Chemists analyse the tiny traces of substances which form a fingerprint. This allows them to determine drug abuse and as well as the age, gender and diet of an individual.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2016, Volume 26, Issue 3.

This resource from Ofsted is a full report and summary of the findings from a visit, in September 2009, made by two of Her Majesty's Inspectors to educational establishments in Finland. Evidence was gathered from three schools and a university from each of three towns about the factors that contributed to Finnish...

This Catalyst article looks at the work of fire engineers whose aim is to minimise the threat of fire and to protect people when fire breaks out. The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2014, Volume 24, Issue 4.

Catalyst is a...

This resource presents some real seismic data recorded before a volcanic eruption and allows students to locate some of the resulting earthquakes by use of graphs and maps.

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This video demonstrates how compressing a gas increases its temperature. A small piece of cotton wool is placed into the bottom of a narrow plastic tube. When the air is rapidly compressed by a piston, the air temperature increases and the cotton ignites. The 'fire piston' can be used to illustrates the transfer of...

Rory Hadden investigates how fires ignite, spread and how they can be extinguished. This research is then used to save lives by creating safer buildings for us to live and work in.

This Catalyst article looks at fireworks and their history, how they are made and set off, and what gives them their colours and effects. The basic chemistry used in fireworks is looked at and how they work once the fuse is ignited.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2...

A Catalyst article about the Wright brothers who made the first powered flight. Unlike the try-it-and-see methods used in many of the previous attempts, the Wrights approached the problem of flight in a scientific way and beat the competition. This article looks at the Wright brothers' research and the wing shapes...

Rebecca enjoyed IT at school -this lead her to pursue the role of support technician within the IT team at Azurri, supporting key customers and ensuring systems remain active at all times.

This Science upd8 resource draws on research showing that the child raised as the eldest in a family is likely to have a higher IQ than their siblings.

The reasons for this advantage are not yet clear. In this activity students come up with creative explanations and plan how to collect evidence to test them...

This Bowland assessment task requires students to plan when they should start preparing a meal in order to have it ready by a stated time. Students are given a number of job cards. Each card explains what needs to be done, how long the job will take and a condition as to when the job should be completed. Students...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how the famous White Cliffs of Dover could be made of fish poo (at least partially), why one researcher is so interested in dead whales, and why the Japan earthquake was so powerful and devastating....

In this video, Matt describes how he became a fisheries technical officer for the Environment Agency. His job is to monitor river habitats and fish populations, including improving the habitat and restocking fish after any pollution incidents.

The video could be used to introduce units of work including...

This Catalyst article describes how fish can help scientists to learn more about human biology. Understanding how human bodies work and what causes human disease is the key to future medical breakthroughs. Most discoveries in medical science are a result of experiments that cannot be performed on humans. Animal...