A Catalyst article about the Wright brothers who made the first powered flight. Unlike the try-it-and-see methods used in many of the previous attempts, the Wrights approached the problem of flight in a scientific way and beat the competition. This article looks at the Wright brothers' research and the wing shapes...

This Science upd8 resource draws on research showing that the child raised as the eldest in a family is likely to have a higher IQ than their siblings.

The reasons for this advantage are not yet clear. In this activity students come up with creative explanations and plan how to collect evidence to test them...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how the famous White Cliffs of Dover could be made of fish poo (at least partially), why one researcher is so interested in dead whales, and why the Japan earthquake was so powerful and devastating....

In this video, Matt describes how he became a fisheries technical officer for the Environment Agency. His job is to monitor river habitats and fish populations, including improving the habitat and restocking fish after any pollution incidents.

The video could be used to introduce units of work including...

This Catalyst article describes how fish can help scientists to learn more about human biology. Understanding how human bodies work and what causes human disease is the key to future medical breakthroughs. Most discoveries in medical science are a result of experiments that cannot be performed on humans. Animal...

From the Centre for Science Education, the RA3 project aims to bring parents together with their children and teachers to explore the worlds of science.

Children and families are challenged to design a sea-life attraction. They must consider the budgets, habitats involved, range of tanks to be built and the...

This resource, produced by SEPNet and Queen Mary University of London, uses Lego to represent the building blocks of matter. Different colour and size Lego bricks are assigned to protons, neutrons and electrons. Fusion is shown by joining bricks together and fission by breaking large collections of bricks apart....

From The Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC), these activities look at the question of drinking water quality.

The activities examine the issues involved and looks in detail at ways of removing nitrates from drinking water supplies. Both water treatment and agricultural solutions are...

This activity involves a series of discussions and ranking activities to develop students understanding of the link between fitness, pulse rate, respiration and activity. It can be used as an introduction to the ...

What are the different types of bridge and how do they cope with the loads put on them?

Lesson Objectives

• The student could research and explore the way forces affect bridges and discuss how to explain this information to the intended user group.
• They should categorise...

Many of the chemicals we use as drugs, flavourings and perfumes originate from natural sources but often the most economical way of obtaining them is to produce them artificially on an industrial scale. Scientists at the University of Oxford are researching into how to...

In Flesh Eaters, provided by the Association for Science Education (ASE), students are challenged to unravel a bizarre crime using their scientific skills.

Flesh Eaters is a 'learning adventure'. It combines computer-...

This Catalyst article explores 'Biomodels', biological species which are increasingly well-understood and which have been chosen because they can help us to test new biological theories, particularly in the field of genetics.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2011, Volume 22, Issue 2....

This book looks at several aspects of flight:

* Falling through the air

* Parachutes

* Flight

* Forces for flight

* Control in the air

* Space flight

Flight was one of the Science at Work series. All the booklets in the series were highly illustrated with practical...