A Year 11 module from the Salters’ Key Stage Four double award science course. The context for this module is the use of scientific ideas to explain human performance. Students discuss what is meant by being ‘fit’. They compare different uses of the word 'work' and are...

Chris Holmes is a sports technologist for sports equipment manufacturer Adidas. This Department for Education clip is useful in showing students how a career such as this relies on a background of STEM study. Chris describes how he specialises in the development of sports balls. His job is to investigate the best...

The Science in a Topic students’ book Sports and Games begins with exploring games and sports in the present, past and other countries. Investigations include bouncing balls, reaction times, the impact of games played on grass, the tension in racquets and what affects the movement of a ball through the air....

Teaching and learning...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how hikers and walkers could be unwittingly changing the landscape by spreading alien species; what it's like to work as a marine biologist in the Arctic in temperatures of minus 40°C; and exactly how...

This teamwork-based activity provides a quick introduction to a teacher-led discussion focusing on the spread of disease and the importance of water treatment in preventing epidemics. Students use post-it notes to sort diseases into those that are water-borne and those...

This Science upd8 activity draws on the 1957 launch of the satellite Sputnik 1 which heralded a new stage in human exploration and prompted the development of rockets in the Space Race. In this role play, students consider the benefits and costs of space exploration. 

This Practical Action resource presents a fun hands-on and brains-on challenge for Key Stages Two to Five.

The problem:...

This document from the Department of Education looks at how teachers at schools in the White Horse Federation lead by example to encourage good behaviour and academic achievement. The resource explores strategies including teacher induction on behaviour, language skills and celebrating diversity, as part of the...

Produced by the Learning Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), this case study tackles the theme of STEM skills for the future and knowledge transfer. In this case study, three members of Newcastle College staff travelled to CERN to view the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator. The aim of the visit was to...

In this practical activity students stain root tips and examine them for signs of cells dividing by mitosis. Students can either compare two different sources of root tip or two different stains. The mitotic index is the fraction of cells in a microscope field which contain condensed chromosomes. This index can be...

This resource is a compilation of reports by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and Ofqual reviewing standards over time in science subjects at GCSE and A levels.

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This report, jointly published by the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority (SCAA) and Ofsted under the chairmanship of Ron Dearing, presents the findings of an investigation into whether standards in GCSE and A level examinations were maintained in the period up to 1995. The improving examination grades...