Gaia is an ambitious mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. The spacecraft will provide the positions and velocity measurements of around 1 billion stars – which is about one percent of the stars in our galaxy.

This film, from Twig World, looks at the relationship between time and place. In an age before satellite navigation and GPS, one man found an ingenious solution to the problem of determining a ship's location at sea. The key points made in the film are: •Lines of latitude circle the Earth horizontally; lines of...

The third collection of magic tricks, from Paul Curzon and Peter McOwan, is entitled ‘magic meets mistakes, machines and medicine. The five card tricks contained make use of maths and computer science theory, and are used by real magicians.

Each trick includes magician’s instructions. The theory behind each...

This Catalyst article takes a look at the great variety of biology-related courses in universities. There are over 1,400 different university biology courses, choosing the right one for the individual student requires care. The article includes case studies about past students and the careers they have been able to...

This collection of resources provides activities for children aged from 4-11, using the theme of exploring Mars as the context. The six activities for each age group of children, allow them to find out more about the...

In this activity children use the context of exploring Mars to investigate living things, habitats and electricity. The activities are:

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This resource provides activities for children aged from 4-11,using the theme of exploring Mars as the context. With a focus on the Martian weather. The activities are:

This resource provides activities for children aged from 4-11,using the theme of exploring Mars as the context. With a focus on the Landing and exploring. The activities are:

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This resource supports learning about the ExoMars rover, which will travel across the Martian surface and drill up to two metres below the surface to collect and analyse samples in the search for evidence of life. These activities support children in finding out how more about the rover and the ExoMars mission. The...

All the resources listed here are aimed at the age group 14 to 16, except for the "Space for Engine" resource. 

Coolant tank design

Making efficient use of physical space and of materials is a central theme of many engineering problems. In this challenge students...

Origami with squares

Solar panels are an important part of satellite design. There are design constraints on the distance a panel can be from the core of the satellite. In order to increase the area of the panels, satellites of the future may well deploy panels other than rectangular ones....