One opener for a science, engineering or computer science class, with steps, minutes and props.
STEM Icebreakers
Same Column, Same Family1. Deal each student a card with one element symbol, chosen from four or five columns of the periodic table. 2. Students find their symbol on the wall table and look at what sits above and below it. 3. Walk around and gather with everyone whose element is in the same column. 4. Each family reads its symbols from the top of the column down, and stays together as a lab group for the day. Players: 12 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: the periodic table on the wall, a symbol card for each student. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
These STEM icebreakers open a class or a club with the subject itself: a build from paper, a guess checked with a ruler, an element, an algorithm acted out. Each press deals one, with steps.
Read the full guide
Chemistry icebreakers
The games under Chemistry class use the periodic table on the wall: Element Name Tags spells first names in symbols, and Same Column, Same Family sorts the room into lab groups. Nothing is mixed, heated or tasted.
Computer science icebreakers with no computers
Students act out a sort, count in binary by standing up and send a picture as a list of numbers. After the first press an Any group size box appears under the button; More filters, its last entry, opens No materials and Six minutes or less.
Questions and answers
What is a quick STEM icebreaker with no materials?
Four need nothing: Solid, Liquid, Gas: Be the Particles, Five Chairs Count to Thirty-One, Program the Teacher to the Door and If, Then, Else for the Whole Class. Each takes six minutes or less.
Which STEM icebreakers work on the first day?
All of them: no opener needs a lesson first or a classmate's name. One Sheet Holds a Book and A Chain of One Hundred Paper Clips put table groups to work in the first ten minutes.
Do the builds promise a result?
No. Each build or measuring game says what to make and what to measure, and the class reads its own numbers. Three Columns, Stack the Books asks for a prediction, then counts the books each column held.
How does The Flipped Card work?
The added row and column leave an even number of face-up cards in every line. One flipped card makes its row and its column odd, and it sits where the two cross. Computers catch errors with the same idea, a parity bit.
One Sheet Holds a Book1. Each table gets one sheet of paper and no tape. 2. The job: fold or roll the sheet so that it holds a textbook off the desk, at least as high as a hand is wide. 3. Tables have five minutes to build and test with their own book. 4. For the final test, the teacher counts to ten aloud at each table while the book sits on top. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 10 min. Props: one sheet of paper and a textbook for each table. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
Paper Rotor Drop1. Each pair cuts a strip of paper, splits one end down the middle and folds the two halves opposite ways to make a rotor. 2. Clip a paper clip to the bottom and drop it from shoulder height. A partner times the fall. 3. Change one thing only: longer blades, a second paper clip, a wider strip. 4. Time it again, and tell the next pair what you changed and what the stopwatch said. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 10 min. Props: paper, scissors, paper clips and a stopwatch for each pair. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Thin Tube, Wide Tube, Same Ramp1. Prop one end of a large book on two others to make a ramp. 2. Each table rolls three tubes from paper and tape: thin, medium and wide. 3. Each student predicts which tube will travel farthest across the floor. 4. Release each tube from the top of the ramp three times, measure each run with a ruler and compare with the predictions. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 10 min. Props: paper, tape, three books and a ruler for each table. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Show all 28 games (25 more)
Build it in ten minutes, continued
Three Columns, Stack the Books1. Each table rolls or folds three columns of the same height from three sheets of paper: one round, one square and one triangular. 2. Before any test, each student writes down which column will hold the most books. 3. Stack books on each column, one at a time, until it buckles. Count the books. 4. Tables write their three counts on the board, and the class reads the columns of numbers. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 10 min. Props: three sheets of paper, tape and a stack of books for each table, a board. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
Measure and estimate 8
A Chain of One Hundred Paper Clips1. Each student writes a guess: how long is a chain of one hundred paper clips, in centimeters? 2. Share one hundred clips among the tables. Each table links ten of its clips and measures that chain with a ruler. 3. Work out the length of one hundred from the length of ten, and compare it with the guesses. 4. Tables then link every clip into one chain of one hundred across the floor, and the class measures the real thing. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: one hundred paper clips shared among the tables, a ruler for each table. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Guess the Bounces1. The teacher holds a small rubber ball at desk height over a hard floor. 2. Each student writes down how many times it will bounce before it rolls. 3. Drop it, and the class counts the bounces aloud. 4. Guess again for a drop from twice the height, then test it. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 5 min. Props: a small rubber ball, paper and pencils. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
How Many Times Will It Fold in Half?1. Each student writes down a guess: how many times can one sheet of paper be folded in half? 2. Fold a sheet in half as many times as you can, and count the folds. 3. Work out the layers after each fold: 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on. Write down the number for your last fold. 4. Try again with a larger or a thinner sheet, such as a page of newspaper, and compare the two counts. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: a sheet of paper for each student, a few larger or thinner sheets. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
