In this activity developed by the Institute of Physics, students model the motion of a planet around a star and investigate how day and night and seasons may be different on other planets. Working in pairs or small groups, students demonstrate night and day and seasons to each other. They can then go on to model...

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, uses daytime viewing of the Moon to reinforce ideas learned in the classroom about light, shadow and the Moon itself. Advice is given on the best times to view the Moon, and the compulsory and optional equipment needed. By viewing the Moon during the day,...

A Catalyst article about designing, building and testing a spacecraft. There are thousands of man-made satellites orbiting the Earth. Some are only a few hundred kilometres above the Earth and complete one orbit roughly every 90 minutes. Geostationary satellites are located around 40 000 kilometres from the surface...

This activity, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, allows students to visualise the orbits of planets as ellipses, rather than circles, and allows for the further study of the geometry of these orbits through basic algebra, using terms derived from the drawing...

A Catalyst article about Chikyu, a Japanese drilling ship capable of boring through the Earth's crust. It will investigate regions where the crust is thinnest. Core samples are examined using a number of scientific techniques and they have produced useful information about areas where there is seismic activity...

The Geography Research Department of the University of Durham (Durham Geography) have developed three worksheets for teachers that provide guidance notes along with example demonstrations and classroom practicals of:

This Catalyst article looks at soil composition and the reasons behind protecting soil from turning into dust. The UN Year of Soils highlighted the many ways in which humans rely on soil for much more than growing crops.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary...

Astronauts have been taking photographs of the Earth from space for over 50 years and Earth Observation scientists have used satellite images for a similar amount of time.

The EO Detective activities aim to demonstrate how a vantage point in space, such as the International Space Station, provides a unique...

The films in this collection look at how scientists study volcanos. The films contain footage of volcanoes erupting and cover areas such as the formation of islands, types of eruption, the structure of volcanos and whether we can predict eruptions.

Produced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), these naked Scientist podcasts look at Earth science questions in an accessible and informative way.

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In this set of two activities, pupils will learn what the greenhouse effect and greenhouses gases are and the positive and negative consequences of these on the atmosphere. Pupils will be given the opportunity to build a model and perform temperature measurements to enhance their understanding of the greenhouse...

A Catalyst article about how the study of ancient rocks and sediments can help deduce how the Earth's atmosphere has changed over billions of years. There used to be much less oxygen than there is today. This article describes how the composition of the atmosphere has changed through history; it also explains the...

Work done in this Nuffield 13 - 16 module followed from the S unit called ‘Keys and detection’. This S unit provided enough material for eight double periods during a single-certificate science course. The teachers’ guide included two worksheets to supplement the...