Resources by University of Leicester

The Position of Volcanoes on the Earth and Mars

The movement of tectonic plates against each other can cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and most active volcanoes on the Earth are located along the edge of these plates. Volcanoes can also occur far away from plate boundaries, although this is less common.

These volcanoes are maintained by hotspots...

The Temperature on Mars

Students will begin by comparing the range of temperatures on the Earth, Mars and the Moon, using the student worksheet ‘Temperature: from one extreme to another!’ They will have to plot the temperature over a ten-day period from 4 September to 13 September, as measured by three different craft that landed on the...

Transformation of Functions

This interactive resource, produced by the University of Leicester, is designed to enable students to explore transformations of functions including translations, stretches, reflection in the axes and rotations.

The first activity uses function notation to explore translations parallel to the x axis and...

Transformation of Shapes

This interactive resource, produced by the University of Leicester, is designed to enable students to explore transformations of shapes including translation by a vector, stretches, rotations around a point, reflection in the axes and reflections in the lines y=x and y=-x.

The first activity draws a...

Vectors Introduction

This interactive resource, produced by the University of Leicester, is designed to enable students to explore vectors, beginning with the definition of a vector followed by the algebra of vectors and the scalar product. The opening slides of the presentation explain the difference between scalar and vector...

Volcanoes on Earth and Mars

Volcanoes can be found on many planets and satellites in the Solar System, although not all volcanoes are the same as those found on Earth. It is the conditions on the planet and its composition that determine the shape of the volcanoes and the material that is erupted.

Students will use topography data to...

Water on Mars?

The spacecraft that have orbited around Mars and landed on its surface have shown us (via images and data) that there is no liquid water on the surface of Mars. However, these satellite images have also revealed to us features that appear to have been created or carved out by flowing water. In fact, scientists feel...

Water on the Moon

Scientists must design and evaluate many ways of extracting water from the lunar permafrost before planning lunar colonies and manned missions using the moon as a base.

In this activity students will construct a solar water collector. Using the collector, students will collect and calculate the amount of...

Weathering on the Earth and Moon

The loose fragments of material on the Moon’s surface are called regolith. This regolith, a product of bombardment by meteorites, is the debris thrown out of the impact craters. By contrast, regolith on Earth (called ‘soil’ as it contains organic material) is a product of weathering. ‘Weathering’ describes all the...

Which Satellite Am I?

Man-made satellites are put in specific orbits around our Earth and other planets to do certain jobs e.g. to send digital communications or to monitor the weather. These orbits can be distinguished by height above the planet and the orbital period. The orbits of natural satellites are much more varied and these...