This resource looks at photochromic materials, exploring how they are used and their impact on space inspired products. The slides provide discussion points, investigation ideas and suggestions of practical experiments and products that will allow students to get hands-on with photochromic technology.

This resource explores the properties and uses of piezoelectric materials and quantum tunnelling composites. Taking examples from space technology, it provides a number of examples to discuss in the classroom and suggests practical experiments to give your students a hands-on examples of the technology.

Shape memory alloys (SMA) and shape memory polymers (SMP) remember their original shape, even after being significantly deformed, returning to their original shape in response to a stimulus. This resource explores the technology behind SMA's and SMP's, the properties that they bring to engineered products and...

This resource explores the topic of thermochromic materials. It provides content to explain what they are, how they are used and suggests practical experiments that will allow students to get hands-on with the material.

This is a set of five lessons on software development for students aged 14-16.

The presentations cover the software development life cycle and introduce each of the different development mythologies. The remaining presentations focus upon prototyping and testing. These resources could be a useful resource...

A crowd funding web site recently raised more than two million US dollars to fund solar roadways. These roads, claim the developers, will remain snow-free, and, at the click of a switch, can be transformed into car parks or even sports pitches. In this activity students consider whether solar roadways are worth...

This is one of a series of resources from the IET designed around the theme of the future of flight with the purpose of developing pupils knowledge and skills in design technology, engineering and mathematics. Jet engines used on aircraft produce...

This lesson develops the concept of using geometric properties to solve problems. In particular students develop their ability in:

• Solving problems by determining the lengths of the sides in right triangles using trigonometry
• Finding the measurements of shapes by decomposing complex shapes...

This resource develops the concept of solving quadratic equations by taking square roots, completing the square, using the quadratic formula, and factoring.

The resource is set in the practical context of a bus cutting a corner that has a cycle lane. When a bus turns a corner, it must swing out so that its...

This resource looks at the concept of recognising the differences between equations and identities. Students substitute numbers into algebraic statements in order to test their validity. Common errors are highlighted that can occur when manipulating expressions.

Students work on an exercise that involves...

This lesson develops the concept of using Pythagoras’ theorem to derive the equation of a circle and translating between the geometric features of circles and their equations.

The initial activity involves looking at a circle with end points of the diameter at (6, 0) and (–6, 0). Questions relate to...

This lesson develops the concept of using the equation of a circle. In particular students develop their knowledge of how to:

• Translate between the equations of circles and their geometric features
• Sketch a circle from its equation

In the introductory activity a circle has been...

This teaching resource is presented in four stages:

Stage One - Finding out about the problem. In stage one pupils find out more about spacesuits, how they work and why people need them to survive. They also find out more about the challenge to test a series of materials to...

This resource from the IET Faraday programme, supported by MEI and Tomorrow's Engineers, provides students with the opportunity to explore the mathematics behind bicycle speedometers, including circle properties and compound measures.

"Bicycle speedometers can only provide accurate...

This activity from the CS4FN team at QMUL is a metaphorical introduction to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and the difficulties of working at the command line.

The whole-class activity uses a game called spit-not-so. The winner of the game is the first to choose, from a...