A Catalyst article about the discovery of puerperal fever by Ignaz Semmelweis a doctor in a maternity ward in Vienna general hospital. The article looks at his observations into death rates and shows how scientists use observations and theories to make practical changes that can improve life. In the case of...

The resources in this collection show how you can take basic physics and chemistry demonstrations and change them into magic tricks. Each resources comes with teachers notes and a video which shows how to carry out the trick.

This series of activities from NASA take a mathematical approach to looking at image scaling, which is an important first step that all astronomers perform when looking at image data. They are intended as supplementary problems for students looking for additional challenges in mathematics and physical science from...

From NASA, these images show astronauts from early space missions, to the space shuttle and international space station. The images can be used to illustrate human space exploration in a range of resources. Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space and Neil Armstrong, part of the Apollo 11 mission, was the first...

Imaginings: SMILE card 2112 is a collection of multi-levelled activities to develop mental imagery skills. The...

A Catalyst article about giant asteroids. Astronomers say that, one day, a giant rock from space will collide with the Earth and cause mass devastation. This could lead to the extinction of many species, including humans. The article looks at what can be done to prepare for such an impact and what happened when a...

Published in June 2010 , this report from the Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics Education aims to discover whether CPD has a positive impact in enhancing the personal understandings and teaching of science by the teacher and the subsequent learning of students.

The full collection of STEM...

Published in May 2012, this report from Sheffield Hallam University's Centre for Education and Inclusion Research, aimed to explore the impact of the support for the CPD of teachers provided by the Science Learning Centres on individual teachers’ career progression and retention within the profession.

The...

Published in March 2013, this report from Babcock Research  focusses on the qualitative and quantitative impact the Science Learning Centre has on CPD for technicians.

The full collection of STEM Learning impact and evaluation research reports can be viewed...

Published in February 2010, this study from the University of York's Department of Educational Studies, focusses on the impact of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes offered by the National Network of Science Learning Centres, in 2009-2010.

The full collection of STEM Learning impact and...

There is a minimum size of meteorite that will make it through the atmosphere of a planet (or the Moon) and impact on the surface. If the meteorite is any smaller than this, it will burn up on its journey through the atmosphere and be seen as a meteor or shooting star (obviously if the meteorite is bigger it will...

In this resource students are asked to extract data from a fact sheet on the impact of global warming on the Polar regions and present it in the form of an annotated spider diagram.

Classifying shapes:
the objective of this activity is to reflect on the Improving Learning in Mathematics session Mostly Shape and Space Session SS1. The activity asks teachers to consider what knowledge...

In spring 2011 Ofsted conducted a survey of good practice in science in general further education and sixth form colleges in England. Inspectors visited 15 college science departments to observe teaching and learning and evaluate the quality of provision and departmental leadership and management.

This...

This resource sets out the knowledge, skills and understanding that trainee teachers will need in order to be able to manage their students’ behaviour. Effective teacher training incorporates activities and teaching that leads to these outcomes and prepares trainees to manage behaviour confidently and with...