This poster looks at the structure of matter. One side of the poster discusses the limits of imaging with light and the use of electron microscopes, and looks at the 20th century pioneers – from J. J. Thomson’s plum pudding model, through Rutherford and Chadwick’s advances in understanding the nucleus, to the use...

This booklet, from the Institute of Physics, considers what and how future scientists and engineers can be taught about different states of matter. [b]Content includes[/b]: • advances in materials – past, present and future • motivating students • resources to support teaching and learning • virtual experiments and...

From the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), this leaflet describes our Sun and its impact on Earth. It looks at the properties of the Sun and how current space missions and ground-based experiments are providing new understanding of our nearest star. STFC is a part of the Research Councils UK (RCUK)...

This resource provides a lesson plan showing how to use mental model building to teach about the Sun-Earth-Moon system. 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 pupils look at different...

Students will begin by comparing the range of temperatures on the Earth, Mars and the Moon, using the student worksheet ‘Temperature: from one extreme to another!’ They will have to plot the temperature over a ten-day period from 4 September to 13 September, as measured by three different craft that landed on the...

In this activity, developed by the Institute of Physics, students use a lamp and polystyrene balls to model how astronomers detect exoplanets using the transit method. After completing this activity, students should: *Understand that the transit of a planet in front of its star temporarily reduces the star’s...

In this SATIS Revisited resource students consider the conflict between the increasing use of energy and the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels in order to lessen carbon dioxide emissions and tackle climate change.

The aim of this unit is to introduce the idea that the discussion of controversial issues...

The World of Science book was based on a selection of the existing SATIS units that had stood the test of time. The project team set up by the Association for Science Education also devised new units to cover topics that had been introduced into the curriculum...

This Resource Book includes guidance and answers to questions together with photocopiable activity pages for each of the 44 topics covered in the World of Science textbook.

Types of activities

The 'World of Science' is not a...

This Catalyst article investigates high pressure chemistry and discovers that, when put under extreme pressure, the properties of a material may change dramatically.

This article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2016, Volume 27, Issue 1.

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This video explains the relationship between mass and weight.  It then shows how the car’s weight is quite distinct from its inertia (how hard it is to move it in a horizontal plane).

The video states that the velocity (v) of a wave moving along a string is related to the strings tension (T) and its mass per unit length (μ).  The unit of tension is the Newton (N) and the unit of mass/length is kg/m.

A simple interrogation of the formula v = √(T/ μ) shows that as T increases so too does...

In this investigation, using a tall tube filled with water, you let the water out the bottom of the tube, into a beaker/sink. You will record the level of the water at set intervals (every 5 or 10 seconds for example). You will then repeat this a couple of times and plot your average water level against time. You...