In this activity students will make use of the theme of football on the Moon to design a future football stadium for playing the game on the Moon. They will think about the main design considerations and requirements for the stadium. They will then produce annotated sketches of their idea.

This activity...

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...

This activity, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), introduces students to how sensors can be used in smart applications of electronic systems.

The resource is designed so that students will know...

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...

A smart material describes a material that senses and responds to an external stimulus or change in the environment, and where the change reverses when the stimulus or change is removed. This resource provides an introduction to the topic of smart materials, looking at the properties of different materials,...

A phase change material are substances that absorb or release energy when it changes its physical state, providing useful heating or cooling properties. Did you know that phase change materials were developed by NASA to keep astronauts comfortable in the extreme temperature fluctuations in space? This resource...

This resource looks at photochromic materials, exploring how they are used and their impact on space inspired products. The slides provide discussion points, investigation ideas and suggestions of practical experiments and products that will allow students to get hands-on with photochromic technology.

This resource explores the properties and uses of piezoelectric materials and quantum tunnelling composites. Taking examples from space technology, it provides a number of examples to discuss in the classroom and suggests practical experiments to give your students a hands-on examples of the technology.

Shape memory alloys (SMA) and shape memory polymers (SMP) remember their original shape, even after being significantly deformed, returning to their original shape in response to a stimulus. This resource explores the technology behind SMA's and SMP's, the properties that they bring to engineered products and...

This resource explores the topic of thermochromic materials. It provides content to explain what they are, how they are used and suggests practical experiments that will allow students to get hands-on with the material.

This is one of a series of resources from the IET designed around the theme of the future of flight with the purpose of developing pupils knowledge and skills in design technology, engineering and mathematics. Jet engines used on aircraft produce...

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

The problem:...

This is one of a series of resources from the IET designed around the theme of the future of flight with the purpose of developing pupils knowledge and skills in design technology, engineering and mathematics. When spacecraft and jet aircraft land...

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...