This video demonstrates how compressing a gas increases its temperature. A small piece of cotton wool is placed into the bottom of a narrow plastic tube. When the air is rapidly compressed by a piston, the air temperature increases and the cotton ignites. The 'fire piston' can be used to illustrates the transfer of...

Rory Hadden investigates how fires ignite, spread and how they can be extinguished. This research is then used to save lives by creating safer buildings for us to live and work in.

This video demonstrates how adiabatic compression of air can produce enough heat to ignite cotton wool.  The auto-ignition temperature of cotton wool is approximately 400⁰C.  The video could be used to explain the way diesel engines work.

These downloadable videos and animations are part of the multimedia package Stuff and Substance, developed by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). They can be used to develop ideas relating to the distinction between combustion and decomposition in the...

These downloadable videos and animations are part of the multimedia package Stuff and Substance, developed by the Gatsby Science Enhancement Programme (SEP). They can be used to develop ideas relating to flames, from hydrogen to candle wax.

An ideal lesson plan for the lead up to fireworks night! This is about making sparkles flash with random intervals and colours. It can also be made more difficult by using LDRs.

This Catalyst article looks at fireworks and their history, how they are made and set off, and what gives them their colours and effects. The basic chemistry used in fireworks is looked at and how they work once the fuse is ignited.

This article is from Catalyst: GCSE Science Review 2002, Volume 13, Issue 2...

A Catalyst article about the Wright brothers who made the first powered flight. Unlike the try-it-and-see methods used in many of the previous attempts, the Wrights approached the problem of flight in a scientific way and beat the competition. This article looks at the Wright brothers' research and the wing shapes...

• Children are introduced to STEM subjects through experimentation, design skills and critical thinking, by using Lego. 
• First Lego League Junior

Rebecca enjoyed IT at school -this lead her to pursue the role of support technician within the IT team at Azurri, supporting key customers and ensuring systems remain active at all times.

'First mental arithmetic' provides rich and...

This Science upd8 resource draws on research showing that the child raised as the eldest in a family is likely to have a higher IQ than their siblings.

The reasons for this advantage are not yet clear. In this activity students come up with creative explanations and plan how to collect evidence to test them...

This Bowland assessment task requires students to plan when they should start preparing a meal in order to have it ready by a stated time. Students are given a number of job cards. Each card explains what needs to be done, how long the job will take and a condition as to when the job should be completed. Students...

This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how the famous White Cliffs of Dover could be made of fish poo (at least partially), why one researcher is so interested in dead whales, and why the Japan earthquake was so powerful and devastating....