A National STEM Learning Centre and Network Engineering Case Studies resource investigating the design process involved in developing a paper cup for manufacture.

You wouldn't believe making a paper cup could be...

This activity shows how to accomplish a simple, but nevertheless seemingly impossible task -making a fair random choice by flipping a coin, between two people who don’t necessarily trust each other, and are connected only by a telephone. The resource begins with a detailed explanation of the activity and...

In this biology extension module of the Salters’ Science course, an exhibition of foods is used to introduce examples of using microbes in food processing. Students make sauerkraut and learn about the establishment of microbial populations in new habitats. Positive uses...

The workbook contains a number of simulations designed to aid students understanding of the Poisson distribution.

[b]Queuing simulation:[/b] is designed to introduce the Poisson distribution through a realistic application, that of simulating a supermarket checkout queue. Students choose the number of people...

In this resource, students consider whether two Poisson distributions can be added together to form a third Poisson distribution. The initial, discussion generating proposition is backed up by a proof. The resource also contains an accompanying spreadsheet on which students can run simulations to test the result....

This resource comprises a spreadsheet which models raindrops falling onto paving slabs. As the variables are adjusted associated graphs display both the experimental and theoretical results. The resource is designed to encourage discussion of how a binomial distribution can be approximated by a Poisson distribution...

This resource provides a framework for teachers to run a transition project with Year 6 pupils to help them with the move from primary to secondary school. The project is based on the theme of Polar Exploration and aims to enable pupils to use and develop a range of STEM skills that they will ultimately need to...

Many optimization problems involve situations where certain events cannot occur at the same time, or where certain members of a set of objects cannot be adjacent. For example, anyone who has tried to time-table classes or meetings will have encountered the problem of satisfying the constraints on all the people...

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...

In this resource students deal with an optimisation problem involving perimeter and area based on a Greek mythological story about a princess. She wants to maximise the area contained in a given perimeter and decides on a circle. The concept of the Isoperimetric...

This pack of worksheets, produced by the Spode Group, is designed to give students experience in problem solving during the early years of secondary school, and was written in response to publications encouraging the teaching mathematics through problem solving,...

In this Tripled Crossed activity, from the Centre for Science Education and supported by the Astra Zeneca Teaching Trust, students match various nutrient groups with the food groups and consider the nutritional benefits. They are then provided with food cards that cover the kinds of foods eaten in Roman times and...

This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introduces students to ways of combining errors (uncertainties) from two independent measured quantities. Using the equation for Doppler shift, the error in the rotational velocity and time period are calculated....

Using the context of archaeological science, students investigate the food and diet of the people of Stonehenge and the nearby settlement of Durrington Walls, 4500 years ago. There are opportunities for students to test rates of reactions between milk and acids or enzymes used in cheese making, to consider the...

This excel file deals with the puzzle where a number between 1 and 63 is chosen. That number can be seen on some of a set of six cards. The number can easily be calculated by looking at the cards containing that number. This puzzle is based on binary numbers and the fact that any number can be uniquely expressed as...