A Catalyst article describing the species that have had the greatest impact on planet Earth during its billions of years of history. Which come out on top of the 'league table of life'? As hominids have only walked the Earth for part of its existence the article looks at the history of life, from the dawn of...

This animated clip investigates the idea of orbits. It begins with Alice and Bob wondering why the Moon doesn’t fall to the Earth but an apple does. Alice throws an apple hard enough that it goes into orbit around the Earth. This clip could provide a lead in to topics such as gravitational force, acceleration,...

This edition of space:UK, from the UK Space Agency, looks at the Rosetta mission to land on Comet 67P, how Inmarsat satellites provide broadband internet across remote areas of the globe, and a profile of European missions designed to investigate our changing planet. Articles include: *Recent news: including Europe...

A set of four animations created by the Natural Environment Research Council for teachers to use in the primary classroom as introductions to new subjects. The four animations are: •Climate change •The final frontier •The splitting Earth •Evolution is still happening Each animation is accompanied by a closed...

These videos are excerpts from the We Are Aliens! planetarium show. They provide good starter activities for looking at life within our universe. They explore life within our solar system and the Earth and other planets that may contain life. The exoplanets videos go on to look at the possibilities of life outside...

This activity looks at climate change and its effects on succession in a location in Norfolk over 12000 years ago.

Students carry out a simulation of a bog core analysis, based on work by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research together with data from the Department of Geography, University of...

This case study describes David Topping’s career path in environmental research, investigating how tiny atmospheric particles influence our climate and air quality. Some research can take place almost entirely in a laboratory, whilst other studies look at complicated interactions that are vast in scale or that take...

This Catalyst article describes how the human body is affected by low atmospheric pressure at high altitudes. The article looks at the dangers that await the unwary traveller and explains how, if people understand their bodies, they can avoid the worst problems of life at high altitudes.

This article is from...

These activities, produced by Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme, have students write down what they have learned and understood from a graph about life expectancy and mortality. First in the form of statements and then in a narrative form. Students then move on to look at the different components of the graph,...

In this logbook resource pupils will learn about a typical week in the life of an astronaut. They will identify how life is different on Earth than it is in space and compare their daily activities, exercise and nutrition to that of ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

These activities, from the European Space Agency, use the example of Hurricane Matthew to explore the applications of Earth observation data in tracking hurricanes and assessing their aftermath. Students learn how a hurricane develops and the impact that extreme weather can have on society. They do this by...

By using a constant head apparatus or similar you will investigate the shape of a water path projected through the gravitational field of the Earth to find the acceleration due to gravity. This would benefit from using slo-mo filming or photography, or even to introduce students to a travelling microscope.

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Human beings are pretty smart. We have transformed the world and thought up some wondrous inventions. But what will the future hold for planet Earth and the people who inhabit it? Can we use new technology and innovations to improve the quality of our lives as well as the world we live in?