This activity is designed as a ‘virtual mission’. Students will play the part of Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) scientists to the scenario of a possible asteroid impact with the Earth. By following the story of the mission (led by an automated powerpoint), students will apply their understanding of kinetic energy,...

This resource, produced by SEPNet and Queen Mary University of London, uses Lego to represent the building blocks of matter. Different colour Lego bricks are assigned to different quarks and leptons. The quarks can be put together to make hadrons, such as protons and neutrons. The blocks can also be used to show...

• Describe the difference between energy transferred and power.
• Describe how the power of an electric circuit depends on current through it.
• Explain why the power...

In this SATIS Revisited resource, students examine data, perform a risk assessment, and see how risks are sometimes reported in the media.

This unit focuses on the consumer and considers whether or not we should be concerned about any pesticide residues that may be found on fruit and vegetables. In the first...

This resource from Siemens encourages students to think about medical diagnosis and how information can assist the doctor in being effective and accurate. Students are asked to suggest ideas about the characteristics of a useful image to support a medical diagnosis. They then look at the properties of sound, how...

The poster ‘Plant Pathogens – Identification’ illustrates diagnostic tests that are commonly used to identify plant pathogens in the lab and in the field.

The poster is accompanied by a presentation, which can be used as a step-by-step walkthrough of the ideas in the poster.

The poster ‘Plant Pathogens: Control’ illustrates the many ways that we control plant pathogens, from polyculture farming to controlling the import of plants.The poster is accompanied by a presentation, which can be used as a step-by-step walk-through of the ideas in the poster. Full teaching notes are given,...

Can understanding photosynthesis help save thousands of lives a year?

This poster and accompanying article introduce C3 and C4 photosynthesis in the context of food security and genetic modification.

Rice biologists have a problem. Rice is a staple food for more than half the world’s...

In this practical activity, students use magnification to examine leaves showing symptoms of a common plant disease and produce labelled drawings of the fungal spores.

The activity will help students to demonstrate the following learning outcomes at KS4:

• describe a common plant disease...

This resource contains a series of lessons which are designed to extend students’ knowledge and understanding of plastics and plastic waste on a global scale. Linking to materials and their properties, the environment, recycling and design and technology, they contain investigations and activities aimed at both...

In this Science upd8 activity students take on the role of a trainee documentary producer working for an environmental channel. The television programme scenario, ‘Bears in Trouble’, explores how rising temperatures in the Arctic could be endangering the survival of polar bears. Polar bears seem perfectly adapted...

This field study encourages students to act as environmental scientists to compare two heathlands one of which has been grazed, one of which has not. Students use the data collected to decide which heathland is better in terms of the plant species present, especially heathers, and soil chemistry.

Four...

On December 15th 2015 European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake launched on the six month Principia mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Principia was named after Isaac Newton’s Naturalis Principia Mathematica, describing the principal laws of motion and gravity.

The education and inspiration of...

• What is practical science like in many secondary schools?
• What do we want it to look like?
• How can teachers, departments and schools be encouraged to plan...