This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). Understanding the idea of a ‘substance’ is central to making sense of the variety of materials in the world and the way that they change. Research on students’ understanding shows that...

This Unilever Laboratory Experiment, published in 1966, demonstrates that mineral oil and water form an oil-in-water emulsion when sodium oleate is the emulsifier, and a water-in-oil emulsion when calcium oleate is the emulsifier. Water-soluble and oil-soluble dyes are used to distinguish the two types of emulsion...

This booklet in the Griffin Technical Studies series provides practical activities in which students investigate aspects of forensic science. The resource can be used as part of cross-curricular learning and case studies are provided to encourage logical thought, debate and discussion and decision making skills....

This Nuffield Working with Science unit featured experiments derived from forensic techniques but could only give the 'flavour' of a scientific investigation of a crime. The unit aimed to emphasise the basic needs, in a scientific investigation of evidence, of accurate...

This Pupil Research Brief (PRB), designed by a team at the Centre for Science Education, supports the teaching and learning of physics at GCSE and Scottish Standard Grade levels. Each brief was targeted at a topic within the curriculum at the time. The study guide provides a structure to guide the students through...

Two lessons from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)'s Seeing Science in which students look at how some plants absorb heavy metals. The lessons include an experiment to measure the amount of copper absorbed by lettuce and radish plants. In another activity, students use evidence cards and a map to...

This demonstration or student practical activity, from the Institute of Physics, helps students learn to use an oscilloscope to measure voltages. It helps students to understand the use of a cathode ray oscilloscope by showing:
• how the oscilloscope plots a graph...

Those two simple, inexpensive, practical activities, from the Association for Science Education (ASE) explore cultivating glowing bacteria and the phenomenon of one species turning a bright purple.

The glow is caused by luminous bacteria commonly found on rotting seafood. Ghostly glowing fish like this...

A unit taken from the Pupil Researcher Initiative (PRI) 'Ideas and Evidence' resource pack and a good resource guide. Part of the ASE SYCD: Science Year Can we; Should we? collection.

The PRI unit is a one hour lesson focusing on the MMR vaccine, teaching ideas and evidence at Key Stage Four-how the media...

This resource, from the Association for Science Education (ASE), contains a number of recipes for making fermented soft drinks and some suggestions about how students could explore the science involved in making them.

The predecessors of modern carbonated drinks were often made at home or on a small scale....

This Association for Science Education (ASE) publication about the industrial use of micro-organisms was developed in association with Nipa Laboratories Ltd. At the time, the company was recognised throughout the world as a specialist in the production of microbiocides...

This series of Mini-Projects, from the Association for Science Education (ASE) aim to breathe life back into investigative work, for students aged 14-16 and their teachers. This resource is part of the SYCD: Science Year Can We; Should we? collection.

The resources were produced by the University of York...

A Catalyst article describing how to make a spectrometer to analyse light by using a CD to split the light and some other household items for the rest of the equipment.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2011, Volume 21, Issue 4.

...

A Catalyst article about experiments on surface tension based on a simple test that can be conducted at home or in a school classroom.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2.

Catalyst is a science...

This Association for Science Education (ASE) publication about safety in gas appliances was developed in association with the British Gas Corporation. At the time, this was the only gas industry in the world to be involved in every aspect of gas supply.