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The Age of the Universe
This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, looks at Hubble’s law, whereby students use real data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to plot a graph from which they can obtain the Hubble constant. Students then look at the possible sources of error in their data and use this to calculate the uncertainty in...
The Rotational Period of the Sun
This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introduces students to ways of combining errors (uncertainties) from two independent measured quantities. Using the equation for Doppler shift, the error in the rotational velocity and time period are calculated....
Raising Standards in STEM and Other Subjects: Using Space-related Contexts and Applications
The Leading Space Education programme has been funded by the STFC since September 2008. A network of schools was established and supported by SSAT, to develop and embed high-quality, space-themed educational practice. All schools started from different prior experiences of engagement with space education and are...
A report from the Leading Space Education Programme
This publication is a report from the Leading Space Education Programme (LSEP). This is a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funded project that has worked with 30 schools in England with the aim of enhancing science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in secondary schools and using...
Life in Our Solar System
Life in the extremesMicrobes can survive in the most hostile and inhospitable environments. Might similar places in our solar system be able to support them too?
Why are scientists interested in Mars?Why are...
Are We Alone?
It really is a small worldWe live in a global network of diverse communities, sharing resources, ideas and technology. As a species, we have always looked to the sky and asked ‘are we alone?’
A sample of oneSo...
These videos are excerpts from the We Are Aliens! planetarium show. They provide good starter activities for looking at life within our universe. They explore life within our solar system and the Earth and other planets that may contain life. The exoplanets videos go on to look at the possibilities of life outside...
Martian Death Rays
Could there be life on Mars? Perhaps so, although the high intensity of UV light means that it is unlikely to be found on the surface. The experiment demonstrates how bacteria grown on agar plates can be killed off by UV exposure. Curriculum areas covered: • Microbiology • Cell biology • Aseptic technique The video...
Is There Life In There?
All life forms on Earth are based on organic biochemistry. This activity requires students to analyse an unknown soil sample (just recovered from a space mission to another planet!) and look for signs of possible indicators for life. Curriculum areas covered: • Cell biology • Food tests, including starch, sugar,...
These We Are Aliens! related chemistry activities for the class room, have been devised by devised by Steve Althorpe and Judith Green. The resources include games, practical activities and worksheets. Supporting videos demonstrate the activities. The following curriculum areas are covered:
- depression...