These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Describe common sexually transmitted infections in humans.
• Identify methods of contraception that can be used to during human sexual intercourse to prevent the transmission of...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Describe how the properties of particles in a gas change as the gas is heated.
• Describe convection currents in liquids and gases.  
• Explain what happens to the density of...

A Catalyst article about the efficient use of heating systems. Many people complain of being too hot or cold. Coming soon are a new generation of intelligent heating controls which can learn how people live, and then deliver heating efficiently when and where they need it. These devices are known as Wattboxes and...

A Catalyst article about how engineers use their understanding of sound waves to develop highly realistic sound systems for films, music systems and computer games. The same ideas can help people with eyesight and hearing problems. Sound waves are affected by their surroundings and the article examines this along...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Describe the concentric model of the Earth.
• Describe how temperature changes through the Earth.       
• Explain how we know tectonic plates move very, very slowly across...

A Catalyst article about modern car engines and how they can run smoothly and propel drivers for thousands of miles without needing much attention, apart from refuelling with diesel or petrol. The engine also needs oil. The article describes engine oil, its composition and ingredients, how it works and how to...

This Catalyst article looks at scuba diving, and how having a knowledge of physics is vital in helping divers to get out of dangerous situations. Divers must be trained to control their buoyancy, and to ascend and descend at a safe pace to avoid injury. Other factors explored in the article are the effects of...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Describe the temperatures needed to melt rock.
• Describe where on the Earth there are conditions that melt rock.    
• Describe how the size of crystals in igneous rock...

This Catalyst article looks at Marie Curie, who discovered two radioactive elements and showed that radioactivity was a property of atoms, not compounds. Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to have done so. She is still the only person to have won awards in both Physics and Chemistry. The article...

This Nuffield Primary Science Teachers’ Guide for teaching the Materials topic, to students aged 7-12, is divided into five chapters:

*Chapter 1: Introduction - covering useful strategies, the SPACE approach and links to the National Curriculum

*Chapter 2: Planning - using the resources to plan topics...

In this practical activity, students explore how the technique of re-infection (using infected material to infect healthy plant tissue) can help to identify the cause of a plant disease.

 Ideas about communicable diseases in plants are included in the updated programmes of study for Key Stage 4 science...

This field study encourages students to act as environmental scientists to compare two heathlands one of which has been grazed, one of which has not. Students use the data collected to decide which heathland is better in terms of the plant species present, especially heathers, and soil chemistry.

Four...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Identify factors that can increase the pressure of a fluid.
• Explain why the pressure of a fluid is a scalar quantity that is equal in all directions.         
• Explain the...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Measure the speed of a wave using v = s/t.
• Describe how the speed of a wave can, and cannot, be changed.
• Describe how the frequency of a wave moving through a particular...