This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). ‘Sustainability’ is about using resources in a way that does not deplete them. An increased emphasis on renewable energy is part of the move to greater sustainability, but so is the idea...

A podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection. Red squirrels used to be the most common squirrel in Britain. But since the grey squirrel was introduced from the USA as an illegal immigrant in the late 1800s, their numbers have nose-dived.

This is partly...

Students investigate why the moon turns red during a lunar eclipse by exploring refraction, dispersion and the scattering of white light through different media.

As astronauts travel to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, the need for nutritionally balanced meals becomes even more important for space missions. The amount of fat inside food packaged for spaceflight is analysed by researchers before the food is sent into space.

In this lesson, students will discover the fat...

Her Majesty’s Inspectors visited nine schools and one pupil referral unit that had been judged outstanding for behaviour in their most recent Ofsted inspection to find out about their behaviour policies and to discuss exclusion. The evidence gathered from these visits is presented in this report as good practice...

These diagnostic questions and response activities (contained in the zip file) support students in being able to:

• Recall that light can change direction (refract) when it passes across a boundary between transparent media
• Describe how the angle light passes across a boundary between two...

Practical Action have supplied this teacher's pack to challenge students to use their STEM skills to come up with solutions to a problem of water shortage in Sudan. The pack includes a PowerPoint presentation and Teacher Guide so that teachers can outline the problem to their students. The PowerPoint makes...

This resource provides a lesson plan showing how to use system thinking to teach about ecosystems. The approach used in the lesson is based on education research which is summarised in a separate research summary document.

The lesson includes an activity where individual pupils are given an organism. They...

Telemedicine is a new and fast developing field in healthcare. Even 20 years ago the idea of a surgeon being able to operate a robot from hundreds of miles away in order to perform an operation seemed like science fiction. Today, this is not only possible but engineers, working with scientists and doctors, are now...

This activity sheet is based on the Inventive Podcast.  It introduces electrical engineer Jack Howarth, and links his work to a physics topic. The activity sheet also supports Careers Benchmark 4: Careers in the curriculum by introducing a career and role model. There are also links to short audio clips of Jack...

Understand the engineering principles of hovering by building your own craft that can glide effortlessly across the table. This practical engineering activity provides instructions and teaching content to create a hovercraft out of a CD and balloon. 

From Practical Action, these posters show examples of how renewable energy sources are used in developing nations. They show how mp3 players can be powered by solar photoelectric cells, small-scale hydroelectric in Kenya, a wind turbine and biogas digested in Nepal.