Testing is done. Your brain is fried. The students are twitchy. The pencils are nubs.
And yet… there are weeks of school left.
This is the weird time (post-state-test limbo) where you’re expected to keep students learning (and not bouncing off the walls), while everyone secretly just wants to watch a movie and coast to summer.
So what do you do?
You teach. But with joy. With creativity. With intention… and just enough fun to keep them from staging a desk-stacking mutiny.
Here’s how I survive post-testing season with activities that still feel like teaching (but without the grading avalanche or groans):
1. Science Debate Day
After testing, students are itching to talk, so why not channel that energy into a structured science debate? Pick a fun, low-stakes topic that still connects to your standards, like “Should humans try to live on Mars?” or “Is cloning animals a good idea?” Divide the class into small groups, give them a little time to gather arguments, and then let the debates begin.
2. Science Olympics
Turn your review into stations, challenges, or even a full-on class competition. Lab skills, problem-solving, and vocabulary challenges can all be turned into events. Add team names and a scoreboard, and boom! It’s rigorous and ridiculously fun.
3. Passion Projects
Let students explore a science topic of their choice with structured checkpoints and creativity baked in. Podcasts, slideshows, model builds, experiments, board games, you name it. They’re researching, writing, and presenting… which is basically a standards-aligned encore with way more buy-in.
4. Creative Writing in Science
Have students write science-themed stories—think a cell organelle on a dating app, a chemical reaction gone wrong, or a stranded astronaut sending distress signals. It’s low-prep, super engaging, and secretly packed with content review.
5. PBL Lite
You don’t need a six-week timeline or a DonorsChoose grant. Set up mini-projects with real-world hooks: design a sustainable city, engineer a better lunch tray, or propose a water-saving solution for your school. Let them be scientists, engineers, problem-solvers (with just enough structure to keep things from spiraling).
6. Review Games with a Twist
Use all your favorites (Blooket, Jeopardy, escape rooms), but flip them into student-created versions. They write the questions, build the puzzles, and become the teachers. Bonus: You now have fresh review materials for next year.
Final Thoughts
After testing, your job isn’t to babysit. It’s to reignite. To remind students that science is more than bubble sheets and benchmarks.
So go ahead… ditch the drill-and-kill and bring in the creativity.
They deserve it. And honestly? So do you.
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