This ebook, by Roger Young, explains computers as electrical circuits consisting of switches and relays (subsequently equated to transistors). It begins with simple circuits showing how, from first principles, switches and relays work. These are then combined in increasingly complex arrangements to simulate logic...

This edition of the Computing at School newsletter contains articles covering:

*Coding and computer science

*Code Club and Computing ++

*Tips for teaching programming

*Codecademy

*Teaching encryption with spreadsheets

*Scratch sensorboards (picoboards)

*Robotics...

Produced by Understanding Animal Research, this information leaflet looks at the regulation of animal research in the UK. The law safeguards animals while allowing important medical research to continue.

The leaflet is useful as information for teachers and also as background or research information for...

Using the data from CensusAtSchool 2006/2007, this data analysis resource looks at trends in life expectancy in populations. Students consider both the primary data collected from CensusAtSchool and secondary data about life expectancy and major causes of death. A plenary asks students to consider what they have...

This practical activity uses a simple and convenient model of the real environment in order to demonstrate the principles of random sampling and how to estimate biodiversity. Students use different coloured sugar balls to represent different species in order to put Simpson's Diversity Index to the test, which takes...

A Catalyst article about a Kenyan scientist who is searching for better treatments for malaria, a disease which kills more than a million people in Africa each year. The article also explains some of the challenges of doing science in Africa, where funding is low. Often the illness shows a remarkable ability to...

A Catalyst article about ants. A colony consists of hundreds, even thousands, of ants working diligently and cooperatively, perhaps to kill and carry a large prey item, build a large nest structure or develop and use road-like networks for foraging. Collectively, colonies of social insects can do amazing things and...

Dallas Campbell talks about how bras require engineering design to enable them to be both comfortable and supportive. He explains how a bra manufacturer...

In this activity students use a smartphone to determine the precise amount of copper in an aqueous solution of nitric acid. Students collect comparative values of different copper-solutions with special apps to produce a diagram and estimate the amount of copper, based on the Lambert-Beer Law that explains that the...

This resource contains an unplugged activity to model how home networks work. It builds up to increasingly more complex networks, adding in details such as routers, wifi aceess points and the internet along the way. The lesson plan contains links to the Progression Pathways documentation, and differentiation ideas...

David McCandless is a data journalist and information designer with...

In this resource students are asked to measure dimensions from scale drawings and find the areas of rectangles and triangles. They then calculate the amount of paint needed to paint a house and its cost.

The resource is part of the Nuffield Maths Level 1 Foundation resource collection.