This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, is a beautifully animated video giving a short overview of the life cycle of stars, but crucially how, from Earth, we can observe the different phases of star evolution by plotting all the...

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introduces the age of the current universe and what its final fate may be.

The video answers some questions...

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...

Hold a ruler or speed of light indicator, to test your reaction times by working in pairs with one student holding the ruler at...

Rockets are used to launch satellites, probes and even astronauts into space. A rocket launch is extremely impressive. Thousands of kilograms are burned in just a few minutes in order to provide the force that the rocket needs in order to overcome the gravity of the Earth. Rockets provide an exciting context to...

The We Are Aliens! teaching resources were produced to support the planetarium show made by NSC Creative. They have been produced by lead educators from the National Space Academy to use the context of space to teach physics, chemistry and biology in the curriculum. The resources contain practical activities,...

This video features interviews with three space scientists: Becca Wilson – a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester; Euan Monaghan – a PhD student in planetary science and astrobiology at the Open University; and Louisa Preston – a post doctoral research fellow in planetary geology and astrobiology at...

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, looks at what information we can gather by viewing (but not visiting) different parts of the universe. 

The...

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, introduces students to how our understanding of gravity has changed over time, and what this means for the gravitational field strength of different bodies in our galaxy.

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Conditions on other planets are unlikely to be within the same ranges as that experienced by Earth. However, a degree of variance from ‘ideal’ ranges may be tolerable for a small number of organisms known as extremophiles. This investigation looks at the effects of subjecting a living organism (yeast) to some...

Our height changes throughout the day. When we lie down at night, gravity no longer pulls in a direction to make us shorter, so our bodies stretch, and we return to our taller height again. However, astronauts who don’t experience the effect of gravity for months at a time grow taller.

In this activity...

In this classroom resource pupils learn how space debris is generated. It includes two investigations looking at how collisions between objects can lead to further collisions, and how impact causes some materials to fracture into many particles using crisps.

The resource includes pupil worksheets as well as...

World Quantum Day aims to promote public understanding of quantum science and technology around the world. The UK is at the forefront of research into Quantum Technology, where physics pushes the cutting edge of technological innovation. 

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