Oxford Sparks aims to use research at the University of Oxford to enrich science lessons with genuine contexts.   Each video in the collection is accompanied by a set of high-quality teaching resources that provides different angles to teach the topic. 

This resource allows students to use a spreadsheet to explore the mean annual temperature of Oxford since 1815. 

Investigating a large data set instructs students to find data from a given website and then use moving averages to investigate possible trends. 

A brief guide to...

A Catalyst article about oxygen and how it is essential for most respiration, which goes on all the time in all live cells all living organisms. The article looks at how organisms get the oxygen they need from their surroundings and how it reaches cells. It also explores how oxygen transport is monitored, which of...

This optimisation problem is an ideal opportunity to use the real-world context of logistics as an application of first fit, first fit decreasing and full bin algorthims.

In this activity students have to decide how to pack a number of items into the least number of parcels possible, within certain...

This optimisation problem is an ideal opportunity to use the real-world context of logistics as an application of a first fit decreasing algorthim.

In this activity students have to decide how to cut pieces of wood to make a shelving unit using the least number of planks of wood, within certain constraints....

This optimisation problem is an ideal opportunity to use the real-world context of logistics as an application of first fit algorthims.

In this activity students have to allocate a number of different jobs to different employees within certain constraints. As part of the task students are introduced to first...

Palaeontology strives to discover evidence so that we might learn more about the fossil remains of life and understand how they lived, functioned and even died. Scientists at The University of Manchester have been using state-of-the art imaging, chemical analyses and computer modelling techniques to study the...

A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Does your shopping basket contain chocolate, biscuits and shampoo? If it does, you may be unwittingly contributing to the destruction of the some of the world's pristine rainforests.

Manufacturers now use...

This Operational Research (OR) Society resource  invites students to analyse processes and efficiencies through a series of group challenges.

In the first activity students are asked to produce as many cups as possible by folding paper. Students are also asked to calculate the mean, variance and standard...

This group task asks students to design, build, evaluate and test paper planes.

The presentation outlines the expected outcomes and also contains teacher notes. It includes a link to a six minute BBC video about the design features involved when making paper planes.

These animations, from the Wellcome Trust, help to show how parasitic worms are a major public health problem.

Thriving in numerous parts of the world associated with poor sanitation or water, these parasites have devised ingenious mechanisms that allow them to enter the human body, resulting in serious...

This ASAB (Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour) resource pack focuses on parental behaviour in nuthatches, in particular the parent-chick interactions during feeding.

The resource provides a summary of the key events in the rearing of a nuthatch brood and a film of parent-chick interactions during...

Help encourage your child's STEM skills, passion and talent with this parents' guide to engineering careers.