Can understanding photosynthesis help save thousands of lives a year?

This poster and accompanying article introduce C3 and C4 photosynthesis in the context of food security and genetic modification.

Rice biologists have a problem. Rice is a staple food for more than half the world’s...

In this practical activity, students use magnification to examine leaves showing symptoms of a common plant disease and produce labelled drawings of the fungal spores.

The activity will help students to demonstrate the following learning outcomes at KS4:

• describe a common plant disease...

This issue of Big Picture provides lots of interesting information about flowering plants and their uses. 

The plant hormones animation explores the action of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and shows how scientists used experimental evidence to explain the role of auxins in a phototrophic response.

The...

This resource, aimed at primary level, contains many activities related to plants, habitats, food chains and recycling. It looks at the features of different habitats and compares the plants that grow in each. Children learn about the features of plants and how certain...

This resource contains a series of lessons which are designed to extend students’ knowledge and understanding of plastics and plastic waste on a global scale. Linking to materials and their properties, the environment, recycling and design and technology, they contain investigations and activities aimed at both...

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 test and classify plastics before investigating their thermal insulation and shock resistance properties. The children then design, make and test a...

In this Nuffield ...

In this Nuffield Foundation activity students carry out an investigation into some sporting techniques to establish whether practice improves performance. They conduct research into the rationale for training schedules for different sports. Students then investigate target games to explore whether scoring systems...

In this Nuffield Foundation activity students use secondary data to investigate how changes in technology have led to improved performance in cycling. They research footwear to see how materials of different properties can be combined for specific purposes and carry out a practical investigation to define the...

In this Nuffield Foundation activity students use the learning skills they have acquired in earlier pods to invent a new game of their own. They need to design and test equipment as well as establish effective rules and a fair scoring system. Groups then present and explain their new game at a sports fair where it...

In this Science upd8 activity students take on the role of a trainee documentary producer working for an environmental channel. The television programme scenario, ‘Bears in Trouble’, explores how rising temperatures in the Arctic could be endangering the survival of polar bears. Polar bears seem perfectly adapted...