How to Embed a Simulation in Notion

Notion has become a popular home for class wikis, revision guides and flipped-lesson pages. You can embed a simulation in Notion so students run a live experiment right inside the page, next to your notes and tasks, without an account. This guide shows you how to do it with Simulic: create a share link, paste it into Notion, choose Create embed, and make the block tall enough. You will also see how to collect answers from a Notion page, how to share the page so students can open it, and what to do when the link stays a plain link instead of turning into a simulation.

What you need

• A free Simulic teacher account. Students never need one.
• A Notion page you can edit.
• A simulation for your topic. This guide builds a revision page on gas laws with the Boyle's law simulation.
• A few minutes to open the finished page as a student would, on a laptop and on a phone.

Why Notion works differently from an LMS

In Canvas, Moodle or Google Sites you paste an embed code. In Notion you usually paste the play link instead. Simulic supports oEmbed, a standard that lets tools like Notion ask "what should this link look like inside a page?" Simulic answers with the simulation frame, and Notion shows it as a live block.

Two consequences matter for teachers:

• You never touch HTML. One link is all you paste.
• The small resize script that comes with the embed code is not part of this. The frame keeps the size Notion gives it, so you set the height yourself (more on that below).

Step 1: Create a share link

1. Open the simulation page and click Share.
2. On the Simulation tab, set the starting values students should begin with. For the Boyle's law page, keep the initial volume at 3 L and the initial pressure at 1 atm. These values are pinned to the new link.
3. Go to the Share Links tab. Under New link, name the link after the page, for example "Notion · Gas laws revision", choose the Language and click Create link.
4. In the link card, click Copy link. The link looks like https://simulic.com/p/….

Make one link per Notion page. Each link counts its own plays and keeps its own answers, so you can tell later which page students actually used.

Step 2: Paste the link and choose Create embed

1. In your Notion page, click on an empty line where the simulation should go.
2. Paste the play link.
3. Notion offers a few ways to show the link. Choose Create embed.
4. The simulation appears as a block. Click into it and try a control to check that it runs.

If you prefer to start from the block, type /embed on an empty line, choose the embed block, paste the play link and confirm.

At the time of writing, these are the option names in Notion. Notion updates its editor often, so if a label looks different, look for the option that embeds the link rather than showing it as a link or a card.

Step 3: Make the block tall enough

The embed block starts at a size Notion chooses. A simulation needs room for its canvas, its buttons and the starting-values panel underneath, so check the height before you share the page.

1. Hover over the embed block.
2. Drag its bottom edge down until the whole simulation shows without scrolling inside the block.
3. If your page layout allows it, make the block full width. Simulations are much easier to use wide.

Rough starting points:

• Simulation only: about the height of a laptop screen.
• With 2–3 questions: about a third taller.
• With 5 questions and predictions: about twice the height of the simulation alone.

Then scroll through the page in a narrow browser window to see roughly what phone users get.

Try it: a gas laws revision block

This is the Boyle's law simulation embedded the same way it sits on the Notion page. Drag the piston or move the Volume V slider, and press Record data at a few volumes.

With the default starting values (3 L at 1 atm), the panel shows p·V = 3.00 atm·L at every volume. Compress the gas to 1.5 L and the pressure doubles to 2.00 atm. At 1 L it reaches 3.00 atm and at the smallest volume, 0.5 L, 6.00 atm. Pull the piston out to 6 L and it drops to 0.50 atm. The table adds a 1/V column, and the second graph plots p against 1/V as a straight line through the origin.

A good revision task to type above the block: "Record five points. Show that p·V stays the same, then explain why the p against 1/V graph is a straight line."

Collect answers from a Notion page

Notion has no built-in way to collect student answers, but the Simulic link can. Questions appear inside the embed, under the simulation.

1. On the Share page, open the Questions tab and build a question set: up to 5 questions plus instructions for students.
2. Pick that set for your link.
3. Make the Notion block taller, because the questions now sit inside it.

Three questions for the gas laws page:

• Prediction (asked before the simulation unlocks): "You squeeze the gas to half its volume. What happens to the pressure?" Expected answer: it doubles.
• Number: "Set the volume to 1 L. What is the pressure?" Answer 3.00, tolerance ± 0.05, unit atm.
• Short text: "Why is the graph of p against 1/V a straight line through the origin?" Sample answer: p = 3/V, so p is proportional to 1/V, with a gradient equal to p·V = 3 atm·L.

Students type a nickname and answer. You see the results on the link card on the Share page and can download them as CSV. Ask students for a nickname or first name only. For a full walkthrough, read collect student answers without student accounts.

If a second class uses the same page in a different term, pin a different starting value on a new link. With the initial pressure set to 2 atm, the same 1.5 L gives 4.00 atm, so last year's answers don't transfer.

Share the Notion page with students

Simulic needs no account, but students still have to be able to open the Notion page itself. Check your page's sharing settings before you post the address:

• Public page: anyone with the address can open it, and the simulation runs. Check your school's policy before you make a page public.
• Shared with your students' accounts: only students you invite can open it. The simulation inside still needs no Simulic account.

Two more things worth knowing:

• Duplicated pages keep your link. If students copy your page into their own workspace, the embed still points to your share link, so their answers still arrive on your Share page.
• Add the plain link too. Put the play link as a text line under the embed: "Open full screen". On a phone, a plain play link opens the simulation full screen, which beats a small frame.

Notion layouts that work

• Revision hub per unit. One page per unit, with three or four simulations, each under a one-line task. Keep heavy pages short so they load on school networks.
• Flipped lesson. A short explanation, a simulation with prediction questions, then "bring your answer to class". The flipped classroom guide covers the lesson design.
• Homework page. One simulation and one question set per week. See using simulations for homework for how to set tasks students can't skip.

Troubleshooting

The link stays a plain link or a card

Notion did not create the embed. Delete it, type /embed, choose the embed block and paste the link again. Also check that the link is turned on: a turned-off link cannot be embedded.

The block says the link is not available or has expired

"This Simulic link is no longer available" means the link is turned off: click Turn on link on the Share page. "This Simulic link has expired" means a last day was set in the Pro Options; change or clear it.

The simulation is cut off or questions are hidden

The block is too short. Drag its bottom edge down. This happens most often after you attach questions.

The block is blank on school devices only

A web filter is probably blocking simulic.com. Open the play link directly to confirm, then ask your IT team to allow it.

For other platforms, see the guide to embedding a simulation in your LMS and the in-app embed help page. New to teaching with simulations? Start with how to use interactive simulations in the classroom.

FAQ

Do students need a Notion account to use the embedded simulation?

Not for Simulic. They need whatever your page's sharing settings require: nothing for a public page, a Notion account for a page shared only with invited people.

Can I paste the embed code into Notion instead of the link?

Paste the play link. Notion embeds links, and Simulic tells Notion how to show the simulation.

Why doesn't the Notion block grow when students answer questions?

The frame keeps the size Notion gives it. Drag the block taller after you attach questions.

Does the embed set cookies?

No. The embed sets no cookies, and it keeps working when browsers block third-party cookies.