Solar Detectives, from the Centre for Science Education, is a set of teaching materials which offer a cross-curricular approach to learning about engineering. Students build and modify a model solar car and research the science and mathematics underlying the use of...

This resource contains three activities and accompanying teachers’ notes.

Picking out the details
Using images from the...

This series of activities from NASA take a mathematical approach to looking at the Sun-Earth system. They are intended as supplementary problems for students looking for additional challenges in mathematics and physical science from age 11 to 16 years.

The problems were created to be authentic glimpses of...

From NASA, Solar Energy for Space Exploration is a problem-based learning activity. The project requires students to propose and defend a design to provide power to a lunar or Martian research base for six astronauts. To prepare for the final project, students investigate the variables that affect the operation of...

This booklet is part of the ‘Innovations in Practical Work’ series published by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). Solar cells use light from the Sun to generate electricity, and it is now quite common to see solar-powered consumer devices. What has held...

This resource provides an activity in which children create a scale representation of the distance of the Planets away from the Sun. Using the scale of one sheet of toilet paper = 50,000,000 km children calculate the number of sheets of toilet paper required for the correct spacing of the Planets from the Sun. This...

Produced by NASA, this activity contains information about the planets of the solar system. The main activity allows students to create an eight-cube paper puzzle of the solar system. In assembling the puzzle, students colour images of the Sun, planets and asteroids. In addition to puzzle pieces, the kit contains...

Produced by NASA, this resource contains five activities, teaching tips, fun facts and short narratives in which the sun and each planet introduce themselves. They can be used to help students improve their reading as well as learn about the solar system.

From NASA, this activity helps students see the relative distances from the sun of the planets in our solar system. Astronomers refer to the distance from the sun to the Earth as one 'astronomical unit' or AU. This activity demonstrates an easy way to calculate the distances of the other planets from the sun and...

This activity introduces children to simulations - modelling or acting out real-world, or maybe imaginary, situations. Linking to the teaching of space, it asks what factors need to be considered when simulating the solar system. Out of these, the children then decide what the most important things to include in...

This resource, aimed at primary level, contains three activities relating to the Solar System. In the first activity children create a solar system flip book to show that the four planets closest to the Sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) revolve around the Sun in the...

This resource uses the context of tornadoes in the solar atmosphere to investigate circular motion and energy changes. A hole is drilled in the bottom of a washing up bowl and orange pith can be used to track the motion of the water when draining through the bottom and creating a vortex. The Key Stage Three...

This resource looks at some of the mathematics behind using solar panels to generate electricity both for use in the home and to power cars. The mathematics involved requires the calculation of complicated areas and using multiple bits of information to solve a problem. As such, the resource is ideal for enhancing...

This resource provides an excellent real-world example of the application of energy transfers, energy use, energy and power calculations. It uses the context of a truck fleet manager for a logistics company deciding what type of refrigeration unit to buy for trucks needed to transport chilled food. The options are...

A range of interactive and print-out practical activities provided by the Association for Science Education to help children understand the properties of solids, liquids and gases and the changes that take place when materials are heated