This resource focusses on measuring time, by recording the time it takes to complete a walking race. In small teams, pupils will time each other with a stopwatch and record the data. The results will then be sorted and discussed as a class using terms such as, faster, slower, quicker etc. This activity could be...

In celebration of its founder, Fritz Schumacher’s centenary year Practical Action have created Small Is...Challenge. Schumacher’s philosophy was based on the idea that even a small change can have a big impact on people’s lives. The challenge for students is to look at technologies from the last 100 years and...

Produced by The Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC), these resources help to put curriculum science in a real life context. In these activities, children compare plants grown in a variety of nutrients. They investigate the best conditions to grow turf for a sports pitch.

During the activities...

This is one of a series of resources to support the use of the BBC micro:bit.

In this activity pupils will make use of the BBC micro:bit to design and create a programmable system that can control the temperature and soil moisture levels in a ‘smart’ greenhouse. They will analyse a design brief and design...

Aimed at primary aged students, this STEM project provides a real-life context to explore the health and environmental problems faced by the 3 billion people globally who cook on open fires or traditional cooking stoves. Children are introduced to a family in Nepal and learn about indoor air pollution from their...

Students investigate the generation of electricity by solar cells and how this can transform the lives of people without access to mains electricity.  The challenge is based on Practical Action's work in Gwanda, Zimbabwe.  

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...

This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of sound ...

Investigate properties of materials and decide which would be suitable for use on a spacecraft, in this resource aimed at upper primary children. A PowerPoint presentation, which includes an introduction from a space scientist, sets the real world context for their...

This teaching resource is presented in four stages:

Stage One - Finding out about the problem. In stage one pupils find out more about spacesuits, how they work and why people need them to survive. They also find out more about the challenge to test a series of materials to...

This resource contains eight projects:

1. Using UV sensitive beads and sun cream to investigate the effects of ultraviolet radiation.

2. The aim of this activity is to encourage the students to come up with their own investigations, to explore how exposure to UV radiation varies in different countries...

Spooky Space Sounds contains a PowerPoint presentation which showcases sounds from space. The presentation aims to introduce general concepts and give a sense of how dynamic the Universe is. The resource also contains a Word document of teachers' notes with detailed descriptions and background information on each...

This Practical Action resource presents a fun hands-on and brains-on challenge for Key Stages Two to Five.

The problem:...

Stop the spread is a new STEM challenge for students aged 7 to 16. Highlighting the global issue of infectious disease students design, build and test a model of a hand washing device and produce educational materials for children in Kenya to encourage hand washing. It is accredited for the British Science...

This resource from Physicists in Primary Schools (PIPS) supports the teaching of Earth, Sun and Moon...