The 'big ideas' section of the Fixpert's resource focuses on big ideas. It introduces students to designing as an approach to problem solving and to designing for the real world and real problems. In particular, students are encouraged to consider different users and their needs, along with ergonomics and human-...

This report, commissioned by the Wellcome Trust, evaluates Big Picture, its free publication on bioscience, and explores ways in which it could be developed. It was hoped that this summary of the main findings would be of use to other organisations developing materials for teachers and students, particularly those...

The Big Telescopes poster links ground and space based telescopes with the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that they are observing and their locations on Earth or in space.

The poster explains how larger telescopes allow scientists to learn more about the early universe and map our own galaxy with...

A global family of giant telescopes - on the ground and in space - provides an inspirational context for STEM learning. This collection of resources linked in to astronomy cover the following topics within the curriculum: telescopes, the electromagnetic spectrum, infra-red, redshift and Doppler shift, image...

Dr Tim Gabriel’s job involves making materials for batteries and solar cells which have tiny structures and shapes, allowing them to work more efficiently. He describes how his combined degree in chemistry and languages allowed him to spend a year in France. Tim also explains how his research career helped him to...

The Gaia spacecraft is a European Space Agency mission to map one billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy.  This collection of resources allows students to analyse real data from the spacecraft.  The collection is divided into 3 sections:

• Background information for teachers and students on the Gaia...

The Big Ideas: the future of engineering in schools report, supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering, reflects the views of leading engineering education experts and key stakeholders such as employers, parents and students. It proposes that students should be explicitly taught about engineering and the...

This article looks at...

The purpose of bin packing is to pack a collection of objects into containers called bins. The bins are all the same size and the objects to be packed are different sizes. The aim is to pack the objects into the bins using the fewest possible bins. In this example students are asked to save computer files onto a CD...

In this resource students are asked to play the role of a local theatre manager, tasked with finding the best way to organise the audience to minimise the amount of space they take up. To solve the problem students must apply a series of first fit algorithms.

The resource includes a teacher presentation,...

This resource looks at binary data and contains an Excel workbook with macros to enable recolouring/checking the colour of cells. A series of binary numbers are given in a rectangular grid of cells on the left when the workbook is first opened. Students are required to recolour the original binary grid, to show the...

The workbook contains a number of simulations designed to aid students understanding of the Binomial distribution.

Binomial distribution: simulated tossing a coin ten times. The probability of achieving 0,1,2… heads is calculated and displayed in a frequency table and a bar chart. The...

This Biochemical Society careers resource is aimed at students and provides an overview of the impact of biochemistry on other areas of science, a description of what biochemistry is and an illustration of the range of organisations which employ biochemists.

There is also a description of the types of...

This colourful leaflet from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at what biodiversity is and why it matters. It also explains how human activities threaten the natural environment, endangering species and habitats and what we are doing about the problem. The resource includes a list of research...