Heat is one of the titles in the series of ASE Lab Books that were published in the early 1970s for the Association for Science Education by John Murray. Each title covered one or two topics and brought together the best of the teaching notes and experimental ideas from...

A tennis ball is dropped from a height of 3 feet. The ball is shown bouncing on the ground. The challenge is to graph the height of the tennis ball against time. The resulting graph is parabolic with the amplitude showing a decrease each time.

Height video

This statistical investigation is based on the question: ‘Does the height of a tennis player affect the top speed of their service?’

Students need to decide what information is needed and how this can be obtained. Internet access is essential. This task involves data collection...

A stack of cups is shown. Cups are then added to the stack. Part way through the rate at which cups are added is increased. The challenge is to graph the height of the stack against time.

Height of stack video

A person is shown climbing to the top of a playground slide. They pause at the top and then slide down the slide.  The end of the slide has an upwards turn for safety. The task is to graph the height of the person’s waist off the ground against time.

Height of waist off ground 1 video

A person is shown on a swing. They swing back and forth at a constant rate and reach. After several swings, the person jumps off the swing and comes to rest. The challenge is to graph the height of their waist against time. The resulting graph is parabolic and periodic with a constant section at the end.

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A computer animation is shown that features a character. The character jumps and disappears through various ‘holes’ before reappearing on the screen at various heights. The challenge is to graph the height of the character against time.

Height off ground video

In this problem the learners, acting as a helicopter-rescue crew, are asked to rescue a casualty and get them to hospital. The teacher chooses the challenge level by setting the values of some variables. Students will represent and analyse a problem mathematically, interpret and communicate solutions. Use specific...

This Cre8ate maths flight testing activity requires students to work in groups and, having made their own helicopter seed model from a template, record the landing positions and distances from a central point when the model is dropped from a standard height of one metre...

In this activity from the European Space Agency, students communicate with a rover on "Mars". The objective of the mission is to send an automatic message from Earth to a rover located on Mars via an Orbiter. This message is sent by a programmed, LEGO-built, robot running an automatic switch. The rover on Mars...

The Gatsby Career Benchmarks is a framework of eight guidelines about what makes the best careers provision in schools and colleges. This guide shows how you can use the range of STEM Learning...

Written for the Association for Science Education (ASE) to celebrate the centenary of the discovery of radioactivity in 1896, units in this book cover aspects of radioactivity including the underlying science, its applications and social and environmental consequences.

A variety of activities are suggested...

The scoring system used for the heptathlon event is the focus of this resource, from the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching. Students are provided with athlete's individual results from the seven events that make up the heptathlon. They then apply relevant formulae to the data and produce tables, or...

This Catalyst article looks at herbarium houses that contain plant specimens collected from around the world. Studying these specimens allows botanists to study how plants work and how we are impacting on the environment.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2016, Volume 27, Issue 2.