocturnal and some are diurnal.
A Lunar Survival Mission
A favorite of mine! This task is delightfully complex and ambiguous, forcing students to make choices without enough information and with no right answer. How will they survive on the moon for three days?
An Escher-Style Tessellation Project
Create a piece of repeating art in the style of MC Escher!
Math Curiosity: A Pattern Packed Triangle
Pascal’s pattern-packed triangle is a potent puzzle for pupils to ponder.
Writing A Thanksgiving Letter
What if an inanimate object could express thanks for a special person in your life? What would it write?
Remixing A Holiday Poem
Let’s take a classic Christmas poem and remix it to work with another holiday!
Generalization: Problems Lead to New Rules, Which Lead to New Problems
Problems create rules. Rules create new problems. Can you trace the cycle in history, stories, and your own life?
Depth and Complexity – An Introduction for Teachers
For TeachersDepth and Complexity is the most powerful framework most teachers have never heard of. Here’s what it actually is — and isn’t.
Not Like The Others: Planets
Which of these planets is not like others? Well, it sure looks simple at first. But each option could be the one that doesn’t fit in.
Game: Order and Chaos
Imagine Tic-Tac-Toe if both players could play as both Xs and Os!
Bulls and Cows
How quickly can you break the numeric code?
Paradox: Crocodile Dilemma
A crocodile makes a deal. But the deal creates a paradox. Can your students untangle a 2,000-year-old logic puzzle?
Fractals: Sierpinski’s Triangle
What if this triangle pattern just kept repeating… forever!?
Fractals: Koch Snowflake
You could keep zooming in on this snowflake forever!
Depth and Complexity: 👄 Language of the Discipline
Imagine a construction worker who doesn’t know the name of a screwdriver or a doctor who can’t remember what to call your neck. It’s pretty hard to communicate well without knowing the 👄 Language of the Discipline!
Depth and Complexity: ❓ Unanswered Questions
This underutilized tool focuses students on what we don’t yet know and even what we can’t know.
Depth and Complexity: ⚖️ Ethics
Want to add drama to any topic? Use the Ethics prompt!
Depth and Complexity: 🚦 Rules
Is there a consequence for not doing something? You may have found a rule!
Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity
Your students will use Depth and Complexity to note how a character’s main trait changes across a story.
Discovering Pi With Sticky Notes
Pi is mysterious and strange! Why not let students discover it on their own?
Math Curiosity: Collatz Conjecture
The Collatz Conjecture: start with any number and get to 1 using just two rules. It seems to always work…
Greek and Latin Dinosaur Names
Let’s create a new dinosaur using Greek and Latin stems!