Produced by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, this booklet shows how to demonstrate star trails in a classroom environment using a ‘lazy susan’ spinning table and video editing software. Included is an online video showing the setup of the demonstration. Due to the tools involved this would only be suitable as a...

”When you tell people you make stars for a living, their heads turn and their mouths open.” The video features Dr Kim Cave-Ayland who is a control engineer at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE). 

The resources in this collection look at whole-school issues in managing and teaching triple science. They include guidance and case studies for teachers and managers on implementing triple science, curriculum planning, identifying and inspiring students to take triple science, raising attainment, and collaborative...

Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to model the energy changes happening inside a photovoltaic cell. In a solar cell, electrons move to make an electrical current. The electrons act like the marbles in a marble run.

Marbles at the top of the run flow downhill through the run to the...

In order to understand the orbits of planets, comets and other celestial bodies, it is necessary to examine the principles of how gravity, and the velocity of an object, interact to produce an orbit. It is a common misconception among students that planetary orbits are circular. This practical activity gives a...

This Catalyst article looks at Marie Curie, who discovered two radioactive elements and showed that radioactivity was a property of atoms, not compounds. Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to have done so. She is still the only person to have won awards in both Physics and Chemistry. The article...

Produced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), this wall chart describes the space mission to Mars, the experiments aboard, whether there is water on Mars, Britain's Beagle2 lander and the search for life on Mars. Mars Express was the European Space Agency’s first mission to Mars. Its role is to...

NASA's Viking Mission to Mars was composed of two spacecraft, Viking 1 and Viking 2, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander. The primary mission objectives were to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface, and search for...

Guidance and navigation engineer, Richard Lancaster, explains how the ‘Mars Yard’, at Airbus Defence and Space, Stevenage, allows engineers to test out the capabilities of the ExoMars rover.  He talks about the need to transmit all commands and receive data through a spacecraft orbiting Mars.  Spacecraft engineer,...

Aimed at the 11-14 age group, this is a unit of six one-hour design and technology lessons to develop an understanding of how systems on exploration robots are combined and collect data. Students are given a design brief to build their own model rover, experientially, to function in simulated Martian conditions....

This is a unit of three two hour lessons to consolidate understanding of the specialised materials and mechanisms used on exploration robots. Students build or test, or build and test these to develop knowledge and evaluate them.  These resources are aimed at the 14-16 age group.  The context is focussed on the...

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

• Describe weight as the force needed to support an object or substance.    
• Describe mass as a measure of the amount of matter in an object or substance.  
• Explain the...

Produced by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, this booklet shows how the Doppler effect and the radial velocity of an exoplanet can be used to calculate its mass. Included is an online video that demonstrates the Doppler effect using a portable speaker and discusses how it can be applied to a distant exoplanet....