From Solar Spark, this simple activity allows students to make a spectrometer using a card box and a compact disc. The compact disc acts as a diffraction grating and splits the light being observed into its constituent wavelengths. This gives the colours of the rainbow when viewing white light. This type of...

Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to make a photovoltaic cell in the school laboratory. A solar cell uses light from the sun to produce electricity. A type of solar cell, called a dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC), can be made. This type of cell is cheaper than other solar cells, and is now...

In this activity from the IET, pupils learn about conductors and insulators of electricity, ionic and covalent bonds, as well as closed circuits, whilst creating their own playdough electrical circuits.  The resource also includes a wordsearch to reinforce vocabulary and support assessment of understanding.

This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). Energy is a universal concept across the sciences, yet it is often difficult for students to understand. Part of the problem is that current...

A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. This module deals with the location, extraction and processing of oil, the way in which supply of different oil fractions is balanced against demand and the issues related to conservation of...

Six practicals produced by the Institute of Physics (IOP) that help students to understand the electromagnetic spectrum and about materials used in making spectacles.

In addition to the guidance included for specific activities, please refer to the generic health and safety information before commencing any...

This Unilever Laboratory Experiment, published in 1966, demonstrates that mineral oil and water form an oil-in-water emulsion when sodium oleate is the emulsifier, and a water-in-oil emulsion when calcium oleate is the emulsifier. Water-soluble and oil-soluble dyes are used to distinguish the two types of emulsion...

This Salters’ Chemistry Course unit from the University of York Science Education Group covered:
* The conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy.
* The construction and operation of electrochemical cells.
* The conversion of electrical energy to...

These materials, from the Microbiology Society look at the work of Louis Pasteur and helps students to understand the growth of yeast. There are three resources that can be used together or separately and are suitable for Key Stage Two or Three students.

Marvellous microbes This comic strip...

Produced by the Microbiology Society, these activities explore the microbes that cause dental plaque and tooth decay. [b]Marvellous Microbes issue three[/b] This comic strip shows a dentist explaining how plaque forms on teeth from saliva, food and bacteria. The dentist shows how a disclosing tablet can stain the...

In this resource students explore the science of combustion in the context of fuel-burning stoves from around the world. They investigate the energy output from a variety of fuels covering calorific values, simple combustion chemistry, stove efficiency and chimney design. The unit ends with a design task requiring...

A Catalyst article about experiments on surface tension based on a simple test that can be conducted at home or in a school classroom.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2.

Catalyst is a science...

This Salters’ Chemistry Course unit from the University of York Science Education Group covered:

• The importance of metals
• The characteristics of metals
• The relationship between the properties of metals and their uses
• Problems of corrosion

 Core contents...

This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP).

Metals have been used for many thousands of years, but it was only in the 20th century that an understanding developed of how their properties could be explained in terms of their...

This activity is provided by ASE and describes a novel way to conduct a number of chemistry experiments on a small scale with clearly visible results and needing a minimum of equipment.

The resource contains...