This longer-duration activity involves prototyping a low-power lighting system. It could be used in an off-timetable workshop or across a series of lessons.

Students are challenged to work through the whole design process, and to place a micro-controller (in this case a BBC micro:bit) at the centre of the...

Dr. Mark Woods explains how the rover technologies must be partly autonomous, since the signals from Earth to Mars take too long for every command to be send from Earth.  The technologies developed for space, also have applications on Earth.

This video is part of a series of ten which look at the one of the...

In this resource learners will use Scratch, to debug and then improve a program to move Autosub6000 around the ocean floor, photographing samples found.   The remote movement will be controlled through a keyboard’s arrow keys initially and then the children will be challenged to create a program which will move...

This book was written by the Nuffield Junior Science project to show teachers how seasonal materials offer children many opportunities to carry out simple investigations. The aim was to help children to build up, over the years, a picture of the continuity and wholeness...

This Catalyst article presents the work of three chemists - Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel - who won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Their work allowed the development of complex computer models of compounds and reactions.

The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2014,...

This activity comes as a presentation, aimed at using an engaging animal to probe the children's thinking, reasoning and scientific talk skills. Asking questions such as: ‘What is its habitat?’, ‘How would you classify it?’ and ‘Where in the World would you find it?’ it provides an opportunity to get the children...

This collection of resources from BAE Systems contains a series of worksheets for use in the classroom. Looking at different aspects of science, design and technology, and mathematics, they provide activity ideas alongside explanations of the concepts underpinning the investigations. They also aim to encourage...

The BBC micro:bit is a small programmable device, designed to engage children with coding and the world of digital. Given to all 11-12 year old students across the UK in 2016, it is supported with a range of programming environments available here.

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The BBC micro:bit is a great tool for carrying out surveys that involve quickly counting and recording one or two variables. Using the button inputs provides a simple interface to the device allowing, for instance, quick tallying of the numbers of two different types of bee around a plant. Other examples might...

Some diagnostic questions from BEST 11-14 have been adapted for use in primary science (age 7-11). The development and adaptation of these diagnostic questions was part of a pilot study which was funded by the Salters’ Institute.

The diagnostic...

This collection highlights BEST age 11-14 resources that overlap with primary science so can be used when teaching primary science. These have been organised into English national curriculum topics.

We live on the Earth and it is the only planet that we know that has abundant and complex life.  It is important we understand how the Earth and space systems interact and how this affects us.

“Earth and Space” is one of the topics in the Best Evidence Science Teaching collection for pupils aged 7 to 11....

A big idea in chemistry is the idea of how substances behave and change. This is important because we are surrounded by objects made from different materials, each with their own physical properties that make them suitable or unsuitable for different purposes. How substances behave helps us to categorise them into...

These activities from the BEST project can be used with primary pupils.  The diagnostic question probes pupils' understanding of how bones, muscles and tissues work together to support, protect and move the human body.The response activity helps to develop pupils' understanding of the function performed by the...

These activities from the BEST project (age 11 to 14) can be used with primary pupils. The diagnostic questions probe pupils' ability:

• to identify magnets and magnetic materials
• describe rules of attraction and repulsion between magnets
• to identify situations in which a force is...