This activity includes a game-based approach to measuring reaction speed. Fast reflexes are vital to astronauts who may need to deal with rapidly escalating incidents and high-speed projectiles.

The effect of distraction on reaction speed is investigated – students collect multiple readings and take averages...

Since ancient times, humans have gazed at the stars and tried to understand the night sky. This process continues today with observations still made by the naked eye but also with sophisticated telescopes and instruments that look at infra-red, ultraviolet, microwave and other wavelengths. This collection contains...

The Royal Academy of Engineering has developed a teaching and learning resource for Key Stage Three that combines design, technology, mathematics and science activities. The resource allows students to investigate the question: Athlete or machine? Which is more important in the bob skeleton event? To answer the...

The jet streams are bands of fast winds high in the atmosphere which are driven by pressure differences. Stormy weather follows the jet stream. In this film, Tim Woollings from the University of Oxford shows how, as the lower atmosphere gets warmer, we need to understand how the patterns of pressure and the jet...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Recognise that atoms are not visible under any type of microscope and that scientists have never ‘seen’ the structure of an atom.
• Distinguish the nucleus of an atom from the...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support the teaching of the following concepts:

• The properties of elements and compounds arise from the structural arrangement of their constituent atoms.

• The representation of substances (elements,...

Work done in this Nuffield 13 - 16 module followed from the unit called ‘Particles’ and was intended to lead to an understanding of the ways in which some properties of materials can be explained in terms of the type and arrangement of their atomic and molecular...

This  activity sheet builds on students knowledge of radiation in the context of medical applications.  It introduces a company called Kromek, a company that designs and makes radiation detectors for the medical, nuclear and security sectors.

This teaching resource is based on the discovery of a giant 30 000 year old virus, still alive under the permafrost. As the world warms, others may be uncovered. Could such an ancient virus wipe out the human race? In this activity, students learn how to interrogate sources to separate science fact from fiction....

This longer-duration activity involves prototyping a low-power lighting system. It could be used in an off-timetable workshop or across a series of lessons.

Students are challenged to work through the whole design process, and to place a micro-controller (in this case a BBC micro:bit) at the centre of the...

The BBC micro:bit is a small programmable device, designed to engage children with coding and the world of digital. Given to all 11-12 year old students across the UK in 2016, it is supported with a range of programming environments available here.

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The BBC micro:bit is a great tool for carrying out surveys that involve quickly counting and recording one or two variables. Using the button inputs provides a simple interface to the device allowing, for instance, quick tallying of the numbers of two different types of bee around a plant. Other examples might...