10 Must-Try Science Final Exam Review Ideas for Middle School

Looking for some fun science final exam review ideas for end of the school year? Try out one of these TEN ideas…or try them all!

Vocabulary Games

Once I heard the statement, “If your students know the vocabulary, they will pass the test.”. You MUST review vocabulary. Hopefully, you have a word wall that you display throughout the year. This allows your students to be exposed to vocabulary all year long.

Word walls are also a great reference in discussion. If you are teaching at all, vocabulary comes out of your mouth all of the time! If the students look confused, you just point! It’s a great thing to have!

Enough about that. Let’s talk about different vocabulary games. The options are truly endless, but here are some ideas that you can use for review!

• Vocabulary Matching: This is a classic. Just print out the vocabulary terms and their definitions, cut them out, and let students match them! Cut-and-glues like this are fun too!
•  “Heads Up” style game: Create index cards with vocabulary terms on them. Let students work in partners. One student will put the index card up to their forehead while the other student tries to explain what the term is without saying the word! The student holding the index card has to guess what it is. Here are the rules to Heads Up! – you can adjust this paper index card game to fit what’s best for your classroom.
• Flyswatter Vocabulary Game: For this, you just need to write or print vocabulary words and randomly place them across the board at the front of your classroom. Then, divide the class into two teams. Each team will send one player up to the board, holding a flyswatter. You then read a definition, example, or question related to one of the words. The first student to hit the correct vocabulary word with their flyswatter earns a point for their team!

Digital Practice Questions

Things are a lot different now in the classroom than they used to be…in SO many ways, right? Well, one of those things that is different is how students are taking tests.

The majority of schools now have students taking their tests on computers. Gone are the days of pencil and paper tests. Well, at least for now.

You should keep this in mind when you are reviewing for the end-of-year tests.

You should give your students a chance to practice reading and answering questions on the computer.

You could use platforms like Google Forms, Google Slides, Khan Academy, Quizzizz, CK-12, NAEP Questions Tool, and more. There are a lot of tools that you can use that will give your students practice reading questions on the computer and using the computer to answer them.

I’ve also created these practice questions! They are aligned with 8th grade North Carolina standards, but they work for many other states. Check them out!

Peer-to-Peer Review

Research shows that peer interaction has a positive influence on how students learn. Why not use it when reviewing science content at the end of the year?

What’s easy about this strategy is that it is practically NO-PREP! Can I get an amen?

So, here’s what you can do:

1. Put students into pairs.
2. Tell students to get out their notes, textbooks, or whatever else they have on the topic.
3. Tell them that one of them will be teaching the other about a topic. Then, they will switch. They will first need to try to teach their partner without using any of their resources. Then, they can get out their resources to help fill in the gaps.
4. To make sure they stay within their attention span, give them 2-3 minutes to teach what they know, and then 2-3 minutes to add to it using resources.
5. After, choose another topic, and let them switch!
6. Continue for as long as you’d like.

Homework

No, it’s not a favorite, but if you don’t give homework, this is definitely a must-try review activity. Many schools have a “no homework” policy. If that’s you, you can make it a choice!

There are many students and parents out there that don’t mind the extra practice.

So, what kind of homework should you give? Here are some examples.

• You can give a short assignment that doesn’t take more than 5 minutes. It can be a quick vocabulary matching activity, one in-depth practice test question, a short answer question, or something of the sort!
• You can give a monthly choice board.
• You can have students “create their own questions” and answers pertaining to a topic.

I understand that families are busy and that not all students will do it, but remember, it can be so helpful! So, give it a try, and watch those scores go up. The more practice = the more exposure to content = more learning!

Escape Rooms

Another teacher and student favorite in the classroom are escape rooms. There are ones that you can print and prep, but there are also some digital versions.

Here are some of the creators that I’ve heard great things about who make escape rooms you can use in your classroom!

In a science escape room challenge, students have to decode clues, solve problems, complete mini-labs, etc. to “escape” within a certain time. They solve science questions throughout the escape room activity.

Kesler Science

EzPz Science

Cook in the Classroom

Many teachers and students think that this is a great way to review science. Students really enjoy these! It’s something that they look forward to after they’ve been doing them for a while.

The Unfair Game

This is another popular review game! There are a lot of templates online that you can use if you want to do it digitally.

1. You need to create a set of review questions.
2. Each question will have assigned point values, but you can’t tell your students.
3. Some questions will have positive points, some will have negative points, and some can be wild cards such as double points, switching scores, and stealing points!
4. You will divide the class into two teams, and they will take turn answering questions.
5. If a team member answers the question correctly, they will get the points. However, before they see what the question is worth, they have the opportunity to accept the points or give them to the other team. Again…this is BEFORE they know the points though!
6. You’ll then reveal the points.

How fun, right?

Stations

Setting up stations for your review days can be great for attention spans. Just as students finish reviewing at one station, it’s time to switch!

So, this post you are reading now includes some must-try science final exam review ideas, well, this post here includes some must-try ideas for science stations! Put them together, and you’ll have some awesome review days!

Stations:

• keep students up and moving
• cover different learning styles
• provide differentiation
• encourages peer learning
• and more!

Some of the stations you can try are experiment stations, art stations, “model it” stations, and more.

 

Videos

Sometimes, especially at the end-of-day classes, students just don’t have the energy to use their brain. I mean, as an adult, I get it too. Sometimes, you just don’t have it in you to do some “full concentration things”.

This is where videos can come in as a great review activity. With videos, students can do more of the sit-and-get type learning.

Showing a video can be a powerful way to get review in, remind students of content they may have forgotten, but it won’t take as much brain power to do it!

Here are some great videos to show when reviewing science content!

Magic School Bus

The Amoeba Sisters

SciShow

Crash Course Kids

Brain Pop (need subscription)

Trashketball

This will always be one of my favorite review games for middle school! I mean, what kid, on a daily basis, isn’t tempted to throw a balled-up piece of paper across the room into the trash can.

I had to make it a rule to NOT do this, which is what makes this game so fun to students.

So, what do you do?

1. Come up with a set of review questions for whatever topic you are teaching.
2. You’ll divide your students into two teams (or even 3).
3. One student from the 1^st team will begin.
4. You’ll ask the question. If the student gets it right, they get a point and a chance to score a basket. What’s the basket? A trash can….of course empty. What’s the ball? A balled-up piece of paper! If they score, the team gets another point. Then it’s the other team’s turn.
5. If they get the question wrong, it’s the other team’s turn to try. If the other team gets it right and shoots, then it is their turn again.
6. Continue this with each student on each team or until all of the questions are answered.

Here’s a video explaining the rules and some other cool ideas! (along with some other fun games you can take a look at!).

 

Reference Sheets

Having reference sheets is something that is easy to implement. They are perfect for middle school students. You can create something that includes THE MOST IMPORTANT concepts to keep in their notebooks, or even on a saved file on their computer.

This is something that your students can constantly refer to. They may do it on their own, or you can set aside a time for them to just review it. Not long, just 2-3 minutes a day can add up.

The more that your students see the material, the more they will remember!

This is something great to do at the end of class with those extra few minutes before the bell rings!

Bonus: Create an End of the Year Review Theme

If you do have a time set at the end of the year to review all that you have taught, a fun theme can make a world of difference in student engagement. You can wear costumes, put up some décor, crank up some themed music when students walk in, and more!

Here are some test prep theme ideas:

• Test Prep Bootcamp
• Glow Review
• Race to the Finish
• Survivor

Want more science review ideas? Here are some more science review activities for end of year testing!

Have fun with your science final exam review!