How Thick Is One Page?1. Each student guesses the thickness of one page of a textbook, in millimeters. 2. Table groups find a way to measure it with only a ruler. 3. One way: measure one hundred pages together, then divide by one hundred. 4. Tables compare their answers, and the teacher asks why they are not all the same. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: a textbook and a ruler for each table. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Mark One Meter From Memory1. Give each student a long strip of paper tape and no ruler. 2. Each student marks the strip where they think one meter ends, and writes their initials at the mark. 3. Lay the strips side by side on the floor, all starting from the same line. 4. Lay a meter stick beside them. The class reads the spread: how many marks fell short, and how many ran long. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: paper tape, pencils and a meter stick. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
One Eraser Against Two1. Lay a ruler across a pencil so that it balances. 2. Put one eraser on one end. Each student predicts where two erasers must sit on the other side to balance it again. 3. Mark the prediction with a finger, then test it. 4. Pairs report the two distances from the pencil, and the class looks for the pattern. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: a ruler, a pencil and three matching erasers for each pair. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Pendulum: Ten Swings1. Each table ties a washer to a string and tapes the other end to the edge of a desk. 2. Each student guesses how many seconds ten full swings will take. 3. Time ten swings with a stopwatch. 4. Shorten the string by half, guess again and time it again. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 10 min. Props: string, a washer, tape and a stopwatch for each table. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Rank Five Strips by Eye1. Tape five paper strips of slightly different lengths to the board, at different angles. 2. From their seats, each table agrees on an order from the shortest strip to the longest. 3. A student from each table measures one strip and writes its length beside it. 4. Tables check their order and say which two strips fooled them. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: five paper strips, tape, a ruler and a board. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Chemistry class 8
Atomic Numbers, Lowest First1. Deal each student a card with the name of one element. 2. Find it on the periodic table on the wall and note its atomic number. 3. The class lines up from the lowest atomic number to the highest. 4. Down the line, each student says the name, the symbol and the number. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: the periodic table on the wall, an element card for each student. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Element Name Tags1. Each student looks at the periodic table on the wall. 2. Spell your first name, or as much of it as you can, with element symbols: Ca-Nd-Y spells Candy. 3. Write it on a name tag, with a dash where no symbol fits. 4. Walk around, read three other tags and name the elements in them. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: the periodic table on the wall, name tags and markers. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Same Column, Same Family1. Deal each student a card with one element symbol, chosen from four or five columns of the periodic table. 2. Students find their symbol on the wall table and look at what sits above and below it. 3. Walk around and gather with everyone whose element is in the same column. 4. Each family reads its symbols from the top of the column down, and stays together as a lab group for the day. Players: 12 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: the periodic table on the wall, a symbol card for each student. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
Sketch the Lab Tool Before You See It1. The teacher reads the names of five tools the class will use, such as a beaker, a funnel and a graduated cylinder. 2. Each student has thirty seconds to sketch what they think each one looks like. 3. The teacher uncovers the five real tools on the bench. 4. Students label their sketches right or wrong, and tables compare their best wrong guess. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: five lab tools under a cloth, paper and pencils. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Solid, Liquid, Gas: Be the Particles1. Everyone stands. Each student is one particle. 2. On "solid", stand in tight rows an arm's length apart and sway on the spot. 3. On "liquid", stay close together and slide past one another. On "gas", spread out through the whole room and walk in straight lines. 4. The teacher calls the three states in any order, faster and faster. Nobody touches. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 4 min. Props: none. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
Spell a Long Word in Element Symbols1. Table groups have three minutes to build the longest English word they can from element symbols. 2. Every letter has to be part of a symbol, as in Ba-Co-N and S-No-W. 3. Tables write their word on the board with dashes between the symbols. 4. Another table checks every symbol against the periodic table. No symbol has a J or a Q in it. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: the periodic table on the wall, paper and pencils, a board. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Symbols That Do Not Match1. In pairs, students search the periodic table for symbols that do not start with the first letter of the English name. 2. List as many as you can in three minutes: Na for sodium is one. 3. Pairs take turns reading one out, and the teacher writes each new one on the board. 4. The class counts the list. There are ten: Na, K, Fe, Au, Ag, Pb, Sn, Sb, W and Hg. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: the periodic table on the wall, paper and pencils, a board. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Yes or No: Find the Secret Element1. The teacher picks one element on the wall table and keeps it secret. 2. Students ask questions about where it sits and how its symbol looks, and the teacher answers only yes or no: "Is it in the top three rows?" "Does its symbol have one letter?" 3. A student at the board crosses out the parts of the table that are ruled out. 4. The student who names the element picks the next one. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: the periodic table on the wall, a board. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Computer science class with no computers 8
