In this Bowland assessment task, students determine how long it would take for the judges to see every act that auditioned for a talent show. Students are told the total number of acts to be seen and have to determine what other information is required to find a solution. They have to make sensible estimates where...

Four simple student booklets from the Nuffield Foundation to teach the basics of designing. *Booklet one: Deciding what to design and make *Booklet two: Developing and communicating design ideas *Booklet three: Planning and making *Booklet four: Evaluating

Impulsive, socially anxious, uncompromising - these are some of the characteristics you may recognise in the teenagers you know. Scientists at the University of Oxford are researching into changes that take place in the teenage brain that may...

This resource uses the mobile phone as an example for how technology can develop over time. Using a card sort activity and classroom presentation, it describes the reasons why technology develops (i.e. technology push, market pull) and provides students with an activity where they create a timeline for mobile phone...

This resource looks briefly at the moral implications of design and the design of products. It touches on the impact that products (such as mobile phones) have had on society and asks students to explore issues around sustainable manufacture.

RAL Space is the UK’s national space laboratory where our thermal engineers and technicians help design and build spacecraft. They make sure that the components will work correctly and are protected in the extreme temperatures of space by using a special type of insulation. In this activity and presentation, pupils...

This resource supports students to understand the key properties of thermosetting and thermoforming polymers and provides examples of uses for these polymers. The resource contains a classroom presentation and student worksheet.

This Science upd8 activity illustrates practical applications of classroom science in the context of using sustainable building materials, and highlights several related various career routes. Students become members of a consultancy firm which specialises in sustainable building projects. They have to use their...

This IET DIY Faraday Challenge asks students to design and prototype a new attraction for Thorpe Park leisure park. Students must work in teams to design and prototype their new attraction.

In this Nuffield probability activity students play a bingo-style game. To maximize their chances of winning, students must decide which numbers are most likely to occur when three dice are thrown and the scores are added.

A new procedure which creates babies with the DNA of three people has just been given the go ahead in Britain. In this activity, students learn how it can help women with a serious inherited condition to have a healthy baby and why it is deemed so controversial. They describe how to create an embryo with three...

In this Bowland assessment task, students are required to use their knowledge of geometry to describe a pattern. They are presented with a pattern consisting of three hexagons made up of triangles and have to what is the same and what is different about each shape. Students are encouraged to consider lengths,...

In this presentation and collection of student worksheets a diagram shows a square and three right angled triangles, with each shape sharing a common side. Some of the lengths are given in surd form, from which students have to find the area of the square.

The solution involves the use of Pythagoras’ theorem...

Cre8ate maths provides these activities which investigate the tessellation of regular polygons and its application in construction. Initially students identify which regular polygons tessellate, providing the opportunity to discuss the interior angles of polygons and...

In this Science upd8 activity, students evaluate evidence from a recently discovered mummy to work out how it lived and how it died. Through so doing, they learn about the function of its preserved tissues and organs.