The animal kingdom contains an abundance of exquisite natural patterns from the stripes of an angelfish to the spots of a leopard. But how do these arise during early development? This Catalyst article looks at Turing mechanisms as a way of explaining how patterns develop as an animal grows.

In 1952, Alan...

Produced by the Industrial Trust, Business & Education South Yorkshire and JIVE (Joint Interventions), this leaflet identifies hints and tips to help organisers of visits to industry. Often organisations that are prepared to offer industrial visits to their sites are unaware of the action they can take to make...

This resource, aimed at upper primary level, provides six activities to find the height of a tree. Linked to the topics of measurement, geometry and ratio it provides an opportunity for estimating, measuring and calculating. Teachers’ notes are provided which outline each method, along with a children’s worksheet...

This survey, aimed at primary level, looks at the identification and classification of the banded snail, their biological variation and how this may be an adaptation to the habitat in which the snails live. It links to the topics of living things and their habitats and evolution and inheritance. The resource may be...

This guide  supports primary schools in planning and running their own Space Week, providing a wealth of ideas for activities for children in EYFS and primary schools as well as links to many high-quality resources to support teachers in planning a week of engaging learning experiences for their pupils. The guide...

From the Science Museum, this set of short videos contains tip from the museum's Punk Science team for making science demonstrations fun and exciting! The presenters look to involve volunteers in their presentations and have deliberately chosen not to use sophisticated props. Using this approach enables the Punk...

This resource focusses on understanding density and, through a series of practical tests, working out which materials are low and high density. In this activity learners will learn about the density of materials through testing. Learners will have an opportunity to weigh and work out the volume of an object. They...

This research was Published in 2014 and presented at the ESERO 2013 Conference.

The purpose of any teacher continuing professional development (CPD) is to ensure a positive change in pupils’ outcomes, yet the evaluative evidence to support this relationship is often weak or missing. Using the CPD programme...

This is one of a set of resources developed to support the teaching of the primary national curriculum. They are designed to support the delivery of key topics within science and design and technology. This resource focusses on producing a Newton’s cradle that uses magnets instead of the usual metal spheres.

This video explains that to compute the prime factors in a 2048 number would take a classical computer years, yet the ability of a quantum computer to use superposition, which reduces the number of steps to complete a computation, makes it possible in minutes.

The explanation

The...

Dallas Campbell shows how to make a simple rocket out of an old film canister and an effervescent tablet mixed with water.  He...