This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). Building materials and construction methods provide an interesting context in which students can develop their understanding of basic ideas...

This rich task from Cre8ate offers pupils the opportunity to develop their personal learning and thinking skills. It involves using recycled materials to construct a scale model of a silo and is well suited to group work. The task can be extended for more able students by investigating the resizing of their model...

This Problem Solving with Industry module was devised by the Centre for Science Education in collaboration with Hadfield, Cawkwell, Davidson and Partners. In this module students, working in teams, are asked to come up with plans for a new DIY superstore.

In Building a town, from Cre8ate maths, students are encouraged to consider the mathematical shapes which form the net of a building. Some simple models are shown and students could use these to construct their nets, before building the models themselves.

A classroom activity where students make a simple telescope (using lenses and cardboard tubes)  that uses two different types of lens to magnify distant objects, and then find out how it works.

This range of materials is provided by Cre8ate maths to support the teaching of mathematics in the context of architecture. Resources include Architect’s Skills, Bricks & Tiles, Building a Town, Rigid Structures and Tiling Patterns, giving students the opportunity to experience mathematical principles in...

[b]Ordering units of weight:[/b] the objective of this activity is to assess prior knowledge of learners and their understanding of metric units. Students are presented with a set of cards on which are written metric weights in grams, kilograms and in words. Students are required to place the cards in order of...

Learners discover the BIFoR FACE (Birmingham Institute for forest research free air carbon enrichment) experiment and the infrastructure associated with it. They are introduced to the arrays, met masts and flux tower and encouraged to think about the research questions that this experiment can answer. Learners are...

This Mathematics Matters case study looks at how mathematics converts digital data into useful information for business, the government and the public. Computers and networks stuffed with ever-increasing amounts of data are transforming our society, creating a digital world with its own rules and behaviours. We...

This Salters’ Chemistry Course unit from the University of York Science Education Group covered:
* Properties of building materials including their reactions with acid.
* Factors which affect rate of reaction.
* The relationship between the properties and...

This Science upd8 activity draws on a recent Government warning about poisonous mercury from low energy light bulbs being a risk to users.

But is this risk worth the benefits of using low energy light bulbs? In this activity students rank risks and benefits to help them decide.

The video shows a slide at a fairground that starts from a height of 35 metres. The person using the slide pauses at the top of the slide. There are various bumps in the slide along the descent. The challenge is to graph the height of the person's bum off the ground against time.

Bum height off...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at what UK farmers are doing to protect the country's vanishing bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinating insects; how scientists are trying to figure out how many types of microbes there are on our...

This assessment task from Bowland asks students to work out how much material is needed to make bunting to go round a garden. The key processes involved are representing, analysing, communicating and reflecting. Students are given a number of basic facts upon which to base their solution and two steps are suggested...