In this resource scalene triangles are drawn on a square grid. The challenge is to find the area of the triangle.

On each student worksheet there is a different triangle, but the solutions all have something in common.

One way to find the area is to enclose the triangle in a right-angled triangle, and...

In celebration of its founder, Fritz Schumacher’s centenary year Practical Action have created Small Is...Challenge. Schumacher’s philosophy was based on the idea that even a small change can have a big impact on people’s lives. The challenge for students is to look at technologies from the last 100 years and...

Produced by The Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC), these resources help to put curriculum science in a real life context. In these activities, children compare plants grown in a variety of nutrients. They investigate the best conditions to grow turf for a sports pitch.

During the activities...

This collection of smart materials resources supports students to learn about Quantum Tunnelling Composite, shape memory alloys, polymorph, microencapsulation, photochromic dyes, thermochromic dyes and E-textiles. The collection provides a classroom presentation, teacher notes, student worksheets, student revision...

This activity, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), introduces students to how sensors can be used in smart applications of electronic systems.

The resource is designed so that students will know...

This is one of a series of resources to support the use of the BBC micro:bit.

In this activity pupils will make use of the BBC micro:bit to design and create a programmable system that can control the temperature and soil moisture levels in a ‘smart’ greenhouse. They will analyse a design brief and design...

A smart material describes a material that senses and responds to an external stimulus or change in the environment, and where the change reverses when the stimulus or change is removed. This resource provides an introduction to the topic of smart materials, looking at the properties of different materials,...

A phase change material are substances that absorb or release energy when it changes its physical state, providing useful heating or cooling properties. Did you know that phase change materials were developed by NASA to keep astronauts comfortable in the extreme temperature fluctuations in space? This resource...

This resource looks at photochromic materials, exploring how they are used and their impact on space inspired products. The slides provide discussion points, investigation ideas and suggestions of practical experiments and products that will allow students to get hands-on with photochromic technology.

This resource explores the properties and uses of piezoelectric materials and quantum tunnelling composites. Taking examples from space technology, it provides a number of examples to discuss in the classroom and suggests practical experiments to give your students a hands-on examples of the technology.

Shape memory alloys (SMA) and shape memory polymers (SMP) remember their original shape, even after being significantly deformed, returning to their original shape in response to a stimulus. This resource explores the technology behind SMA's and SMP's, the properties that they bring to engineered products and...

This resource explores the topic of thermochromic materials. It provides content to explain what they are, how they are used and suggests practical experiments that will allow students to get hands-on with the material.

Aimed at primary aged students, this STEM project provides a real-life context to explore the health and environmental problems faced by the 3 billion people globally who cook on open fires or traditional cooking stoves. Children are introduced to a family in Nepal and learn about indoor air pollution from their...

In this Core Maths resource students are given the open-ended task of designing a snowman. Students are given some basic information about the density of different types of snow and some relevant formulae, and are asked to design a ‘life-sized’ snowman and give a full mathematical description of it.

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These resources support students to gain an overview of the social, moral and cultural responsibilities of being a designer. Designing products that consider their impact on others and the environment.

This resource collection contains a classroom presentation, student worksheets and a student starter /...