As in the previous editions, students of the Fourth Edition of Nuffield Advanced Chemistry were required to undertake a four-week study of an applied aspect of science which was based on chemical principles. The main purpose of this section of the course was to help students to see something of the scope of a...

This Problem Solving with Industry module was devised by the Centre for Science Education in collaboration with ICI. In this module students find out why pipes in a soda-ash chemical plant have become blocked with a white sludge. They identify the sludge and determine...

In this practical protocol students investigate one way in which bacteria acquire antibiotic resistance through conjugation - horizontal gene transfer from one bacterial strain or species to another.

Plasmid-mediated evolution is fast because whole functional ‘modules’ are lost and gained, rather than the...

Produced by Science & Plants for Schools (SAPS), this investigation looks at end-product inhibition of the enzyme phosphatase. 

The investigation is designed for students following a Scottish Highers course but it is equally useful for other post-16 courses in biology. 

This investigation involves...

Produced by Science & Plants for Schools (SAPS), this activity enables students to investigate the effects of the plant hormone indole acetic acid (IAA) on root growth in mustard seedlings.

Different concentrations of IAA appear to have differing effects on root growth. These effects may vary from one...

Produced by Science & Plants for Schools (SAPS), this activity enables students to investigate the effects of different concentrations of nitrates, phosphates and potassium on the growth of radish seedlings.

After sowing, the radish seedlings are kept well watered, in a warm temperature under constant...

Produced by Science & Plants for Schools (SAPS), this investigation enables students to investigate the response of leaf discs from sun and shade plants to green light

Leaf discs from a sun plant and a shade plant are put in a sodium hydrogen carbonate solution. The rate of photosynthesis is seen by how...

A pair of videos that studies the thermal insulation properties of bubble wrap. This first video allows students to see an experiment that investigates how increasing the number of layers of bubble wrap around a beaker affects the cooling of hot water. The second explains how to interpret the data, plot the graph...

This Unilever Laboratory Experiment, published in 1970, describes the analysis of fluorescers from soap and soapless detergent powders. The procedure describes how the fluorescers can be extracted from the product, separated by thin layer chromatography techniques, and made visible by exposing the chromatograms to...

The properties of a transformer are investigated in this video, specifically how the number of turns on the coils affects the output. 

This teaching package, aimed at Key Stages Two and Three, investigates the science of tree rings (dendrochronology). Linked to the topics of plants and living things and their habitats, it looks at cut tree trunks to determine the age of the tree, how fast it grew and...