Visitors line up by size in Get in Order - large size powers of 10 cards featuring an Earth card

Size, Scale, & Measurement

A compilation of activities and resources focused on size, scale, and measurement. Resources can be incorporated into annual events including Metric Day, Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month, World Quantum Day, DNA Day, NanoDays, Earth and space events, and more.

Powers of Ten

Visitors line up by size in Get in Order - large size powers of 10 cards featuring a pea plant card

Exploring Size - Powers of Ten Game

In this activity, learners compete to organize their hand of cards into lists of objects from largest to smallest.

Measuring

facilitator and young learner use a height chart set in nanometers

Exploring Size - Measure Yourself

In this activity, learners mark their height on a height chart and discover how tall they are in nanometers.
Young learner places blocks in scale while facilitator watches

Exploring Science Practices: Measure Up

In this activity, young learners and caregivers use measuring tools to investigate foundational scientific concepts like distance, mass, and volume. Try this with a toddler or preschooler!
Learner cuts a paper ruler in half

Exploring Size - Tiny Ruler

In this activity, learners investigating just how small a billionth of a meter is by repeatedly cutting a paper ruler in half.

Large Scales

Group shot of learners creating their pocket solar systems

Exploring the Solar System: Pocket Solar System

In this activity, learners make a scale model of the distances between objects in our solar system.
Learner looking at plushie model of the Moon

Exploring the Solar System: Moonquakes

In this activity, learners make a quake by shaking spring toys and standing at various distances to discover how distance can change the impact of a quake.

Small Scales - Nanoscale and Microscale

facilitator and young learner use a height chart set in nanometers

Exploring Size - Measure Yourself

In this activity, learners mark their height on a height chart and discover how tall they are in nanometers.
Learner cuts a paper ruler in half

Exploring Size - Tiny Ruler

In this activity, learners investigating just how small a billionth of a meter is by repeatedly cutting a paper ruler in half.
Learners pour beads into a sieve filter to sort by size

Exploring Size - Ball Sorter

In this activity, learners use sieves with different-sized holes, to sort balls by size and investigate filtering.
A girl playing the Exploring Size - Memory Game

Exploring Size - Memory Game

In this activity, learners play a card game exploring the different size scales - macro, micro and nano - objects within these different scales and the way these objects are measured.
two learners stretch across a large mat that have various icons related to nanotechnology

Exploring Size - StretchAbility

In this activity, learners use a "hands and feet-on" game that explores the different sizes of things in the world.
Two kids in cleanroom suits and PPE hugging and smiling at the camera

Tiny Particles, Big Trouble!

In this activity, learners investigate clean rooms by sniffing scents that are too small to see, trying on the head-to-toe suits that scientists wear in clean rooms, and manipulating pretend silicon wafers with tweezers.
A facilitator adds scented oils into deflated balloons

Exploring Size - Smelly Balloons

In this activity learners use their sense of smell to explore the world on the nanoscale and learn that we can smell some things that are too small to see.

Books with Companion Poster and Video

Image showing an illustration of a Mars rover

Is That Robot Real? children's book and poster

Book, graphics panels, and evaluation report on fact and fiction around robots.
"How Small is Nano?" with five images of various cells and a ruler just below

How Small Is Nano? Book and Poster

Posters and banners for the Nanoscale project in various sizes in multiple formats. Formative evaluation and survey instruments for the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network.
A photo showing the 1 centimeter width of a finger

How Small is Nano? video

In this 3-minute video, the viewer goes on an adventure of scale from the macrosize to the microsize to the nanosize!

Scale Ladders, Zoom Posters and Videos

a scale ladder from the macro to the nano size

Scale Ladder

This poster uses a scale ladder approach to convey the size of the nanoscale and show how objects are related by size.
Poster image showing a gecko and gecko-inspired robot

NanoDays Key Concepts Posters

Posters showing nano key concepts.
Close up magnified image of a microchip

Zoom into a Microchip video

In this video, learners see the tiny wires and the crisscrossing patterns of the microchip's circuits while learning a bit about why making it small is important.
A lotus leaves in a small, man-made concrete pond.

Zoom into a Lotus Leaf video

In this video, learners get an up close look at the tiny nanostructures that give the leaf its unique superhydrophobic behavior.
Poster of abstract art featuring large objects and zooming into the atomic level

Combined Zoom Poster: Everything Is Made of Atoms - Butterfly, Bloodstream, Computer Chip

This poster features zooms into three familiar objects - a human heart, a butterfly's wing, and a laptop computer.
Hyman bloodstream across ten orders of magnitude poster with annotation

Zoom Into the Human Bloodstream poster

An illustrated poster showing the human bloodstream across ten orders of magnitude; various printing formats with and without annotation included along with formative evaluation.
Poster illustration a zoomed image from graphene pencil line down to the molecular level

Zoom into a Pencil Line of Graphene with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) - Illustration

This poster feature zoomed images of a pencil line down to the molecular level.
Computer chip across ten orders of magnitude poster with annotation

Zoom Into a Computer Chip posters

This poster features a computer chip across ten orders of magnitude.
Image showing the full butterfly's wing poster with annotation

Zoom Into a Butterfly Wing poster

An illustrated poster showing a butterfly's wing across ten orders of magnitude; various printing formats with and without annotation included along with formative evaluation.

Best Practices for Scale Ladders

A screenshot of the zoom into a nasturtium leaf interactive starting with a nasturtium leaf.

Visualizations at the Nanoscale

Visualizations at the Nanoscale including: Zooms (illustrations, posters, interactive media, videos), Scale Ladder Diagrams, Immersive Simulations, Physical Models, and Nano Artists in Residence.
a scale ladder from the macro to the nano size

Guidelines for the Design and Use of Scale Ladders

Professional development training tool to prepare staff and volunteers to facilitate activities that use scale ladders and diagrams to explain how extraordinary small nano is.

Annual Events Incorporating Measurement and Scale

International Day of Mathematics (March 14)

Pi Day (March 14)  

NanoDays (last weekend in March - first weekend in April)

Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month (April)

World Quantum Day (April 14)

National Math Festival (mid-April)

DNA Day (April 25)

Tau Day (June 28)

  • Related to Pi Day (March 14) Tau is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its RADIUS, approximately 6.28, or 2 times Pi.

International Infinity Day (August 8)

National Nano Day (October 9th)

Metric Day (October 10th)

Fibonacci Day (November 23)

Working with STEM Experts Guide cover including an image of expert puring a liquid and using a strainer with a girl and her family at a museum public event

Finding STEM Experts

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Professional Learning