In order to understand the orbits of planets, comets and other celestial bodies, it is necessary to examine the principles of how gravity, and the velocity of an object, interact to produce an orbit. It is a common misconception among students that planetary orbits are circular. This practical activity gives a...

This Catalyst article looks at Marie Curie, who discovered two radioactive elements and showed that radioactivity was a property of atoms, not compounds. Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to have done so. She is still the only person to have won awards in both Physics and Chemistry. The article...

Tom Harts is a marine biologist at the Zoological Society of London. This Department for Education clip illustrates the importance of mathematics in biology and provides an insight into a zoological career. Tom describes how he collects data during field trips in Antarctica which he then analyses back in London. He...

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...

Could there be life on Mars? Perhaps so, although the high intensity of UV light means that it is unlikely to be found on the surface. The experiment demonstrates how bacteria grown on agar plates can be killed off by UV exposure. Curriculum areas covered:

• Microbiology
• Cell biology
• ...

This resource looks at how cutting edge science is being used to answer archaeological questions, as well as solving present day problems, such as the identification of meat in processed foods. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA was performed, at the University of York, on samples from skeletal remains unearthed by the...

In this simulation students can hang masses from springs, adjust the spring stiffness and damping, and even slow time. The lab can be transported to different planets and there is a chart which shows the kinetic, potential, and thermal energy for each spring.

[b]Sample Learning Objectives[/b]

*Explain...

A matching is a set of edges on a bipartite graph in which no two edges share a common vertex. A bipartite graph consists of two sets of vertices X and Y. The edges only join vertices in X to vertices in Y. A matching in a bipartite graph is the pairing of some or all of the vertices in X with some or all of the...

This video looks at the different grades of steel used in the frame design of a Brompton bicycle, typically steel tube and steel sheet. Designers consider several criteria when choosing materials for a folding bicycle, including strength, weight...

Produced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), these naked Scientist podcasts look at materials science questions in an accessible and informative way.

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This Catalyst article investigates carefully designed polymer materials that can repair themselves when mechanically damaged. The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2015, Volume 26, Issue 2.

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This Catalyst article investigates materials that are used in space travel. It discovers that they must be designed and tested to ensure they will protect astronauts from radiation and the vacuum of space. 

The...

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