Planetary scientist, Professor Andrew Coates, explains why scientists look for the evidence of signs of past life on Mars.  He talks about the history of Mars and the current harsh environment on the planet. This video is part of a series of ten which look at the one of the elements of the European Space Agency’s...

Produced by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) this activity aims to encourage students to consider the wider environmental, social and economic implications of shopping. It can be conducted in small groups as an introduction to sustainability.

In this activity, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), students read about a Wi-Fi system (often called WLAN — wireless local area network) and produce a diagram to show how the ‘wireless’ part is, by necessity, short-range. Mostly, the signal is...

In this experiment, from Science & Plants for Schools (SAPS), students are required to make observations about wild oat seeds. Using a petri dish, glass jar, filter paper and water, students can recreate the conditions of a greenhouse. They can then observe the changes to direction of the awn (the long hair at...

Students from Townley Grammar School for Girls created a product to encourage wildlife into gardens with the assistance of a STEM Ambassador.
Students used principles of good design, based on biomimicry, and commercial sense to make a prototype product for judging that would be commercially viable for a client...

This Study Plus unit from the National Strategies aims to develop students’ understanding of angle properties in shapes. It begins with the idea of tiling a floor and which shapes will tessellate.

After an initial emphasis on discovering angle facts from regular polygons, the unit moves on to using angle...

A factsheet about William Smith, known as ‘the father of English geology’, who worked as a surveyor, building canals and draining marshes in England during the Industrial Revolution. He was not typical for a scientist of his day, but is now famous for revolutionising the study of geological time, stratigraphy, and...

This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). One of the most important questions facing us all is how we will use the planet’s energy resources over the coming decades. Many people believe that wind power can make a vital...

In this activity, students explore the requirements of aerodynamic design through testing simple shapes in a wind tunnel and explain the link between the test results from a wind tunnel and air resistance. The activity focuses on students acquiring an understanding of...

This resource from the IET Faraday programme, supported by MEI and Tomorrow's Engineers, provides students with the opportunity to explore the mathematics behind wind turbines, including fractions, ratio and solving equations.

"A wind turbine is a device that converts the wind's...

This resource helps students think about who the winners and losers are when making product choices.

The 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was won by Gurdon and Yamanaka, for their work on adult stem cells.

This Catalyst article explains how they discovered that a nucleus from an egg cell transplanted into a specialised cell can still develop into a fully functional organism. Yamanaka named these...

Aimed at students in Key Stage Four, this task from CensusAtSchool uses the context of the National Lottery to look at theoretical probabilities and compare these to a experimental data. The worksheet contains a link to a site to simulate a lottery draw. The activity allows students to investigate successive events...