This CS4FN activity from the team at Queen Mary University of London highlights some issues encountered during the design of human-computer interfaces (HCI). It acts as an introduction to HCI, introducing the need to translate problems and to understand how people behave.

The activities include a robot...

This resource, aimed at primary level, links to work on light and Earth and Space. Looking first at the principles behind how a telescope works, it provides activities in which children explore the nature of light, the role of concave and convex lenses in focussing light to form an image and on making a ‘Home TV’....

In this activity, children learn that a shooting star or meteor is a piece of rock that lights up as it travels through the Earth’s atmosphere. They also work scientifically to investigate how craters are formed when a meteor...

Produced by ARKive, these materials include a series of activities that introduce children to the plants and animals of the temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest (USA). Children conduct a hands-on investigation of the living things in a small local ecosystem, catalogue their findings and then compare their...

This resource contains eight instant maths ideas, designed to provide students with the opportunity to investigate which polyominoes tessellate, which triangles tessellate, which quadrilaterals tessellate, design their own shape that tessellates and find tessellating patterns in art and nature. Student resource...

This resource provides an activity idea and a recording sheet for testing how sound travels away from a source. In the activity children learn to recognise that the sound heard from a source gets fainter as the distance from the source increases.

This resource has been provided by Sigma Science.

Linked to this series of resources on designing and making a car, this activity evaluates the performance of the vehicle previously manufactured by the pupils. It involves recording the time taken by each vehicle to go down a slope. This can be converted into the speed of the vehicle. It could be used at key stage...

The Art of the Science Teacher, from the Nuffield Fundation, was published by the Science Teacher Education Project to provide background reading suitable for both student-teachers and serving teachers. Each chapter was written by experienced classroom teachers who had also been involved in teacher education. The...

This collection of resources cover both primary and secondary age groups and can be used to help students learn the appropriate scientific vocabulary associated with different topics and how to use it appropriately in their writing. There is a document giving general guidance on how best to support pupils for whom...

These resources were created as part of the BioMedia Meltdown Competition, which is an annual event open to all young people aged 10-14.

Unsung Scientists

14 fact sheets featuring true stories of underrepresented natural historians & life scientists for use in a portraiture...

Published in June 2002, this article, by Shirley Simon, looks at applying Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) theory to planning and teaching Thinking Science lessons for students with different needs.

Using Thinking Science with mixed-ability classes can be challenging...

This resource contains a colourful comic, aimed at Key Stage Two, where children learn about the properties of materials and then design an investigation on dissolving. It promotes enquiry skills in a context, looking at how to create a fair test by changing one...