A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award GCSE science course. This module deals with interactions between species in ecosystems. Students are shown how stable conditions lead to a natural balance in populations and how human activities can disturb this balance....

This issue of Catalyst contains the following articles:

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This Association for Science Education (ASE) publication about extracting metals from scrap was developed in association with ECR Ltd. This was a secondary copper refining company which was first established in Birmingham in 1807. Its origins could be traced back to...

The report from the Children’s Learning in Science Project (CLIS) gives an account of a number of aspects of students’ ideas about particles including:
*What do students understand about the particulate nature of matter?
*Do they understand the scientific...

The activities in this pack provide hands-on activities that are engaging, inexpensive and suitable for science clubs.  The theme of the pack is change, and contents include:

Changing colours

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Work done in this Nuffield 13 - 16 module followed from the S unit called Metals. This X unit provided enough material for eight double periods. It could be selected to complete either a Science or a Further Science course. The teachers’ guide included 13 worksheets to...

The Fabric Fires activity for Key Stage Three students looks at how different fabrics catch fire and burn. Students are asked to first consider the commonest reasons for fires in the home. They then test and compare a fabric and a cotton wool ball, firstly when untreated and then having first soaked them in a fire...

Produced in 2011, this report describes the context and parameters of Ofqual’s research into the assessments taken by learners at senior secondary level in a number of key comparator jurisdictions and outlines the progress made up to February 2011.

The purpose of this research is to make comparative...

The resource for teachers Knowledge and understanding of science: chemical changes, published in 1994 by the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, (taking over the responsibilities for the curriculum from the National Curriculum Council), provides background scientific knowledge and understanding for teachers...

This Nuffield Pathways Through Science module covered structure, bonding, as well as an introduction to quantitative chemistry with calculations based on amounts in moles. The topic was presented in three episodes:
Mm 1: Plastics
Mm 2: Metals
Mm 3:...

This Ofsted document describes how the Sixth Form College Farnborough has re-introduced A-level human biology while ensuring that students are well aware of course requirements and are properly prepared for a challenging assessment regime. Providing good information about the course, a highly structured programme...

Nuffield Physics Teachers’ Guide I included a general introduction to the course as a whole followed by specific guidance on the first year of the programme. The authors were very concerned to explain the spirit in which the course should be taught. They asked teachers to consider that they were encouraging young...

Some students were expected to start the Nuffield Physics course in the third year and so Teachers’ Guide III starts with the same General Introductions that was included in Teachers’ Guide I. This was followed by general and specific guidance about the third year of the course. The course for this year was...

Year Nine of Nuffield Science for Key Stage Three was written to provide a clear transition into the 14-16 curriculum. Two teaching sequences were devised for Year Nine, either as an integrated course or as a co-ordinated course divided into biology, chemistry and physics.

Principles

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