This field study resource pack encourages students to act as environmental scientists to assess the ‘health’ of a heathland habitat. The resource contains three separate activities that students can complete, depending on the time available and suitability of the site:
• Measuring nitrogen pollution in the...

This practical activity uses a simple and convenient model of the real environment in order to demonstrate the principles of random sampling and how to estimate biodiversity. Students use different coloured sugar balls to represent different species in order to put Simpson's Diversity Index to the test, which takes...

This resource considers how pollution from copper mines affects growth of plants, including a data analysis activity and a practical. The resource aims to address aspects of working scientifically.

The materials...

A Catalyst article about a Kenyan scientist who is searching for better treatments for malaria, a disease which kills more than a million people in Africa each year. The article also explains some of the challenges of doing science in Africa, where funding is low. Often the illness shows a remarkable ability to...

A Catalyst article about ants. A colony consists of hundreds, even thousands, of ants working diligently and cooperatively, perhaps to kill and carry a large prey item, build a large nest structure or develop and use road-like networks for foraging. Collectively, colonies of social insects can do amazing things and...

In this resource, aimed at primary level, children take measurements of their height using leaves. Using different sized leaves to measure different children, and then comparing their actual height with that measured in leaves, will help them to see the importance of using standard measurements.

Produced by...

This activity sheet looks at the changing state of water. Children think about the way water behaves when it is heated to boiling point or cooled to freezing point and discuss the changes in state. They then look at some of the properties of water in its liquid state and write them down.

This resource has...

From Teachers TV, this video contains an ideas for a lesson starter suitable for lower primary children. They look at how ears are used to hear and locate sound. The short video shows two children playing hide-and-seek in the woods. Gabby is wearing earmuffs and, due to her muffled hearing, she's having difficulty...

Published by the Wellcome Trust, the 'Big Picture' explores issues around biology and medicine. This issue looks at the interplay between the biology that sculpts our form and the culture that interprets and adapts it.