This chemistry extension module of the Salters' Science course revises and extends students’ ideas about the structure and properties of water. It deals with hardness of water, the action of soap and other detergents and properties of emulsions.

In this activity students consider the questions:

• How can the purity of swimming water be tested?
• What exactly is the Blue Flag award?
• How reliable are the measurements and the criteria for the Blue Flag award?
• What is the status of the quality of fresh and salt water for swimming...

In this activity students consider the questions:

• What are the main sources that cause severe water shortage in Europe?
• How different harmful elements (e.g. fertilizers, gasoline, sulphuric acid) pollute freshwater?
• What methods / strategies can be used to save water?
• What methods...

Water for Everyone Everywhere is a workshop designed to encourage pupils to explore the global challenges associated with access to safe and clean drinking water around the world. Pupils learn about the importance of water to people’s everyday lives and the role that engineering infrastructure plays in the...

The spacecraft that have orbited around Mars and landed on its surface have shown us (via images and data) that there is no liquid water on the surface of Mars. However, these satellite images have also revealed to us features that appear to have been created or carved out by flowing water. In fact, scientists feel...

Scientists must design and evaluate many ways of extracting water from the lunar permafrost before planning lunar colonies and manned missions using the moon as a base.

In this activity students will construct a solar water collector. Using the collector, students will collect and calculate the amount of...

Does light behave like a wave, a stream of particles or both? Scientists at the University of Oxford are taking advantage of the particle-wave duality of light to carry out work developing exciting new technologies.

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This worksheet, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), introduces students to the wave equation, giving them an understanding of some of the vocabulary and concepts used. Students use the formula: velocity (wave) = frequency x wavelength to answer the questions on the worksheet.

The...

This resource from Defence Dynamics looks at waves and the electromagnetic spectrum. The resources are split into two student activity sheets.

The ...

This physics extension module from the Salters’ Science course covers the action of sensors and amplifiers in electronic systems. Potential dividers are studied as a way of supplying different voltages. The action of light dependent resistors and thermistors in...

Produced by the Wellcome Trust, these resources include an interactive evolutionary tree and a video of the Tree of Life. These materials will help students to find out more about the work of Charles Darwin and evolution. The resources contain:

Tree of life video: The video is a short...

This short activity introduces students to the ideas of the footprint and resolution of an image, asking them to choose and use appropriate methods to calculate how these quantities would change as they moved a camera to a series of vantage points above the surface of the Earth

This activity uses a humorous video to raise a serious question: can science tell us what animals are saying, and interpret their emotions? The Bow-lingual dog translator claims to detect animal emotions by analysing bark sounds waves. Students use research evidence to decide whether the device does what it claims...

Using real data from CensusAtSchool 2000/2001, this resource explores issues around the disposal or recycling of the empty aluminium cans in schools. Students discuss the issue, calculate statistics, draw graphs and look further into what happens to empty cans in their own school.