What is a Light Year?

This film, from Twig World, looks at what a light year is, how it is measured and why we measure distance in terms of time?

The key points made in the film are:

•Light travels through space at 300 million metres per second

•A light year is the distance that light travels in one year

•...

Life in the freezer *suitable for home teaching*

If there is life elsewhere in our solar system it’s likely to live in a pretty cold environment. In this resource, students investigate the effect of antifreeze on the freezing point of water and how it can allow fragile cells to survive extreme cold. In the video, Judith Green explains how students can plan an...

The History of the Universe

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introduces the age of the current universe and what its final fate may be.

The video answers some questions...

Biodiversity and habitat loss

This resource from the European Space Agency climate change resource pack explores the topic of biodiversity and how habitat loss is a key driver of global biodiversity loss occurring today. In a series of activities students explore the importance of biodiversity focusing in particular on distributions of common...

Mike Lawton - CEO of Oxford Space Systems

Mike is part of a space engineering company building a new series of very low mass foldable structures and antennas for satellites.  Oxford Space Systems are also working on constellations of satellites that will provide real time imaging from space. 

There are two cuts of the video – one aimed at primary...

Science In a Social CONtext: Teachers' Guide

The SISCON teachers guide gives planning help and suggested approaches to each of the units. It includes sample questions, references for further study, suggestions for field trips, experiments and discussion questions. 

Exit Planet Earth

Produced by the Centre for Science Education, this Science Assessment Task for More Able Students, comprises of two investigations with a space-related theme. Students investigate what needs to be considered if humans are to colonise our solar system.

They look at:

* forces and the force of gravity...

space:uk - Winter 2011, Issue 33

This issue of space:uk, published by the UK Space Agency, focuses on the planet Mercury and the spacecraft being designed and built with the aim of investigating the 'weird' planet. The issue reports on current news stories including the launch of the two Galileo 'In-Orbit Validation' (IOV) spacecraft, new missions...

Solar System Simulation Activity

This activity introduces children to simulations - modelling or acting out real-world, or maybe imaginary, situations. Linking to the teaching of space, it asks what factors need to be considered when simulating the solar system. Out of these, the children then decide what the most important things to include in...

Splitting Earth, Space Weather and Robotic Dolphins

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Sue Nelson hears about the birth of an ocean in the Afar depression in the Horn of Africa. The continental crust is being ripped apart at a phenomenal rate – one metre every year over the last five years. In...