This concept cartoon focuses on forces. Concept cartoons provide an approach to teaching, learning and assessment in science, they feature cartoon-style drawings showing different characters arguing about everyday situations. They are designed to intrigue, to provoke discussion and to stimulate scientific thinking...

This Science upd8 activity is inspired by the film Pirates of the Caribbean. What are the contents of the treasure chest? What metal is the key made of? What happened to the treasure after decades under the sea?

Santa may decide to move to another planet! In this fun activity from Science upd8 students analyse planetary data to find which planet best satisfies Santa's future requirements.

This Catalyst article investigates the nature of aerogels, which are among the least dense solid materials, not much denser than air. Aerogels were made as the result of a bet and ended up going into space to capture comet dust. They are the lightest solids which exist and have some unusual features.

The...

A Catalyst article about the life and ideas of Albert Einstein. He is most famous for his ideas on relativity which formed the theory of general relativity, in which he showed that gravity could be explained as the effect of large masses on space. After the Second World War he also worked with other scientists and...

This Catalyst article looks at hearing loss, which is usually associated with the elderly, straining to hear the TV while turning up their hearing aid. As a teenager losing the ability to hear correctly seems decades away but hearing loss is increasingly becoming a problem for young adults and teenagers. The...

A Catalyst article about carbon dioxide which can be used as a solvent in industry, or as a regulator of blood pH. This article looks at some other uses of carbon dioxide and considers its importance in global warming. It also explains how the greenhouse effect is a natural part of the operation of the Earth's...

A Catalyst article about climate control, and specifically the process known as cloud seeding. Cloud seeding has met with initially encouraging results. The method entails adding silver iodide to the air in clouds to encourage ice crystals to form, so that they grow rapidly and produce more snow or rainfall than...

A Catalyst article explaining how scientists have found that the overturning circulation in the Atlantic Ocean, which maintains Europe’s moderate climate, was weaker in 2004 by 30% relative to earlier estimates. What does this mean and what impact could it have on our climate? Scientists' research and their climate...

In this activity children learn about the parts of a flower by constructing a flower from a selection of materials. Once created the flowers can be used to discuss the role of each part in reproduction. Further ideas can be found in the full resource...

This Catalyst article looks at salt, in particular the process of extracting salt from the sea in the salt factories of Trapani in Sicily. Located on the west coast of the island, the saline (salt ponds) were probably started by the Phoenicians around 3000 years ago. The article also looks at the structure of salt...

When your chocolate company's sales begin to melt away, science comes to the rescue with datalogging! This resource has been provided by the Association for Science Education (ASE).

Chocolate is a datalogging investigation activity. It is set in the context of helping the McChocs company to make better...

A Catalyst article about how the study of ancient rocks and sediments can help deduce how the Earth's atmosphere has changed over billions of years. There used to be much less oxygen than there is today. This article describes how the composition of the atmosphere has changed through history; it also explains the...