Five Chairs Count to Thirty-One1. Five students sit in a row facing the class. From the class's left, they are worth 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1. 2. A student who stands is switched on, and the class adds up everyone who is standing. 3. The teacher calls a number from 0 to 31, and the five work out without talking who stands: 22 is 16, 4 and 2. 4. Change the five after four numbers. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: none. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
The Flipped Card1. A volunteer lays out a square of five by five cards, some face up and some face down. 2. The teacher adds a sixth row and a sixth column "to make it harder", placing each card so that every row and every column has an even number face up. 3. The teacher looks away while the volunteer flips one card. 4. The teacher finds it: it sits in the one row and the one column that now have an odd number face up. Then the class works out the trick. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: thirty-six playing cards. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
If, Then, Else for the Whole Class1. The teacher reads a rule: "If your first name has an E in it, stand. Else, clap once." 2. Everyone runs the rule at the same moment. 3. Add a second condition: "If you are standing and you are in the front half of the room, wave." 4. Table groups write a three-line rule of their own, and the class runs each one. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: none. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
Packets Across the Room1. Each table writes a sentence of eight words, one word to a slip, and numbers the slips from one to eight. 2. Send the slips to the table on the far side of the room. Each slip travels hand to hand by a different route. 3. The far table puts the slips in number order and reads the sentence. 4. Send a second sentence with no numbers on the slips, and compare. Players: 12 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: paper slips and pens. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
Program the Teacher to the Door1. The teacher stands in a corner and will do exactly what is said, and nothing more. 2. Students take turns giving one instruction each: "Take two steps forward." "Turn left." 3. An instruction that is not exact gets done wrongly, or not at all. 4. When the teacher reaches the door, the class counts the instructions and tries again for fewer. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: none. Noise: loud. First day: yes.
Send a Picture as Numbers1. Each student shades a small picture on a grid of eight by eight squares. 2. Write each row as numbers: how many white squares, then how many black, and so on. A row of three white, two black and three white is 3, 2, 3. A row that starts with black begins with 0. 3. Trade number lists with a partner, and keep the pictures hidden. 4. Each partner redraws the picture from the numbers alone. Then hold the two grids side by side. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 10 min. Props: grid paper and pencils. Noise: quiet. First day: yes.
Seven Questions for One to a Hundred1. The teacher writes down a number from 1 to 100 and hides it. 2. The class may ask seven questions, each answered with yes or no. 3. Give the class a minute to plan. Halving the range each time always gets there: "Is it over 50?" 4. Play it. Then pairs play each other and count their questions. Players: 6 to 36. Time: 6 min. Props: paper and pencils. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
Sort the Line, One Swap at a Time1. Eight students stand in a line, each holding a number card that the others can see. 2. The class sorts them with one rule: compare two neighbors, and swap them if the larger number is on the left. 3. Start at the left end and work along the line, pair by pair. Then start again. 4. The class counts the passes until a whole pass has no swap. Then eight new students try a different mix. Players: 12 to 36. Time: 8 min. Props: eight large number cards. Noise: medium. First day: yes.
How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors on 2026-10-03 for a teacher or a club leader opening a science, technology, engineering or computer science class or club, grades 6 to 12. Each opener uses the subject itself: a build, a measurement, an element or an algorithm. The games and the steps are our own. A build or a measuring game states only what the players measure themselves, and no result is promised. In the chemistry games nothing is mixed, heated or tasted. Nobody is out and nobody is touched. Element names and symbols were read on 2026-10-03 from the Periodic Table of the Elements published by IUPAC (https://iupac.org/what-we-do/periodic-table-of-elements/, the table dated 4 May 2022): 118 symbols, among them Na for sodium, K for potassium, Fe for iron, Au for gold, Ag for silver, Pb for lead, Sn for tin, W for tungsten, Hg for mercury and Sb for antimony. Those ten are the only symbols that do not begin with the first letter of the English name (counted by script, and again in the periodic table data of PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/periodic-table/). No symbol uses the letter J or the letter Q. This site is not connected with IUPAC or PubChem. Read the same day at Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_matter (in a solid the particles are held in fixed positions, in a liquid they stay close but move past one another, in a gas they are far apart and move freely), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_sort (neighbors are compared and swapped, in passes, until no swap is needed), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_number, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parity_bit (a parity bit makes the count of ones even or odd, so one flipped bit shows), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-length_encoding and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_search. The spelled words, the binary sums, the layers of a folded sheet and the seven questions for 1 to 100 were checked by arithmetic. Player ranges and minutes are planning estimates. Licence: own work