The BBC micro:bit is a great tool for carrying out surveys that involve quickly counting and recording one or two variables. Using the button inputs provides a simple interface to the device allowing, for instance, quick tallying of the numbers of two different types of bee around a plant. Other examples might...

Birmingham Institute for Forest Research (BIFoR) has provided a free online learning platform for schools which includes curriculum linked activities, developed to support secondary school students. These activities provide the opportunity for students to join a growing community of citizen scientists who are...

This lesson explores the ways in which scientific methods and theories develop over time and the nature of progression in physics.

Students are encouraged to contrast the way in which physics is presented to them, as something fixed, with the actual process of doing physics through history, to gain a sense...

This is a hand-on activity to explore the inheritance of cystic fibrosis, using counters to represent normal and faulty CFTR genes.  Curriculum links include:

• Punnet squares & autosomal recessive diseases
• Autosomal...

This activity, suitable for a multi-lesson sequence or a single extended session, challenges students to design and prototype a simple motion-sensing alarm. The device is intended to prevent theft or the accidental picking-up of a bag.

Motion is sensed using the accelerometer built-in to the BBC micro:bit,...

A Year Ten module from the Salters’ double award GCSE science course. This module deals with interactions between species in ecosystems. Students are shown how stable conditions lead to a natural balance in populations and how human activities can disturb this balance....

This resource from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is a practical, classroom activity that allows the students to make a balloon model of a disease-causing bacterium. This illustrates its basic shape and structure. Students can choose from three bacteria species...

In this activity, students consider the evidence for causal links between sugar consumption, obesity and disease. They then weigh up arguments for and against banning sugary drink sales to children.

Curriculum links include:

Key Stage Three:

*Working Scientifically: Analysis and evaluation –...

In this activity students work as researchers on a TV show and plan a report about the claim that sunbeds cause skin cancer.

Learning objectives:

*Use knowledge about UV light to explain the link between sunbeds and skin cancer.

*Understand how scientific evidence can support a claim.

...

This resource uses the context of the INEOS TEAM UK America's cup base in Portsmouth for students to explore the factors surrounding, using and installing solar panels on the roof of the building.  It includes the modeling required to maximise the roof area that can be used for solar panels and the data anlysis...

This resource looks at the concept of a centre of mass, for a rotating body, or barycentre, using the principals of moments.  An demonstration activity is suggested, using tennis balls secured together will string.  A video linked to this activity is performed on the International Space Station, by ESA Astronaut,...

This practical activity explores beak adaptations in bird populations and looks at the way in which variation in beak shape is related to the available food sources within an environment.

Students simulate bird feeding by using a ‘beak’ to collect food and place it into a stomach. There are four different...

In this resource, students use their STEM skills to help them design and build a model of a flood- proof house. Activities to help them with their design include testing materials (for strength and absorbency) and structures. Set on a fictitious island coping with the devastating effects of flooding caused by...

Produced by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) as part of their 'At Work With Science' series, this resource looks at a hypothetical, but realistic, project aimed at producing a new way of treating bacterial infections. In this activity, students first consider what features are important...

An investigation looking at how beta radiation is absorbed when it passes through different thicknesses of aluminum.  From this you can then calculate the absorption coefficient for aluminum.  When doing this investigation please ensure you have followed CLEAPSS guidance or the safety body for your country.  This...