A Catalyst article looking at how plants develop large surface areas both in the air (leaves) and in the soil (root hairs) to get all they need from the environment. The article explores the relationship between plants and soil and looks at new research on fungi in soil and their involvement with the mineral...

This resource from the European Space Agency is presented as eight activities which guides students to create an automatic plant watering system, suitable for use on a possible future colony on the planet Mars. Students have opportunities to use and develop their skills to plan, design and analyse various soil-...

A Catalyst article about the use of remote telescopes and detecting cosmic rays. Giant telescopes that can be operated remotely are located in Hawaii and Australia and are known as the Faulkes telescopes.

These are available to students in the UK to do original research with, and enable the following...

A Catalyst article discussing how polymers affect every day of people’s lives. With diverse characteristics and applications their usefulness can only be limited by human imagination. Due to polymers’ widespread and varied use a responsible and systematic recycling programme is both economically and environmentally...

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Scientists recently found plastics floating in some of the most remote and inaccessible seas in the world, just off the coast of Antarctica. Although it clearly looks ugly in such a pristine environment,...

Produced by The Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC), this booklet contains information and activities of interest to teachers of design and technology. It looks at working practices in industry and schools relating to thermoplastics and provides an introduction to basic techniques for schools and the...

A Catalyst article about the problems of recycling plastics. The article looks at novel uses for products made from recycled plastics. It also looks at the make-up of polymers and the history of their manufacture. Finally, alternatives to plastics are examined.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science...

Plotr  is a free-to-access website which offers advice and resources to support the work of teachers in bringing STEM careers to life for their students

Plotr have developed a series of lesson plans and quick-fire activities to help teachers embed careers learning within  schemes of work. The lesson plans...

In this activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, students use real data, taken from a scientific paper, to plot the rotational curve of M31 (Andromeda), our neighbouring spiral galaxy. They will look at Kepler’s third law to predict the motion of stars around the centre of M31. They will then measure the...

This resource is part of a collection of Nuffield Maths resources explores Data Handling. The demand is roughly equivalent to that in Higher Level GCSE and Level 2 Functional Mathematics.

In the ‘Plumber's callout’ lesson, students complete data tables, then draw, read and interpret linear graphs where the...

In this resource students complete data tables, then draw, read and interpret linear graphs where the intercept on the y axis is not zero. Interpretation includes finding where two linear graphs meet. The last part requires student access to a spreadsheet.

The resource is part of the Nuffield Maths Level 1...

This resource is part of a collection of Nuffield Maths resources that explore Algebra and Maths. The demand is roughly equivalent to that in Higher Level GCSE and Level 2 Functional Mathematics.

The ‘Plumbers' prices’ resource introduces simultaneous equations and their...

Ella is an expert in the mechanical design and operation of the NOC's Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV's) She ensures new technology designed integrates on the AUV's and operates the AUV whilst at sea.

Ella read Mechanical Engineering at Cambridge, graduating with both Bachelors and Master's degrees. She...