All life forms on Earth are based on organic biochemistry. This activity requires students to analyse an unknown soil sample (just recovered from a space mission to another planet!) and look for signs of possible indicators for life. Curriculum areas covered: • Cell biology • Food tests, including starch, sugar,...

Designed for students who have advanced through Scratch and are ready for additional challenge, this resource explores Build Your Own Blocks (BYOB) as a tool for learning modular programming using procedures. 

After examining, briefly, the history of the computer and the Turing Test as a measure of their...

Designed for teachers and STEM Ambassadors, this guide to the James Webb Space Telescope contains sections on the design of the spacecraft and instruments, and the science objects of the mission.  Advice on which information is appropriate for primary and secondary level is included.

This resource was produced by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) as part of their 'At Work With Science' materials. In this interactive resource, students are introduced to the legal aspects of the Health and Safety regulations; the concept of risk assessments and how to develop them....

From Practical Action, this resource encourages students to look at how design specifications are balanced when developing new products.

This resource, from the European Space Agency, contains exercises in physics and chemistry based on real space data, designed for secondary schools. The exercises and data were developed and checked by ESA space scientists and engineers. They are most appropriate for students at Post 16 level. There are a total of...

Linear Programming involves creating a function that represents a real life problem. The aim is to optimise this function given certain constraints. Simple examples of linear programming will have few variables and constraints, however, real life situations will have many more variables and constraints that will...

This series of activities from NASA take a mathematical approach to looking at Lunar exploration. They are intended as supplementary problems for students looking for additional challenges in mathematics and physical science from age 11 to 19 years.

The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of...

This series of activities from NASA take a mathematical approach to looking at magnetism. They are intended as supplementary problems for students looking for additional challenges in mathematics and physical science from age 14 to 19 years.

The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of modern...

This Catalyst article explains how to make an elastic band using Copydex, a source of rubber latex. Rubber latex is a liquid polymer. It is made of long molecules which are all separate. Elastic bands are made by cross-linking the polymers in rubber latex. This changes the properties of the polymer and forms a...

Making sense of data: 16-19 core skills resource pack consists of five sections:

• General Introduction: an overview of the materials and their uses.

• INSET pack: introduces teachers to some of the ideas of exploratory data analysis.

• Guides to the topic resources: provides...

From the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, this resource helps students to consider the allocations of funds to one or more malaria intervention projects. In groups they must discuss the pros and cons of different the projects and decide which should receive funding....

Produced by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, these materials help students to understand how malaria is tackled in an area where it is endemic. In this activity students are given a scenario where they are allocated the role of malaria programme managers for a...