This activity focuses on promoting a product to a particular target user group. Teamwork, creativity and entrepreneurial skills are required to design, brand and market a new Nintendo Wii product. ‘Make your pitch!’ provides students with an opportunity to explore and...

A Markov chain is a mathematical system that undergoes transitions from one state to another, between a finite number of states.

This resource comprises a spreadsheet which allows students to enter values into the transition matrix and the initial state matrix of 2x2 and 3x3 matrices then perform a number of...

Resources about the red planet, Mars.

This collection of activities provides a series of lessons linked to computing using the context of Mars exploration. Children learn about algorithms, debugging, flow charts, repeat loops, decision trees, and how images and data are relayed. They find out about search engines, the reliability of information found...

The Mars Challenge secondary school resources are a set of "unplugged" computing resources, aimed at students aged 11 to 14 years old.  The resources are set in the context of the European Space Agency ExoMars mission,...

The Mars Diary resources are a comprehensive series aimed at helping KS2 students find out more about the planet Mars, as well as the challenges and opportunities that will be involved in exploring our Solar System. There are six chapters...

‘Design a city that has everything you'll need for a happy, productive and safe life on Mars.’

In this chapter students work out they could overcome Martian conditions to create a sustainable habitat, including

• mapping what is required by a community,
• designing buildings/domes that...

‘Work with your rover to collect scientific samples then head to the lab. It's time to experiment!’

In this chapter students think about the challenges of running experiments on Mars using a robotic rover, including

• programming the rover to navigate,
• decrypting coded messages,
• ...

‘Why do we send humans and robots into space? What will Mars be like, compared to Earth?’

In this introduction chapter students find out more about Mars, including:

• comparing Earth to Mars
• describing past, present and future missions to Mars
• writing a diary to Tim Peake...

‘Before you set off on your next space adventure, tell the people back on Earth why Mars is worth a visit.’

In this concluding activity students are encouraged to summarise their findings from the other five chapters, by:

• creating a poster about space tourism,
• drawing/writing a comic...

‘Explore your new home, from its climate to its terrain, then build a rover to help your research.’

In this chapter students figure out more about the surface of Mars, including:

• finding out about the weather on Mars,
• creating a newspaper article about water on Mars,
• ...

‘Recruit your crew, pack your bag and design your rocket to launch your mission!’

In this chapter students find out about some the challenges that will be presented with space exploration to Mars, including:

• comprehending the changing distances between our planets
• describing the skills...

A Catalyst article about the idea of life on Mars. Scientists involved with the Mars Express mission aim to find out more and will try to establish if there ever has been life on Mars. The article looks at the miniature devices that they will employ on the mission. 

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE...

Produced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), this wall chart describes the space mission to Mars, the experiments aboard, whether there is water on Mars, Britain's Beagle2 lander and the search for life on Mars. Mars Express was the European Space Agency’s first mission to Mars. Its role is to...