In this activity from the Institution of Engineering and Technology, students investigate the properties of different categories of smart materials and decide which kinds of materials might offer the best prospects for a financial investment. Students work in teams and...

Receptors under our skin send signals to our brains about the world around us. Engineers are borrowing this idea from the human body to create a ‘smart skin’ for aircraft. In this activity students learn about motes, the tiny sensors at the heart of this innovation, and how science and mathematics are central to...

In this activity, students explore the questions: What are the main sources of air pollution? What is the impact of transport emissions on air pollution and the natural environment? What can we do to reduce air pollution coming from transport? To what extent can emissions be reduced if solar powered cars instead of...

The focus of this activity is on the principle of hydrodynamics through testing boat hull designs in a test tank.

This activity gives students the opportunity to explore and develop their critical thinking and decision making skills through a practical approach....

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

The problem:...

This is a complementary unit from the Department for Education to a suite of continuing professional development (CPD) units covering the five ‘key ideas’ at Key Stage Three (cells, interdependence, particles, forces and energy).

A glossary from the Nuffield Foundation in the form of an A5 booklet with some words already entered. There is space for students to add their own definitions.

In this topic from the Association for Science Education, students explore the importance of food in their lives. The topic is designed to allow classes in schools across the world to exchange information about diet, health, sources of food and the cultural aspects of food.

Students consider the significance...

This activity challenges students to work in small teams to design a water supply system for a small town of 5,000 inhabitants. They have to work within a budget, including giving themselves a profit margin.

The...

In this resource students are asked to test the operation of pulley systems and calculating their mechanical advantage.

Suggested learning outcomes include:

• To understand what is meant by mechanical advantage.
• To be able to calculate the mechanical advantage of pulley systems.
• ...

This resource provides mini challenges based on the designing process. With textiles as the core theme, students are set mini challenges that ask them to create design briefs, understand client needs, generate ideas, communicate their ideas and evaluate their ideas.

These resources from Farming & Countryside Education (FACE) are intended support a visit to a dairy farm by providing activities which aim to raise students’ awareness of the process of business improvement in the food chain and giving advice on how to organise the visit. In preparation for the farm visit, a...

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...

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...

These resources from the European Space Agency climate change initiative education resource pack allow students to learn about the carbon cycle and the key to controlling climate change by managing it and using it to identify how to reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere. How carbon moves through the carbon...