Produced by the Charles Darwin Trust, the activities in these materials help students to consider biodiversity within a habitat. To observe change over time, in 1846 Darwin planted a hedge at Down House. Twenty years later, he surveyed the hedge and recorded those species that had disappeared and new plant arrivals...

This Catalyst article looks at OIF (Ocean Iron Fertilization) a process of pouring iron into the oceans. The theory behind it is to slow climate change by using a process that already occurs naturally. Nature has a way to draw carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air down into the ocean. If the process could be speeded up...

This set of activities is designed for a STEM Ambassador to use when introducing their work in the highways and transport industry to pupils aged 14 to 16. They can also be used by teachers to introduce the challenges faced by transport infrastructure in the UK and the roles played by 3 different types of transport...

Palaeontology strives to discover evidence so that we might learn more about the fossil remains of life and understand how they lived, functioned and even died. Scientists at The University of Manchester have been using state-of-the art imaging, chemical analyses and computer modelling techniques to study the...

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Does your shopping basket contain chocolate, biscuits and shampoo? If it does, you may be unwittingly contributing to the destruction of the some of the world's pristine rainforests.

Manufacturers now use...

This Catalyst article explains how scientists came to understand plants' sensitivity to external stimuli and their ability to move. Mimosa pudica...

A Catalyst article about the use of remote telescopes and detecting cosmic rays. Giant telescopes that can be operated remotely are located in Hawaii and Australia and are known as the Faulkes telescopes.

These are available to students in the UK to do original research with, and enable the following...

This Catalyst article is about Emily Beardon, a postgraduate student. Here, she explains how she became a research student and describes a typical day in the lab.

Published in September 2014 this report details the findings and recommendations of a study carried out by the Wellcome Trust on the deployment of science and maths leaders in primary schools. The study carried out in 2013 explored how science and maths expertise is currently used in schools and looked at...

This report, edited by Wynne Harlen in 2009, sets out the principles that should underpin the science education of all students throughout their schooling. It argues that students should be helped to develop ‘big ideas’ of science and about science that will enable them to understand the scientific aspects of the...

This CLIS report was intended to provide a longer term perspective on changes taking place in students’ understanding over the compulsory school years. The aim of the study was to inform teachers and curriculum designers about the ideas that students bring to and...

Lasers can be used to heat things up, and also to cool them down. Using carefully tuned lasers, scientists in the UK quantum technology hubs are able to slow atoms down to just a few centimetres per...

Lasers can be used to heat things up, and also to cool them down. Using carefully tuned lasers, scientists in the UK quantum technology hubs are able to slow atoms down to just a few centimetres per...

A podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection. Red squirrels used to be the most common squirrel in Britain. But since the grey squirrel was introduced from the USA as an illegal immigrant in the late 1800s, their numbers have nose-dived.

This is partly...

Nottingham Trent University’s Small-Scale Research scheme has been running since 2011.  The scheme funds up to six projects that bring together academics and teachers from partnership schools to research an areas of interest and relevance to the teachers.

For the past four years at least one project has...