This field study provides the opportunity for students to use ecological survey techniques and conduct investigations to understand how the environmental (abiotic) conditions in a habitat can affect the presence and distribution of organisms. The resource provides a practical investigation of the relationship...

The main aim of this resource is for students to understand some of the conflicts surrounding land use in the UK – particularly the conflicts between economic incentives, society, and environmental conservation. The resource also provides a practical introduction to the complexities of managing habitats, with a...

The main aim of this resource is for students to understand the impact that roads can have on heathland habitats, both in terms of anthropogenic nitrogen pollution and habitat fragmentation.

The resource provides practical, scientific investigations without the need to organise a field trip. The...

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...

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...

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...

From the National Non-Food Crops Centre, this factsheet looks at hemp, which is grown widely as a fibre crop in Europe and is now also an established minor crop in the UK. Hemp may be grown for both its fibre and oil, and also shows potential as a renewable energy feedstock. The factsheet describes the growth,...

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.

Produced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), this colour leaflet describes the largest space telescope ever to be launched. The Herschel mission, launched in 2009, reveals how the first stars and galaxies formed. Herschel is observing some of the coldest objects in the Universe. It is the...

This presentation, from Paul Curzon at QMUL, uses a folded paper geometric shape called a hexahexaflexagon to teach about abstraction, data representation and graph data structures, while encouraging computational thinking. A video (linked from within the presentation) shows how to make one of the geometrical...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) was recorded at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, England and discusses how two researchers are using hi-tech physics to study different aspects of the environment.

The Diamond synchrotron is like...

This Catalyst article looks at the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle discovered by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, on July 4th 2012, after it was first predicted almost 50 years earlier. The Higgs boson is predicted by the ‘Standard Model’, which makes up the set of fundamental...

Published in July 2014, Mathematical transitions investigated the mathematical and statistical requirements of university degrees in Business and Management, Chemistry, Computing, Economics, Geography, and Psychology.

It found that over 80,000 students following these courses struggled to meet the...